Originally broadcast at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, August 17, 2022.

This program is made possible by the Eleanor B. Daugherty Fund

The Very Reverend Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas was named Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology at Union in September 2017. She was named the Bill and Judith Moyers Chair in Theology in November 2019. She also serves as the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral and Theologian in Residence at Trinity Church Wall Street. Dean Douglas’ academic work has focused on womanist theology, sexuality and the Black church, and racial and social justice. Prior to Union, she served as Professor of Religion at Goucher College, where she held the Susan D. Morgan Professorship of Religion and is now Professor Emeritus. Before Goucher, she was Associate Professor of Theology at Howard University School of Divinity (1987-2001) and Assistant Professor of Religion at Edward Waters College (1986-1987). In addition to preaching in pulpits across the nation and speaking at universities around the globe, Dean Douglas is a frequent and vocal presence in today’s print, broadcast, and digital public square, speaking on racial and social justice, among other matters. She is the author of numerous articles, op-eds, and books, including her most recent book, Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter (November 2021, Orbis Books). Other books include Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective and Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God. Ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1983, Dean Douglas holds a Master’s Degree in theology and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary. Dean Douglas will be in conversation with Darren Walker, who is partnering with Chautauqua Institution in the week on “New Profiles in Courage.” Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $16 billion international social justice philanthropy. Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation became the first non-profit in US history to issue a $1 billion designated social bond in US capital markets for proceeds to strengthen and stabilize non-profit organizations in the wake of COVID-19. Before joining Ford, Walker was vice president at Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing global and domestic programs. In the 1990s, he was COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation — Harlem’s largest community development organization. A member of the Reimagining New York Commission and co-chair of NYC Census 2020, Walker also chaired the philanthropy committee that brought a resolution to the city of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy. He co-chairs New York City’s Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, and has served on the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and the UN International Labour Organization Global Commission on the Future of Work. He co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy and is a founding member of the Board Diversity Action Alliance. He serves on many boards, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. In the summer of 2020, he was appointed to the boards of Block, Inc and Ralph Lauren. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal; most recently, he was named Wall Street Journal’s 2020 Philanthropy Innovator. Walker holds a Bachelor of Arts in government and a Bachelor of Science in speech communication from the University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.

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.