About Rev. Dr. Kamilah

is a womanist preacher, scholar, professor, and community organizer whose work sits at the intersection of justice, Scripture, race, gender, sexuality, and public ministry. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, and now residing in DeSoto, Texas, she lives with her spouse, Nakia, and their daughter, Anaya—who continually inspire her commitment to building a loving and just world. Kamilah serves as Co-Pastor of The Gathering, A Womanist Church, in Dallas, Texas, a community she helped shape to center the voices of Black women and to welcome all people into beloved community. She also serves as Director of the Doctor of Ministry in Public Ministry Program and Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible & Public Ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary, where she teaches and mentors leaders committed to transformational, justice-rooted ministry in the world. Her scholarship centers Black womens lived experiences and reads the biblical text through womanist, trauma-informed, and socially engaged interpretive frameworks. Her forthcoming monograph, Trauma and Survival in the Hebrew Bible: A Womanist Reading of Esther, reimagines the book of Esther through the experiences of marginalized women and girls whose stories often go untold. She is the co-author of The Gathering, A Womanist Church: Origins, Stories, Sermons, and Litanies and co-editor of We Call Ourselves Disciples. She has contributed chapters to Bitter the Chastening Rod: Africana Biblical Interpretation after Stony the Road We Trod and Slavery’s Long Shadow: Race and Reconciliation in American Christianity. Holding degrees from Florida A&M University (B.S. in Business Economics), Indiana University–Bloomington (J.D.), Memphis Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Brite Divinity School at TCU (Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible), Kamilah brings interdisciplinary depth to her teaching and preaching—drawing from law, ethics, biblical studies, womanism, and lived community experience.Across every dimension of her work—writing, preaching, teaching, organizing, and mentoring—Kamilah is guided by a simple but profound mission: to help people, to teach and preach with integrity, and to amplify the voices of Black women and girls. Her ministry is grounded in Luke 4:18–19 and shaped by the belief that liberation is not only possible but already unfolding when communities dare to imagine and build a more just  world.