Wil Gafney, Ph.D.

Dr. Wilda (Wil) Gafney is a scholar, pastor, preacher, author, and activist. She is the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Ft. Worth, TX, where she teaches masters and doctoral students in initial and advanced degree programs. Her work focuses on translation of the scriptures for congregations and lay readers, womanist and feminist biblical interpretation and, women who prophesied in ancient Israel and the ancient Afro-Asiatic world and, their reception in rabbinic literature. Her expertise includes archaeology, comparative ancient Near Eastern literature, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. She is the author of or editor of nine previous books.

Dr. Gafney, is also an Episcopal priest, ordained from the historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, PA, the first Episcopal church in the U.S. founded by and for African Americans in 1792.  She is a former member of the Dorshei Derekh Reconstructionist Minyan of the Germantown Jewish Centre, in Philadelphia.

She is invited to speak regularly around the US and abroad, appears in print and on podcasts as well as other media including NPR, HBO and has consulted for The History Channel. She is currently working on her first trade book.