This panel discussion will discuss race and poverty in America fifty years after MLK. Today, America continues to confront racial and economic inequality fifty years after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while leading sanitation workers on strike in Memphis and fifty years after the Kerner Commission cited racism and lack of economic opportunity as the cause of civil unrest. Join us in person or online as we discuss the significance of Dr. King’s legacy of fighting racial and economic inequality and how people of faith can be leaders in overcoming poverty and inequality today.

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Panelists:

Marlysa D. Gamblin is Domestic Advisor for Policy and Programs at Bread for the World, where she provides research and analysis to end hunger and poverty among low-income African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, those involved with the criminal justice system, undocumented immigrants and female-headed households. She also staffed on the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the Obama Administration, where she proposed key recommendations to the White House on race, justice, and poverty. Marlysa received the Master of Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. with honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rev. Michelle Ledder serves as Director of Program Ministries at the United Methodist General Commission on Religion and Race, where she works to help all levels of the connection create the beloved community with systems, policies, and processes that level the playing field for everyone and that further diversity, inclusion, and equity within the Church. She is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and serves locally on the ministerial staff at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. Michelle is a PhD candidate at Emory University with a focus on homiletics (preaching) and pedagogy (teaching). Her dissertation is entitled, “To Tell the Truth in Love: An Anti-Racist Homiletic for the 21st Century White Christian.” She lives in northeast Washington, DC with her rescued Schnoodle, Webster.  

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Rev. Dr. Asa Lee is Associate Dean for Community Life at Wesley Theological Seminary, where he is responsible for the programmatic, academic, and spiritual life of seminary students. He is a dedicated theological educator and believes strongly in education as the vehicle for expanding one’s view of the world. Dr. Lee was ordained at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, where he served for 10 years as the Assistant Pastor/Minister of Christian Education. He received the Doctor of Ministry degree in Educational Leadership at Virginia Theological Seminary, Master of Divinity Degree from Wesley Theological Seminary, and BA in Music from Hampton University. 

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Moderator:

Rev. Cynthia Johnson-Oliver is founder and president of the FaithJustice Foundation. She is an ordained elder in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, where she also serves as director of evangelism for the New York-Washington Region. She has served as National Organizer for Health Care Justice for the UM General Board of Church and Society and Coordinator of Faith-Based Outreach for the Democratic National Committee. She also served for ten years as Associate Pastor of Adult Discipleship at Annandale UMC. A graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School, FaithJustice represents a marriage of discipleship and social justice, ministry and advocacy to achieve a more just, more loving world.