Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) is proud to announce that the Rev. Judy Fentress-Williams, Ph.D. was appointed by the Board of trustees unanimously, as Dodge Professor of Biblical Interpretation.

“Dr. Fentress-Williams has a major profile in the academy and the church,” said the Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D., dean and president of VTS. “Her scholarship connects scripture with life; her teaching excites the potential preacher and scholar; and she is easing into a remarkably productive season of creative research. For all this and more, the Dodge Chair is simply a recognition of everything she has done and is doing.”

This is one of the earliest faculty chairs in existence at VTS and was first held by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Packard (1871-1897) and most recently by the Rev. A. Katherine Grieb, Ph.D. ’83, before her retirement in 2020.

“Awarding a faculty chair is never automatic, and properly comes only after a faculty member has contributed an impressive body of work to the field and to the seminary, said the Rev. Melody Knowles, Ph.D., vice president of academic affairs and associate professor of Old Testament. “It is particularly apt that this chair in Biblical Interpretation be awarded to Dr. Fentress-Williams given her focus on the dialogic and intertextual nature of scripture, as well as her embrace of both the church and academy.”

Fentress-Williams came to VTS in 2002 after as professor of Hebrew Bible and director of the Black Ministries Certificate Program at Hartford Seminary from 1993-2002. She earned her Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A., and M.Div. at Yale University, and her A.B. at Princeton University. She was ordained as a Minister of the Gospel in the National Baptist Convention and Progressive National Baptist Convention in 2012 and serves as Senior Assistant to the Pastor for Preaching at Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria. She was given the Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Theological Education by Yale Divinity School in 2016.

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