Jerusha Neal, assistant professor of homiletics, has received the Exemplary Teacher of the Year Award from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. The award is intended to recognize faculty who have been nominated by their institution's leaders for exceptional service to the school and excellence in education. 

Professor Neal’s scholarly work examines the action of the Spirit on the performative borders of body and culture. Her research interests focus on postcolonial preaching, preaching and gender, and the implications of Mariology for a Spirit-dependent homiletic. Neal is an ordained American Baptist minister with broad ecumenical experience, most recently serving as a Global Ministries missionary to the Fiji Islands through the United Methodist Church. Neal has spent her ministry preaching in cross-cultural spaces and bridging denominational communities.