Rev. Hkun Naung
Rev. Naung graduated from BST with his Master of Divinity, was ordained in 2024, and is Pastor of the Washington Kachin Baptist Church which meets at Panther Lake Community Church in Kent, Washington. On December 29, 2024, Rev. Naung performed his first baptisms. Initially, the baptism candidates were a group of youths from Washington Kachin Baptist Church, and grew to include members of the Karen Community Church of Greater Seattle. The December 29 service included 12 baptisms performed by the three pastors, special music, scripture readings in English, Karen, and Kachin, a sermon, communion, and a celebratory lunch. The full story can be read in the latest edition of Evergreen Notes. Rev. Naung asks people to pray for the Kachin people, who suffer in great danger in a civil war.
Doctor of Divinity, 2022
Rev. Dr. Curtis Price
Curtis is Pastor at First Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. Curtis has over 20 years of experience as a pastor and has served at Salt Lake First Baptist Church for 14 years. Curtis’ DMin dissertation topic at BST is entitled Redeeming the Church: Healing and Reconciliation Between the LGBTQ Community and the Church.
Master of Community Leadership, 2011
Doctor of Ministry, 2024
Rev. Dr. Michael A. Smith
Michael has been Pastor of the McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley California for 18 years. In 2014, he became the founding Executive Director of The Center for Food, Faith & Justice which serves as a faith-based non-profit arm of the church as a lead organization dedicated to the issues of environmental and food justice, health equity and economic development. His DMin dissertation topic was The Black Earth Theology Project: Toward Reconciliation and Care of God’s Creation.
Rev. Dorothy Taliaferro Staples
Rev. Staples received her Master of Divinity Degree in 2005 and is celebrating her 20th graduation anniversary from Berkeley School of Theology. Rev. Staples was present at the February virtual alumni gathering, “Hope in Spiritual Care”, for the alumni graduation anniversaries segment where she acknowledged one of her influential professors, Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., professor of Preaching and African American Spirituality. Upon graduation, Rev. Staples was the recipient of the L. Doward McBain Preaching prize for outstanding preacher in the graduating class of 2005. Rev. Staples completed her pastoral education at Sequoia Hospital, now Dignity Health, and then was Chaplain for ten years with the Veterans Affairs. She was also a faculty member of the Leadership Institute at Allen Temple Baptist Church. Rev. Staples thoroughly enjoyed the 1:1 spiritual care aspect that chaplaincy offered.
Master of Divinity, 2000
Rev. Dr. Allison J. Tanner
Allison has been at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church for nearly 25 years and is the Pastor of Public Witness. Her role entails education, advocacy, relationship building, partnerships, and public witness. Allison is also the National Coordinator of the Apartheid Free initiative, an interdenominational coalition of faith groups that are encouraging people to step away from any and all support to Israeli apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism.
Donald Taylor, Sr. and Bertha Yvette Morrow
Donald and Bertha graduated in 2025 from the Master of Divinity program at Berkeley School of Theology. In addition to earning their degrees, the couple has another reason to celebrate: They were united in holy matrimony on Saturday, September 13, 2025!
Meeting at BST, a friendship that began over Zoom blossomed into relationship, culminating in an engagement on the day prior to their graduation.
As one professor at Commencement exclaimed, “How could this have happened Zoom?!” Their answer is, “With God, all things are possible!” After their wedding, Don and Bertha will launch their new ministry, “Intercultural Prophetic Ministries,” in the Biloxi, Mississippi area, where they reside. They are also continuing to work on a ministerial project already in progress in the Bay Minette, Alabama communities. Please continue to keep them in your prayers as they begin this new chapter together.
