Rev. Michele Ward
ASSOCIATE PASTOR office phone: 410.523.1542 x 105 EMAIL:Michele has been Associate Pastor at Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church since 2018. She comes alive at shepherding a church dedicated to the wide embrace of God’s beloved ones, particularly emerging adults, those who are skeptical of the institutional church, and people reconstructing their faith.
Formed by the evangelical, nondenominational church where women and queer people could not become pastors, she is proud to be the first queer woman to serve as an installed minister at Brown Memorial. Michele is delighted to serve a congregation that exists for the city and the world outside the sanctuary doors.
As an extension of her call to ministry, Michele organizes with Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, of which Brown Memorial is a proud and active member. She serves on the Community Advisory Board of the Center for Health Equity, an office of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Michele is a member-at-large of her neighborhood association, Greenmount West Community Association
She earned degrees from Whitworth University and The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. Michele is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program in Creative Writing and Public Theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Her academic research areas include postcolonial hermeneutics, feminist theology, and trauma theory. She was one of ten recipients of the inaugural Weavers Award from Weave: The Social Fabric Project & the Aspen Institute for her community organizing efforts in 2021.
Michele is a sixth generation California native whose ancestors include Cherokees in Missouri and slave owners in Virginia who moved west. She is the descendent of horse breeders, ranchers, pastors, farmers, and teachers. She is a dog lover who begrudgingly became a cat person.