Frank M. Yamada (born 1966) is a Japanese-American Old Testament scholar.

Biography

As a third-generation Japanese-American (''

sansei is a Japanese and North American English term used in parts of the world such as South America and North America to specify the children of children born to ethnic Japanese in a new country of residence. The '' nisei'' are considered the second ...

''), Yamada grew up in a predominantly white, upper-middle class suburb of Southern California. Raised in a Buddhist home, he became a Christian at the age of 19. Though he began his undergraduate studies as a pre-med major at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

, he later transferred to

Southern California College Vanguard University of Southern California is a private Christian university in Costa Mesa, California. It was the first four-year college in Orange County. The university offers over 39 undergraduate degrees and emphases in 15 different depart ...

majoring in religion with an emphasis on the Bible. He earned his M.Div. and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of t ...

and is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Yamada taught Hebrew Bible at

Seabury-Western Theological Seminary Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (SWTS) was a seminary of the Episcopal Church, located in Evanston, Illinois. It ceased operations as a residential seminary granting the Master of Divinity degree in May 2010, and in January 2012 it moved ...

before moving to

McCormick Theological Seminary McCormick Theological Seminary is a private Presbyterian seminary in Chicago, Illinois. It shares a campus with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, bordering the campus of the University of Chicago. A letter of intent was signed on May ...

in 2008. During his time at McCormick, he directed the seminary's Center for Asian American Ministries and, in 2011, became its first Asian American president. Since 2014, Yamada was on the board of the

Association of Theological Schools The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) is an organization of seminaries and other graduate schools of theology. ATS has its headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. History It was founded in 1918. The as ...

and, beginning in July 2017, became the association's executive director.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamada, Frank M. 1966 births Living people American theologians American biblical scholars Old Testament scholars Princeton Theological Seminary alumni American people of Japanese descent