Hedy Tung, Contributing Photographer

The Yale Divinity School awarded four graduates this year with its annual alumni awards. 

Each year, several alumni of Yale Divinity School are nominated for one of the four alumni awards. According to the Divinity School website, the criteria differ for each of the four awards, but all honor outstanding alumni, highlighting their impressive contributions to theological education, congregational ministry, peace and justice and the compassion of Christ. 

Melanie S. Morrison DIV ’78 was one of this year’s recipients. She received the 2024 Yale William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice, which is given to Divinity School alumni for their contributions to the work of peace and reconciliation. The award is named in honor of William Sloane Coffin, a former University Chaplain.

“When I got the call from Dean [Gregory] Sterling, chills went through me,” Morrison said. “I was so moved to be given an award with [Coffin’s] name and legacy attached to it.”

Morrison said that she looked up to Coffin because of his prominent role in the civil rights movement and his protests against the Vietnam War. Morrison said that Coffin played a crucial role in influencing her life and passion.

Morrison has spent her career advocating for racial and social justice, working extensively in religious communities. Morrison, who is a lesbian, was a founding pastor of Phoenix Community Church UCC in Kalamazoo, Mich., one of the first churches explicitly welcoming the LGBTQ community.

Later, she shifted her focus to racial justice, working with Allies for Change as an anti-oppression educator and co-founding Doing Your Own Work, an anti-racism program for white people to supplement conversations about racial justice.

Shelly Rambo DIV ’99 was honored with the Alumni Award for Distinction in Theological Education. This award “recognizes alumni whose scholarship, teaching or leadership and contributions to vocational formation for ministry reflect the best traditions of YDS and its distinguished faculty.”

Rambo, who has been teaching at Boston University School of Theology since 2004, combines the study of trauma and religion, particularly attentive to the transmission of Christian theologies of suffering. 

Her work has created partnerships with chaplains and international educators in post-conflict areas. Inspired by the work of military chaplains, she helped to design Boston University School of Theology’s Master of Divinity track in Chaplaincy. 

David Good GRD ’74 DIV ’75 was awarded the 2024 Alumni Award for Distinction in Congregational Ministry, which honors the alumni for their work in developing the ministry and mission of local congregations. Good passed away on April 2. 

According to the Divinity School’s website, Good’s passion was linking his faith community with other faith traditions. He led 12 trips to Israel and the West Bank and established numerous cross-cultural partnerships, including with the Green Grass community on the Cheyenne River (Lakota) Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and with the Crosby Scholarship Fund for Haiti.

Horace Ballard DIV ’10 received the Lux et Veritas award, which is given to an alumni who “has demonstrated excellence and distinction in applying the compassion of Christ to the diverse needs of the wider church.”

Ballard focused their studies on visual art. They are currently at Harvard Art Museums, and their curatorial work explores art with the questions of justice, ethics, boundaries and limits in mind. Their work investigates “the art, ideas, and visual cultures of the United States and the Americas.” Ballard believes in the potential for academic museums to evoke empathy, wonder and sociopolitical change. 

The Divinity School is currently accepting nominations for next year’s awardees, where graduates of the Divinity School can nominate any living alumni for their work.  

“The awards committee of our Alumni Board … reviews the nominees and makes its selections,” wrote Tom Krattenmaker, director of communications at the Divinity School. 

The Divinity School is located at 409 Prospect St.

ABBY NISSLEY