A Seminary President Leads with Vision

NEW YORK—

Reverend Dr. Serene JonesUnion Theological SeminaryWhen the Reverend Dr. Serene Jones woke up one morning and realized it was time to step down as president of Union Theological Seminary, the decision surprised even her. There had been no prolonged meditation, no gradual countdown. Just a clear, intuitive knowing that after 18 years of transformative leadership, the moment had arrived to pass the torch.

"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."

It was during college that Jones became overwhelmingly interested in the study of religion and philosophy, eventually earning degrees from the University of Oklahoma, Yale Divinity School, and a doctorate in theology from Yale University. Ordained in both the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, she spent 17 years at Yale as the Titus Street Professor of Theology and chair of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, deeply immersed in teaching, a vocation she loved.