Dean Elaine Heath has announced the appointment of Jerusha Neal as the assistant professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School effective July 1, 2017.

Neal is currently serving as a missionary and lecturer in practical theology at the Davuilevu Theological College of the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma in the South Pacific. Her particular interests are formational theological education, teaching preaching in cross-cultural settings, and affirming women in their pastoral call.

“Dr. Jerusha Neal brings to our faculty wonderful gifts as a scholar and practitioner in homiletics," said Heath. "Her work includes careful attention to global homiletical wisdom, and is shaped by years of ministry in the local church in the United States and abroad. I am excited to welcome Dr. Neal to our community."

A native of the U.S. Midwest, Neal is an ordained member of the American Baptist Churches USA clergy. She holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago, as well as an M.Div. and Ph.D. in homiletics, both from Princeton Theological Seminary. Her first book was Blessed: Monologues for Mary (Cascade, 2013).

Neal has also worked as a teaching fellow in the homiletics department at Princeton and has served as co-pastor of the Santee United Methodist Church in Santee, Calif., and director of Christian education at the First Presbyterian Church of Fullerton, Calif.