Originally broadcast at 9:15 a.m. ET Thursday, July 28, 2022.

The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson became the president of Auburn Seminary on October 1, 2021. Auburn is a leadership development and research institute that equips bold and resilient leaders of faith and moral courage to build communities, bridge divides, pursue justice, and heal the world. Founded more than 200 years ago by Presbyterians in upstate New York, Auburn is committed to right relationship with a truly multifaith, multiracial movement for justice. Rev. Jordan-Simpson embraced her call to ministry and service early in life. She preached her first sermon at the age of 17 at House of Prayer Episcopal Church in Newark, NJ, and was ordained by The Concord Baptist Church of Christ, an historic freedom faith congregation in Brooklyn, NY. Her ministry has been grounded in the call to community, and her leadership of New York’s nonprofit organizations has addressed the sacred issues representative of her congregation’s convictions. Rev. Dr. Jordan-Simpson is a graduate of Fisk University (BA), Union Theological Seminary (M.Div), and Drew Theological Seminary (D.Min). She is President of the Board of American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York and serves on the Board of Directors of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA). Rev. Jordan-Simpson and her husband, the Rev. Dr. Gary V. Simpson, live in Brooklyn and are the proud parents of three amazing adult children.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.