Emilie M TownesEmilie M. Townes is the Dean and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She was the first African American woman president of the American Academy of Religion (2008) andcurrently serves as the president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion (2012-16). She is the author or editor of eight books and was elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009. Read More Read Less