Meet the BST Collective Team

BiographyDr. LeAnn Flesher serves Berkeley School of Theology (BST) as Vice President of Academics, Dean of the Faculty, and Professor of Biblical Interpretation. BST, a founding member school of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California, is the center of her scholarly and institutional leadership. In addition to her role at BST, Dr. Flesher serves as Professor of Biblical Studies in the Sacred Text Department of the GTU’s Core Doctoral Faculty. She is an ordained minister with the American Baptist Churches USA.

El profesor Fabio Colorado obtuvo la Licenciatura en Teología Sagrada (S.T.L.) con especialización en Estudios Bíblicos en la Jesuit School ofTheology (JST) y actualmente cursa el Doctorado en Teología Sagrada (S.T.D.) con especialización en Teología Pastoral. En BST, ha impartido cursos como "Las mujeres en la Biblia." Su labor docente e investigativa integra los estudios bíblicos con la teología pastoral, preparando a los estudiantes para interpretar la Sagrada Escritura con rigoracadémico y aplicarla eficazmente en el ministerio y en la vida de la Iglesia.

El doctor Horacio Da Valle es originario de Argentina y ha residido en Estados Unidos desde 1982, junto con su esposa Liliana, sus dos hijas y dos hijos. Ha cursado estudios de maestría en divinidades (M.Div.) en el Seminario Northern, en Lombard, Illinois; obtuvo un doctorado en ministerio (D.Min.) en la Escuela de Teología Andover Newton, donde inició su labor docente en estudios teológicos; y en 2018 se graduó de la Graduate Theological Union con un doctorado en teología sistemática y filosófica (Th.D.). Ha impartido diversos cursos en el programa de la Iniciativa Latina de la Escuela de Teología de Berkeley, del cual es cofundador junto con su esposa. Sus intereses abarcan, además de la teología sistemática y filosófica, las teologías contextuales, liberadoras y poscoloniales/decoloniales; la relación entre teología y ciencias naturales; la eco-teología y la ética planetaria.

Liliana was born in Argentina, and at the age of 19, she married Horacio R. Da Valle. In 1982, they immigrated to the United States. Liliana worked at a Domestic Violence agency in Northern California and later in Illinois. Upon graduating together with a Master of Divinity from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, IL, in 1990, they were called as co-pastors to the First Baptist Church of South Gate. During her years at this church, Liliana also served as a hospice chaplain. Years later, in Boston, Liliana became an Area Minister with The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts and obtained a Doctor of Ministry degree. Her project was “Multicultural Churches.” In 2007, she was called to be the Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of Rhode Island. In 2008, Liliana and Horacio became American Citizens.Upon returning to the West Coast, she pastored Grace Baptist Church in San Jose, CA, and Urban Grace in Tacoma, WA. Liliana also worked toward a Doctorate of Business Administration. She has always held ministries of compassion with those who are marginalized, mistreated, or suffering in any other way, like abused women, terminally ill people, imprisoned persons, and the unhoused.Dr. Da Valle is a well-known international speaker. She has preached in Bulgaria, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico, as well as at the ABC Biennial of 1999. Liliana has taught Practical Theology at Andover Newton Theological School and Gordon Conwell Seminary, both in their Masters programs. Currently, she teaches in the Latino Initiative at the Berkeley School of Theology and is the Pacific Northwest Regional Director of the Kaleidoscope Institute. Her passions are intercultural communication and integration, leadership, traveling, and art. Liliana and Horacio have four children, 10 grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.

Dr. Jennifer W. Davidson has over twenty years of experience in higher education as both a professor and academic dean. She taught at Berkeley School of Theology (BST) for fifteen years as Professor of Theology and Worship (2007–2022) before serving as Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Graduate Theological Union (2022–2024). Dr. Davidson has returned to BST in a new appointment as Professor of Transformative Learning & Assessment, where she leads BST’s participation in the Transformative Learning Collaborative — an initiative to develop accessible, digitally enabled, and community-centered pathways for leadership formation and theological education, supported by a major grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc. to Pacific School of Religion in collaboration with BST and three partner seminaries.Dr. Davidson brings deep expertise in curriculum design, assessment, and online teaching and learning, and is committed to building learning experiences that are academically rigorous, inspirational, and engaging. She is the author of the award-winning River of Life, Feast of Grace: Baptism, Communion, and Discipleship (Judson Press, 2019) and has published numerous articles and book chapters on pedagogy, prayer, spirituality, and worship.Beyond the classroom, Dr. Davidson is a certified coach and member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), working with individuals in professional and personal development and volunteering with the San Francisco ICF chapter. She is an avid backyard birder and enthusiastic reader across many genres, including historical fiction, spirituality, mysteries, true crime, memoirs, and history.

I am working on developing an antithesis rhetoric to create priestly and prophetic functions. This opens critical space in order to lament conditions caused by perpetual existential crisis and then demand that restorative action be taken on behalf of oppressed people groups. I enjoy sports, biking, and hiking and jazz masters like Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Sade, Dizzy Gillespie and the second Miles Davis Quintet, (Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Tony Williams).

Born in South Korea and raised in Argentina, I now call Berkeley my home. I share my life with my husband, who is an astrophysicist and A.I. engineer. Together, we eagerly anticipate welcoming a furry companion into our lives in the near future.My academic journey has taken me across the globe: I pursued a major in Spanish translation during my college years in Argentina, followed by an MDiv in Korea, and later ventured to the United States to complete my Th.M. and PhD in theology.Beyond my passion for academia, I have a deep love for exploring new places. In my free time, I like traveling and cherishing moments with my family, whether it is in Madison, Wisconsin or South Korea. I hold a strong belief in the value of continuous learning and trying new things. My curious nature leads me to explore diverse subjects for the sheer joy of discovery, even though I may occasionally switch interests rather quickly.

My work focuses on how modern leaders of ministry can change, grow, and create according to the context of their missional call. I am constantly seeking to answer the question, "How can we love God and our neighbor well, given the current situation we are living in?" My dissertation synthesized a theologically grounded approach to Human-Centered Design Thinking that can be useful for the local church in helping to recognize entrenched mindsets and embark on a new paradigm that embraces curiosity, adaptability, and humility.

Dr. Leander is a human capital development expert with twenty-five years of exemplary results in organizational development, change management, and strategy in the United States and abroad. He is a recognized thought leader and strategist leading culturally intelligent DEI initiatives. Dr. Leander is a consultant supporting talent development strategy through succession planning, skills assessment, coaching, and mentoring. Brian also served as a church planter and leadership development consultant to nonprofit organizations and a range of church systems in North America. In 2010, Brian began to explore the relationship between congregational leaders and the orientation of a growing number of churches towards diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation, which led to a doctoral dissertation and a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Eastern University. The purpose of the study was to examine and explain factors relating to leadership in diversity-oriented churched (DOC) in the United States by obtaining quantitative results senior pastors and leadership team members in churches in the United States. The sixteen findings established significant relationships between leaders’ cultural intelligence, openness to diversity and leadership practices, and explained how they contribute to a positive organizational diversity climate in DOC. With insights from his dissertation, he developed curriculum to advance cultural competency among Christian leaders in churches and in Christian higher education institutions including Goshen College, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Evangelical Theological Seminary. Brian served as a member of the Urban League of Long Island’s State of Black Long Island council, which published the seminal 2017 study, Empowering Black Long Island: How Equity is Key to the Future of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. In 2020, Brian was chosen as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa - The National Leadership Honor Society and receive the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Recognition Award from the Nassau County Human Rights Commission, for building bridges for people of color in the community, developing impactful learning programs, helping them enter leadership positions in nonprofits and community organizations. Currently, Brian serves a member of the Board of Directors of the Orchard Group, a church planting organization, and as an associate professor and director of intercultural leadership at Berkeley School of Theology.

Valerie engages liberation theology as a womanist scholar, practical theologian, and community activist pastor to raise critical awareness of systemic oppressions. As the 2021 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, Valerie holds dual GTU department alignment in Theology & Ethics and Religion & Practice to integrate theoethics with intersections of social justice praxis in church and society for restorative public approaches. She currently chairs the GTU-Religion & Practice Department and serves as Core Doctoral Faculty. She authored the monograph, Change Agent Church in Black Lives Matter Times: Urgency for Action (Lanham: Lexington/Fortress Academic-Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. Paperback release 2021)

Having been born in a non-Christian family in Korea, I had never been part of any faith tradition until I was a youth. One summer in high school, I felt my heart warmed when I attended a weekday service at a small Methodist church and that changed the course of my life. After working for a few years after college, I went to the Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul and came to the United States as a student in 1991. As an ordained servant of the Lord, I always identify myself as a preacher/pastor; I love preaching and enjoy being part of a church community. It has been a blessed 30-plus years for me to have been working with people of God in ethnically and culturally diverse congregations throughout the United States.

When he is not busy working with his beehives or lavender plants, Eric is in active conversation with the letters of Paul and ancient biblical purity laws. As the son of a Mexican immigrant and an American copper miner of Mexican descent, he has come to use his life-long experience of cultural liminality to find a deeper understanding of the boundaries of the sacred and profane in the book of Leviticus, and how early Christians interpreted these spheres of existence when considering the death of Jesus. His academic goal is to provide the tools of biblical scholarship to future leaders of the Latina/o church to help bridge the gap between the ancient laws and norms of the biblical world and modern society.

Laura Jean Torgerson (she/her/ella) is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has served in congregations, hospitals, prisons, and as a missionary in Nicaragua. She sees theological education as another form of ministry. She delights in reading the Bible with people with a variety of interpretations and learning from the perspectives of others.Her research and teaching are centered in two questions: How do people arrive at their interpretations of the Bible? How can we read the Bible for liberation today?She and her husband, Tim Donaghy, are raising two amazing humans in Oakland, and hope to find the just right dog to join their family soon. She is a member of Mills Grove Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).[Laura Jean Torgerson (ella) es pastora ordenada en la Iglesia Cristiana (Discípulos de Cristo). Ha servido en iglesias locales, hospitales, prisiones, y como misionera en Nicaragua. Ella entiende a la educación teológica como una manera de ejercer el ministerio. A ella le encanta leer la Biblia en conjunto con otras personas, especialmente con una diversidad de interpretaciones. Siempre aprende algo nuevo de las perspectivas de otras. Su enseñanza tanto como su investigación se centran en dos preguntas — ¿Cómo las personas llegan a sus interpretaciones de la Biblia? Y ¿Cómo podemos leer la Biblia para la liberación hoy?Ella y su esposo, Tim Donaghy, viven en Oakland con sus dos hijas increibles. Esperan encontrar pronto al perro ideal para completar la familia. Se congrega en la iglesia cristiana Mills Grove (Disciples of Christ).]