School of Liberal Arts and Education
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Dr. Sheila H. Gillams
Dr. Sheila H. Gillams is the Deputy Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. She was the first African American woman to receive the Doctor of Philosophy in Church History at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Prior to her appointment at Medgar Evers College, Sheila worked for fifteen years in the book publishing industry as an editing supervisor, was appointed history project director for the Riverside Church of the City of New York by the Reverend Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., and lectured at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary.
The compiler and editor of the first ministerial handbook for the Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, she has written articles for the Encyclopedia of African American Education (on religious-based education) and Testamentum Imperium (on Reformed theology and predestination). Dr. Gillams will be presenting a paper at the African American Association for Historical Preservation and Research 2009 on civil rights activist Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Dr. Gillams is currently researching a history of the African American restorationists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Dr. Gillams is an avid church worker, involved in myriad community and educative projects to reach the public, from GED to Ph.D. She served on the Anti-Racism Taskforce at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, secured a grant for the Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor Soup Kitchen at Shiloh Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and continues her work to educate Disciple clergy in the greater metropolitan area and Togo, West Africa.
