Lynda Z. Tyson ‘05 M.Div. has been appointed Interim Associate Dean for Berkeley Divinity School. She joins the BDS staff on August 18, following the arrival of Dean Andrew McGowan on August 1. As an alumna, Tyson has remained connected to the Berkeley community, and in 2007 she served in a short-term role as BDS Acting Director of Students.

In her new role, Tyson will provide academic advising for students in relation to Anglican Studies, pastoral support for BDS students, and oversight of BDS worship and communal prayer life.

Tyson was most recently the Associate Rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.  Previously she served as a program missioner at The Episcopal Church Center in New York, and as Senior Associate Rector at Saint Luke’s Parish in Darien, Connecticut, where she had been serving since graduating from Yale Divinity School and BDS in 2005.

“I am delighted that Lynda Tyson is returning to Berkeley for this role,” said McGowan. “At a time when we are experiencing significant change it is wonderful to have leadership from an experienced priest who has done this work before.”

Prior to coming to BDS, Tyson had a career in communications and marketing. Her ministry career is rooted in a long association with The Maine Sea Coast Missionary Society, where she remains an honorary director.

Tyson remarked, “It is a joy and privilege to be called, once again, to this ministry at BDS.  I look forward to working with Dean McGowan, the students, faculty, and staff, as we begin a new chapter in the life of Berkeley at Yale.”

Tyson is currently pursuing her doctorate of ministry degree at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

We are pleased to welcome three new faculty members to campus.

Michal Beth Dinkler joins us as an assistant professor of New Testament. Michal Beth earned her B.A. and M.A. in English literature from Stanford University. She earned her M.Div. from Gordon Conwell and then her Th.D. from Harvard. Her recently published her first monograph, Silent Statements: Narrative Representation of Speech and Silence in the Gospel of Luke. Read more about Dinkler here.

Also new on campus is Andrew McGowan, the new Dean and President of Berkeley Divinity School and McFaddin Professor of Anglican Studies and Pastoral Theology. Andrew was an associate professor on the faculty at the Episcopal Divinity School (1998-2003) before moving to the University of Melbourne where he was the Joan F. W. Munro Professor of Historical Theology. He has held major administrative posts at the University of Melbourne and was most recently the Warden and President of Trinity College. He has authored two monographs and edited two others. An Anglican priest, he has served parishes in Perth, Australia. Andrew brings a wealth of academic, administrative, and pastoral experience and commitment to BDS and YDS. Read more about McGowan here.

Felicity Harley-McGowan joins us as a Research Associate and Lecturer. Felicity was trained at the University of Adelaide where she received both her B.A. and her Ph.D. She is the Gerry Higgins Lecturer in Medieval Art History at the University of Melbourne. She is currently working on a monograph entitled Images of the Crucifixion in Late Antiquity and co-editing a volume on Ernst Kitzinger and the Making of Medieval Art History. She will offer courses at YDS, ISM, and the History of Art Department.