Berkeley’s 15th Dean: The Rev'd Dr. Gabrielle R. Thomas

On February 26, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale announced the appointment of the Rev’d Dr. Gabrielle R. Thomas as Berkeley’s next Dean and President, effective July 1, 2026. The decision of the Board of Trustees and the affirmation by YDS concluded an exhaustive search process for the ideal candidate. As Board Chair James Elrod observes, “We wanted a gifted teacher, an experienced pastor, a distinguished scholar and someone poised to be a bold leader for the School, The Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion. We have gotten that and more with Gabby Thomas.”

A native of Gloucestershire, England, Thomas received her B.A. in Classics from the University of Bristol, a Graduate Diploma in Theology for Ministry from St. John’s College, Nottingham, her M.Th. from the University of Chester, and her Ph.D. in Historical Theology from the University of Nottingham. Her academic appointment at YDS will be Professor of Early Christian, Anglican, and Theological Studies. She will also serve as Associate Dean at Yale Divinity School.

Thomas is no stranger to Berkeley. In 2019-2021 she held a fixed-term lectureship in Early Christianity and Anglican Studies at YDS before being appointed to a tenure-track position at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. In that short term, however, Thomas distinguished herself as a scholar of the first order, a gifted teacher, and a supportive pastor for students, particularly during the trying times of the pandemic. At the conclusion of the 2019-20 academic year, Thomas was elected by the student body as the “Inspiring Yale Faculty Member” for YDS, one of only thirteen educators so honored throughout the University. While at Yale she also published two books—The Image of God in the Theology of Gregory of Nazianzus (2019) and For the Good of the Church: Unity, Theology, & Women (2021)—and co-edited a third, Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church: Explorations in Theology and Practice (2020). 

Given the breadth and depth of Thomas’ scholarship, as part of her appointment in 2019 she was asked by Dean McGowan to lead a major revision of Berkeley’s Anglican Studies curriculum.  She was joined in this effort by Justin Crisp, MDiv ’12, and Ian Douglas, then Bishop Diocesan of ECCT.  Formerly known as Anglican I and Anglican II, the two courses had long been divided into the historic development of Anglican thought in the Church of England, and then the history of Anglicanism in the United States and the rest of the Anglican Communion. Drawing on more current postcolonial and racial justice scholarship, the revised courses—”The Anglican Way, I and II”—now examine Anglican history, theology, and polity more as an ongoing dialectic, whether in England, America, or the Global Communion, between the universal and the particular, the global and the local. Berkeley students now examine Anglican history and theology, from the beginning to the present day, as catholic belief expressed in many particular and contextual ways. 

Such academic leadership was a major part of Thomas’ appointment to Candler, where she helped develop its concentration in Anglican Studies. In addition to the many articles and book chapters published during her tenure at Candler, she also completed work on her forthcoming book, The Problem of the Devil in Cappadocian Thought, to be published this summer by Cambridge University Press. Her five years at Candler also provided Thomas with some fresh perspectives on Anglican formation, which will help her lead Berkeley with an openness to new possibilities.

Thomas’ commitment to scholarship is fully part of her vocation as a priest. When she was ordained a priest in the Diocese of London in 2016, Thomas fulfilled a life-long call: “I had a strong sense of call to ordination even as a young girl, and at that time, the Church of England wasn’t ordaining women.” Her skill as a public speaker was also shaped early, from completion of a drama certificate program in secondary school to a gap year before university as a touring actor with a theological drama group. “Public speaking is a space I inhabit comfortably,” she notes. And nowhere was her oratorical skill more in evidence than in her powerful preaching in both St. Luke’s Chapel and Marquand Chapel. 

But it was Thomas’ teaching that made the greatest impact on her students in her two years at YDS/Berkeley. Mary Travers, MDiv ’22 recalls:

A good professor teaches ideas, but a great professor makes those same ideas open up curiosities in students that become their own. As a student focused on chaplaincy and spiritual care, I was deeply moved by the vision of God that Professor Thomas illustrated through her patristics scholarship. 

Thomas’ leadership has also been active both in the broader Church and in ecumenical collaboration. While in the U.K. she served for eight years on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Theological Reflection Group, and was also the first woman to serve on the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox International Commission. Through scholarship and experience she is well-suited to continue promoting Berkeley’s Anglican formation program as broad in cultural diversity and global perspective.

With Gabrielle Thomas, the total is greater than the sum of these multiple skills. Linda Lorimer, Vice Chair of Berkeley’s Board and Chair of the Search Committee, notes that “Gabby inspired us in how she views herself not in separate dimensions of priest and scholar and teacher. Rather she sees herself as a priest in everything she does.” Former student Helena Martin, MDiv ’20 notes that for all Thomas’ talents, “most important is her passion for the gospel: her love of Jesus and her indefatigable hope for God’s church.” It is this hope that has led Gabby Thomas back to Berkeley:

 “For me, this moment is not simply a professional milestone. As a scholar-priest, it is a vocational homecoming. It is a sacred trust to be called to serve as the next Dean of Berkeley Divinity School. The task of theological education requires not only intellectual excellence but the discernment to live faithfully in complex and contested times. I am committed to our continued growth as a community where worship deepens, wisdom flourishes, and witness to the good news of Jesus Christ is bold.”