REV. Naomi Washington-leapheart

she/her | preacher, teacher, & activist

Reverend Naomi Washington-Leapheart, a daughter of Detroit, is a Black-queer preacher, teacher, and activist. She develops spaces of spiritual candor, disruption, reflection, transformation, and action. Rev. Naomi is the founder of Salt | Yeast | Light, a consultancy that supports individuals, congregations, institutions, and groups in the work of radical inclusion, courageous spiritual practice, and faith-rooted advocacy.Rev. Naomi serves on the leadership team of Christians for a a Free Palestine.

Rev. Naomi is the first-ever Strategic Partnerships Director at Political Research Associates (PRA), a social justice research and strategy center that provides strategic insights and actionable research that identifies, disrupts, and competes with movements and institutions that undermine democracy, justice, and human rights. In her role, she leverages PRA's research and communications capacities to support effective organizing and advocacy by movement organizations around the nation and globe.

From 2020-2023, Rev. Naomi served as the Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs in the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement for the city of Philadelphia. In that role, she served as a public facing leader, collaborator, advisor, program facilitator, and subject matter expert for the Mayor’s Office and City Hall on local and national matters that impacted Philadelphia’s diverse communities of faith. She also recruited and managed the Mayor’s Commission on Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs.

Prior to working in government, Rev. Naomi was the Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, the country's oldest national LGBTQ justice and equality group. In that role, she coordinated the Task Force's public faith messaging, led local, regional, and national faith gatherings, and trained hundreds of LGBTQ people of faith and cis-het comrades in faith-rooted organizing and advocacy for LGBTQ justice.

Before joining the Task Force, Rev. Naomi was a faith organizer for POWER Interfaith, a multi-faith, multi-racial network of congregations in Southeastern and Central Pennsylvania. She also served as Co-Pastor and Minister of Music at the Wisdom's Table at St. Peter's United Church of Christ.

Rev. Naomi is also a long-time educator. After teaching for many years in alternative school programs for out-of-school youth returning to community from carceral placements, in 2017, she joined the adjunct faculty at Villanova University, where she teaches a variety of core and upper-level theology courses, including two that she designed: "Do Black Lives Matter to God? A Theological Exploration of Race, Suffering, and Resistance" and "Agitating for Justice: An Introduction to Faith-Rooted Community Organizing." In 2019, Rev. Naomi received the Pohlhaus-Stracciolini Award for Teaching Excellence from Villanova. She is often invited to lecture and consult for various student and faculty groups within the University, and as a multifaith advisor to Campus Ministry, Rev. Naomi also directed the Villanova Gospel Choir for a season and has preached in ecumenical worship services on campus. Rev. Naomi also teaches a religion & science fiction course at Arcadia University, where is also active in facilitating faculty dialogues around topics related to racial justice and equity in the classroom.

In summer 2022, Rev. Naomi was named the Religion and Public Life Government Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, and was reappointed for the 2023-2024 academic year. In that role, she co-taught a course, advised master’s degree students, and facilitated public conversations on religious literacy and the vocation of public administration.

Rev. Naomi’s love for intellectually-rigorous moral formation began during her undergraduate years at University of Pennsylvania and she has since earned the Master of Divinity degree from Lancaster Theological Seminary and regularly presents work at annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion. She has earned certificates for completing intensive programs at The Wharton School, Duke Divinity School, Eastern University, and Princeton Theological Seminary.

An engaging and insightful speaker and commentator, Rev. Naomi has spoken at congressional, state, and municipal hearings, and has held sacred space in sanctuaries and on the streets. She regularly preaches and teaches in diverse worship settings, national conferences, and religious and academic institutions around the country, including: Vanderbilt University School of Divinity, Swarthmore College, Ithaca College, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Eastern University, Arcadia University, Yale Divinity School, Methodist Theological School of Ohio, Wake Forest University School of Divinity, Union Theological Seminary (NYC), Chicago Theological Seminary, the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Alliance of Baptists, the Union of Black Episcopalians, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Council of Churches, the International Council of Community Churches, and Evolving Faith.

Rev. Naomi’s writings on faith, identity, and politics can be seen online and in print, and a video archive of her sermons and other public speaking can be seen here. She is also featured in The Atonement Agenda, a 3-part television series on WHYY (2022), “Marriage Rites: Mainline Christian Denominations,” a special episode of the PBS television show To the Contrary (2018), and two documentary films -- The Grove: A Coming Out Story (Revry TV, 2023) and Taking the Long Road Home (PFLAG National, 2022).

Rev. Naomi serves on the boards of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania, and Pride in the Pews. She is a member of the Faith Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. In 2022, Rev. Naomi was appointed by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Faith-Based Security Advisory Council.

In 2019, Naomi was named one of 9 LGBTQ Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress and was included in The Root 100, an annual list of the nation’s most influential African-Americans, ages 25-45. In 2021, she was named one of “10 under 40 to Watch” by the Philadelphia Tribune and she was also honored as a “Champion of Pride” by The Advocate magazine. In 2022, Rev. Naomi was named to the Pride Power 100 List by City & State PA.

Rev. Naomi is proudly affiliated with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM).

Bridget Eileen Rivera

she/he/they | sociologist, PH.D. Student, author

Bridget Eileen Rivera (she/he/they) provides support to churches and ministries seeking to become places where LGBTQ+ people can truly thrive in their faith. Her groundbreaking book, Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church (Brazos Press, 2021), was named a Foreword INDIES 2021 Finalist in religion and is acclaimed for its honest portrayal of the discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ Christians in the church. A proud homeschool graduate and alum of Patrick Henry College, Bridget has become a leading voice on gay celibacy in the church, bridging the gap between traditional faith perspectives and contemporary discussions on gender and sexuality. The recipient of multiple fellowship awards, she is completing her PhD in sociology at the City University of New York Graduate Center and serves as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Connect with her on social media @travelingnun.

kevin garcia

they/Them | Spirituality COach, Author, Podcaster

Kevin Miguel Garcia is a spirituality coach, a mystical theologian + practitioner, an author / speaker, and a wild lover of life based in Atlanta, GA. After coming out in the fall of 2015 as a queer Christian, Kevin has reached thousands of individuals across the globe with messages of God’s unending love for all people. regardless of who they are, what they profess, or what they actually believe. Kevin’s the author of Bad Theology Kills: undoing toxic beliefs and reclaiming your spiritual authority, published Janurary 2020. And their most recent book, What Makes You Bloom: Cultivating a practice for connecting with your divine self, was published last year the same week as our Jan 2024 conference.  Kevin’s work also appears in several anthologies by queer people of faith.

Through their work as a digital creative and public theologian, Kevin has used their writing, podcast (A Tiny Revolution), and YouTube Channel to help foster communities of authentic spiritual seeking, pulling apart the bad theology and beginning to reconstruct sustainable spiritual practices. Kevin believes that by telling our stories, we set others free to tell their own.

Kevin holds a Masters of Arts in Practical Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary (2020) and a Bachelors of Music in Choral music education from Christopher Newport University (2013). 

In addition to LGBTQ liberation and the liberation of all beings, Kevin’s passions include yelling at the TV during Ru Paul’s Drag Race, dancing while their fellow queers spin house music, finding good tacos, and really horrible dad jokes.

Rev. Dr. David P. Gushee

HE/him | ethicist, Pastor, author, advocate

Rev. Prof. Dr. David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit (Free University) Amsterdam, and Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre. He is the elected past-president of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics. Dr. Gushee is the author, co-author, or editor of 28 books, including the bestsellers Kingdom Ethics and Changing Our Mind. His other most notable works are Still Christian, After Evangelicalism, Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, and Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies. With his works read around the world, and an active lecturing schedule on several continents, he has global impact in the field of Christian ethics. A leader in the growing post-evangelical movement, he has also put feet to his faith in several activist campaigns. Gushee and his wife, Jeanie, live in Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more at https://davidpgushee.com/