Susan Frederick-Gray is president of the
Unitarian Universalist Association. She is the first woman to be elected to the office.
Education and career
Frederick-Gray graduated from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
in 1997 with a bachelor's in molecular biology and received a
Master of Divinity in 2001 from
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...
. During seminary, she served as a Student Minister in Religious Education at the Winchester Unitarian Society, then interned at the First UU Church of
Nashville. She served as minister of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, Ohio from 2003 to 2008, and as lead minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix from 2008 to 2017.
As the latter congregation's lead minister, she led organization for the Arizona Immigration Ministry and hosted the UUA's 2012 "
Justice GA" in Phoenix.
Presidency
Frederick-Gray was nominated by petition to run for president in 2016. Her campaign centered around three themes: "spiritually vital, grounded in relationships, organized for impact." Following the resignation of UUA president Rev.
Peter Morales, candidate Frederick-Gray worked with the three interim co-presidents and the two other presidential candidates, the Revs. Alison Miller and Jeanne Pupke, to ensure new hiring practice policies would last.
On June 24, 2017, Frederick-Gray was elected President at the UUA's
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...
in New Orleans. In the UUA's first entirely electronic instant-runoff presidential election, Frederick-Gray received 39.7% of delegates' first-choice ballots, then 58.3% of the second-choice ballots from voters for the eliminated Rev. Alison Miller. She won in the second round with an overall 56% of the vote.
During her first month in office, Frederick-Gray nominated acting Chief Operating Officer Carey McDonald and condemned U.S. President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
's ban on
transgender people from military service.
References
External links
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of PhoenixUUA.org
American Unitarian Universalists
American religious leaders
Harvard Divinity School alumni
Unitarian Universalist clergy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederick-Gray, Susan
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Female Unitarian Universalist clergy
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni