Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman is the Founder and President of WomanPreach!, Inc., the premiere non-profit organization that brings preachers into full prophetic voice around issues of equity and justice both in the pulpit and in the public arena. Her mission is to produce a network of preaching women and men who will use their voice in service to the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially as it relates to Womanist/Feminist concerns of equity and justice.
She was recently appointed as Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio after serving one year as Interim Dean. She also is Associate Professor of Homiletics and Hebrew Bible since 2015, after having served as Visiting Professor for a year and a half.
Dr. Bridgeman is a graduate of Trinity University with a double major in Communication and Religion. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she won the Charles L. King Excellence in Preaching Award for graduating seniors. She pursued further studies at Baylor University, receiving a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biblical Studies with a concentration in Hebrew Bible.
Dr. Bridgeman has written several published works, Homiletics: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), A Perspective on the David Narratives (Rizpah) and A Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus (Syrophoenician Woman/Mark 7:24-30), Global Perspectives on the Bible (Prentice Hall, 2011). She has edited and contributed to The Africana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora (Fortress Press, 2009) with “Jonah” and “Nahum,” and co-edited Those Preaching Women: A Multi-Cultural Collection (Judson Press, 2008).