NEW YORK—
Reverend Dr. Serene JonesUnion Theological Seminary
"I literally woke up one day and thought, you know, it's time to go," Jones recalls during a recent interview in her quaint office on Manhattan's Upper West Side. "It's time for fresh leadership to come in. Things are in great shape."
That intuition, characteristic of Jones's leadership style, marks the end of a historic tenure at one of America's most influential theological institutions. As the first woman to lead the 188-year-old seminary, Jones has overseen what many describe as one of the most comprehensive institutional renewals in Union's nearly two-century history.
Growing up in Oklahoma, Jones never imagined herself as a seminary president. In fact, she actively tried to avoid it. Her father had become president of Phillips Seminary in Enid by the time she reached high school, and like many teenagers, Jones wanted to chart her own course.
"In high school, I wanted to do the opposite of what my father did," she says with a laugh. "I wanted to go to college and go to law school. That was when I was under the illusion that going to law school was what people who wanted to change the world did."
When a search firm first approached her about Union's presidency in 2008, Jones initially declined. But after describing what she thought the next president should embody—global vision, interreligious engagement, urban focus, outward-facing orientation—the recruiter pressed her: "Are you sure you're not interested?"
Jones paused. "I thought about it, and I said, 'You know, I just described a job I think I would like to do.'"
Fixing the House Before Setting the Table
Jones arrived at Union with big dreams. But reality intervened dramatically. During her campus interview, a steeple blew off the chapel tower in high winds, shattering in the courtyard, a literal sign of the massive deferred maintenance plaguing the storied institution.
"Within the first two years, it was apparent that if we didn't do a massive renovation of the entire campus, we could quite possibly be forced to leave the buildings because they were in such bad shape," Jones explains.
What followed was years of construction work, real estate negotiations, fundraising, and developing expertise she never expected to need. The seminary sold air rights and an old building to fund comprehensive renovations, transforming the historic Broadway campus into state-of-the-art, accessible, energy-efficient facilities.
"I had this view of this big expanded table of theological conversation," Jones reflects, "but until you could fix the house, you couldn't set the table. So I had to spend a lot of years just fixing the house so we had a place to sit and learn together and share this feast of theological education."
Once the foundation was secure, Jones pursued her original vision with remarkable success. Under her leadership, Union became a pioneer in multi-faith theological education, moving beyond theoretical engagement to practical, ground-up interreligious formation.
The seminary now offers robust programs in Buddhism and Islam alongside its Christian traditions. Surprisingly, the largest of these programs is in Buddhism, serving chaplains who need a Master of Divinity degree, something Buddhist seminaries typically don't offer.
"We did not see that coming, but we've been excited by it," Jones says. The interreligious engagement has enriched the entire community, providing fuller theological education for Christian students and creating compelling opportunities for the religiously unaffiliated to study multiple traditions.
It's an approach that builds on Union's historic relationship with Jewish Theological Seminary, located across the street, while expanding the institution's reach in ways that would have seemed impossible two decades ago.
The Historic Weight of Being the First
As Union's first woman president in 2008, Jones carried a complex burden. Her initial response was one of frustration: "It was 2008, and I was like, you're bragging about me being the first woman? It's like, what is wrong with you? Why did it take so long?" she remembers.
But she also recognized that stepping into an institution without cultural models of women leading at the top meant teaching both herself and the seminary how to navigate uncharted territory.
"I was going to have to go through a process of teaching myself and teaching the school how to be led by a woman," she explains. "Because they didn't have any models for that. There's no framework."
That pioneering role extended to her public voice. Jones has been outspoken on issues of social justice, reproductive rights, climate change, and religious freedom, sometimes drawing criticism from both conservative quarters and within Union's own progressive community.
"Most of the time when I write something into the public sphere, I don't even think of myself as speaking out. I think of myself as speaking about," Jones says matter-of-factly. "It is my authentic, true reflections as a progressive Christian on these matters."
When intense criticism comes, she admits, a question sometimes flashes through her mind: "Would they talk like this to a man?" She doesn't always have an answer, but the question itself reveals the particular scrutiny women leaders face.
A Growing Institution in Challenging Times
Despite the struggles facing theological education nationwide, Union has been one of the few seminaries steadily growing under Jones's leadership. The institution now enrolls approximately 260 students, up from smaller numbers when she arrived. New programs have attracted diverse learners, including a transformative Master of Professional Studies program offered inside Sing Sing and Bedford Hills correctional facilities—the only master's degree offered inside a prison in the United States.
"Every time we open a new direction, we are transformed by the partners that enter this project of theological education with us," Jones says. "And nothing has been more transformative than this program."
The seminary has also expanded online degree offerings, making Union accessible to those who cannot afford to relocate to New York City or leave their lives for three years of residential study.
Throughout her tenure, Jones has increased Union's financial health through effective fiscal management and fundraising, including a $40 million campaign poised to surpass its goal ahead of schedule. She's grown the faculty, strengthened the board, and expanded scholarship support so that students pursuing essential but modestly compensated vocations aren't crushed by debt.
Jones doesn't shy away from acknowledging that these are challenging times for religious institutions and the nation. Church closures trouble her, though her faith remains unshaken.
"My faith in God is such that I don't think God has finished working because a church is closing," she says. "The work is so much bigger and stronger and vast. And faith is so much more robust."
What shocks her more is the silence from many religious and higher education leaders in the face of injustice.
"The speed with which people cave under the weight of fear, they just collapse into the weight of fear that they're going to somehow be punished," she observes. "And maybe that's where faith comes in. It's like, if it's the right thing to do, it's the right thing to do. You don't hold your speech back, especially around these really important issues, because of some calculated risk factor. That's not how, as a person of faith, I was taught to think about my voice and actions in the world for good."
She sees signs of hope, pointing to faith communities in Chicago who are resisting immigration enforcement actions and progressive Christians finding their voice and organizing for social justice. Such represents the emergence of what she calls a revitalization of spirituality capable of carrying society forward.
"I don't know if I will live to see what that looks like on the ground as communities come together in new ways we haven't imagined before," Jones says, "but I can feel it coming."
Returning to a First Love
Jones's decision to step down came when Union was thriving—enrollment growing, buildings renovated, curriculum strong, public voice resonant. Using a metaphor, she compares it to fixing up a family cabin while she still had the energy to enjoy it.
"Too often we hand it over to the next generation when we've run it down and destroyed it, and then we hand it over to them and ask them to fix it," she explains. "This is the time, the best time to make a transition, when things are in really good shape so the next growth period can come."
After a sabbatical, Jones will return to Union's faculty to teach, write, and continue her public theological engagement. It's a return to her first love.
"I've never stopped loving the teaching part," she says. "I've missed it."
She's also excited about having time to write the books she wants to write, to be the public speaker and community engager she's always been, without the administrative responsibilities that consumed so much of her presidential years.
Jones, who served as president of the American Academy of Religion and has authored several influential books including Trauma and Grace and her memoir Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World, looks forward to returning to the scholarly work that first defined her career.
As for Union's mission in this moment, Jones is crystal clear about what the seminary offers students seeking clarity about their vocations. "It expands a student's capacity to imagine, in a comprehensive way, how we can live together as human beings on this earth," she says. "And there's no more important topic than that."
After 18 years of leading an institution with a legacy of being at the forefront of every major social movement—from abolition to civil rights to women's rights to LGBTQ equality—Jones is confident Union will continue its work of forming spiritual leaders ready to engage the world with moral courage.
"It has been the greatest honor and privilege of my life to serve as president of Union," she reflects. "I deeply love this community. It has challenged and inspired me in ways that have allowed me to grow and evolve alongside the institution."
As Union begins its search for its next president, Jones's legacy is secure, says faculty members who have worked with her across the years.
"Serene is creative, brave, and resilient," says the Reverend Dr. Gary Dorrien, who is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union. Jones, he adds, is a "a happy warrior and visionary who loves the work and pours herself out for Union."
Observers note that Jones fixed the house. She set a bigger table. And now she's inviting the next generation to imagine what's possible when faith meets the urgent needs of our time.
