Union Theological Seminary’s Technology, Innovation, and Digital Engagement Lab (TIDEL) invites you to the next installment of the TIDEL Speaker Series: We Pray Freedom – The Intersection of Social Justice & Digital Engagement. Hosted by Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes, Director of the TIDEL Fellowship, this conversation will explore how digital spaces are shaping contemporary movements for justice, faith-based organizing, and public theology. Together, we’ll consider how technology can be used as a sacred tool to build community, amplify marginalized voices, and reimagine collective liberation.

Joining Dr. Wilkes is Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Founder and Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. A leading faith-rooted activist and scholar, Dr. Theoharis brings decades of experience working at the intersection of religion and systemic change. Don’t miss this engaging online conversation on November 13, 2025, at 1:00 PM EST, as two visionary leaders discuss what it means to pray freedom in both the physical and digital public square.

Date & Time:

Thursday, November 13, 2025
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Online Webinar

Meet the Speakers:

Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes is a public theologian, innovation strategist, pastor and author. She is the Director of the Technology, Innovation & Digital Engagement Lab Fellowship housed at Union Theological Seminary. She studied under the doctoral advisement of Dr. L. Gregory Jones at Duke Divinity School where she completed her Doctorate in Ministry on innovation, social change and the church.

Dr. Gabby is a sought after voice in the public square. She was a featured contributor on The 2023 Oprah Winfrey Network’s documentary series: Time of Essence (HBO MAX), a contributor to The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History’s new film, GODTALK (2023) and was a featured contributor to Dr. Henry Lewis Gates’ documentary, GOSPEL (2024) on PBS. In 2022 she released her first book: Psalms for Black Lives, Reflections for the Work of Liberation. The book has sold more than 10,000 copies worldwide.

Dr. Gabby travels the nation training and equipping faith leaders to do the work of love & justice. At the height of both a global pandemic and a contentious presidential election season, Dr. Gabby was appointed to then NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s COVID-19 Clergy Task Force . She also served as an Eastern Region Convener of the Black Church PAC where she trained hundreds of clergy across the eastern region of the nation on matters of faith & voter engagement strategies. In 2024 she was appointed to New York City Public School’s Chancellor David Banks’ Interfaith Advisory Council.

She is a graduate of Duke, Yale, NYU & Hampton University. She currently serves as Vice President of The Yale Divinity School Alumni Board.

The Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival with the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Rev. Dr. Theoharis is the editor of We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People’s Campaign (Broadleaf Press, 2021). She is the author of Always with Us?: What Jesus Really Said about the Poor (Eerdmans, 2017) and co-author of Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing (Beacon, 2018). She has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Politico, The Hill, The Guardian, The Nation, Boston Review, CNN, Religion News Service, Sojourners, Religion Dispatches, the Grio, La Jornada, Salon, Slate, and elsewhere.