CHICAGO, IL—Rev. Dominique DuBois Gilliard, Director of Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Evangelical Covenant Church, was honored with the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Service Award from North Park Theological Seminary at the Midwinter Conference on Tuesday. The annual honor recognizes significant alumni contributions that reflect the seminary’s mission and core values.
Gilliard earned his master of divinity from the seminary in 2012. He is the author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores, which received the InterVarsity Press Reader’s Choice Award and was named resource of the year by Outreach magazine. His second book, Subversive Witness: Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege, was named book of the year by the Englewood Review of Books. He was named one of the “Black Christian Leaders Changing the World” by the Huffington Post and was selected as one of the Covenant’s “40 Under 40” leaders to watch in 2015. He has curated numerous curricula around racial righteousness, children’s justice journey, and antiracism pathways.
Presenting the award, Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom, dean of the faculty and professor of theology and ethics at the seminary, said, “Whether a room in Covenant Offices or Nyvall Hall, on a Sankofa bus, or in a maximum security prison, Dominque translates the gospel into the practical work of liberation in ways that are rare, courageous, and transformative. His teaching is always inspired by Scripture and never without the yoke of the pastorate.”
“I’m so humbled by this award,” Gilliard said. “North Park Theological Seminary has been instrumental for me, my life, and vocation. NPTS taught me to address difficult topics, to trust the Holy Spirit, and to believe that what we build together—especially across lines of difference—will always be more beautiful and dynamic than what we achieve in isolation.”
