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The Board of Trustees of Columbia Theological Seminary announces the appointment of Dr. Christine Roy Yoder as the Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) and Dean of Faculty. The appointment begins on July 1, 2022, and extends for three years.
“The board is very grateful for Dr. Yoder’s willingness to serve in this way at this very critical juncture in our seminary’s history,” said Dr. Leanne Van Dyk president of Columbia Theological Seminary. “We are starting a reaccreditation process; we are welcoming a new president; and we are dealing with other important academic issues like curriculum review, and Dr. Yoder will be able to step in and ensure a smooth and collegial transition.”
Dr. Yoder previously served as Interim VPAA and Dean of Faculty from July 2016-June 2018. She succeeds Dr. Love Sechrest, who has been appointed the Associate Provost for Program Development and Innovation and Professor of Theology at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland.
Dr. Yoder received her B.A. in History from Swarthmore College and her M.Div. and Ph.D. in Old Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary. She joined the Columbia faculty in 1998 and is currently the J. McDowell Richards Professor of Biblical Interpretation.
Dr. Yoder is the author of Wisdom as a Woman of Substance: A Socioeconomic Reading of Proverbs 1-9 and 31:10-31 (De Gruyter) and Proverbs (Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries), as well as many articles, essays, and book chapters. She is co-editor of Shaking Heaven and Earth: Essays in Honor of Walter Brueggemann and Charles Cousar (Westminster John Knox) and “When the Morning Stars Sang”: Essays in Honor of Choon Leong Seow on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (De Gruyter).
Dr. Yoder has received several grants and fellowships, including a Lilly Theological Research Grant, a Wabash Center Group Project Grant (as co-director), and a Catholic Biblical Association Fellowship. In 2014-15, she was awarded a Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology to work on her current book project, Desiring Wisdom: Human Flourishing in Israelite Wisdom Literature (forthcoming from Fortress).
Dr. Yoder has served as editor of book reviews for the Journal of Biblical Literature, and on the editorial boards of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Biblical Studies and the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Currently she is an editor for Brill’s Biblical Interpretation Series and a member of the Common English Bible Translation Board. In fall 2019, the Association of Theological Schools appointed Dr. Yoder as co-chair of the Council on Theological Scholarship and Research.
“I am grateful for the privilege of serving Columbia in this way,” Dr. Yoder stated, “As we anticipate our third century, I look forward to working with our new president and with our remarkable faculty, staff, and students to further the seminary’s mission with determination and joy.”
Columbia Theological Seminary, an educational institution of the Presbyterian Church (USA), commits to educate, equip, and nurture students to become a new generation of pastoral leaders for the church and the world; to become a community that embodies welcome, hospitality, justice, and belonging; to build partnerships that bring vibrant spiritual, cultural, and academic exchanges; and to embrace boldness, enabling us to learn, teach, serve, and live joyfully.
