UDTS Leadership and Faculty

• DMin, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
• MDiv, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
• AB, Hope College

• MDiv, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• BA, Utah State University

Rev. Emily Taylor Blue is an ordained minister, educator, and passionate advocate for faith formation, community building, and inclusive leadership. She currently serves as Pastor to Students at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, where she also teaches in both the seminary and undergraduate programs. In this role, she supports students spiritually, academically, and pastorally, while helping equip leaders for service in the wider church. In addition to her academic work, Emily has served in parish ministry for over 17 years, currently leading Sherrill United Church of Christ and ten years at the former Sherrill United Methodist Church. Rev. Blue is certified in Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) training, personal empowerment, and Ally training, and she brings these tools into her ministry and teaching to cultivate belonging, resilience, and justice-oriented leadership. She is deeply committed to spiritual formation, restorative justice, and helping people of all ages discover their God-given gifts and purpose. Whether in the pulpit, the classroom, or the theater, her ministry is rooted in compassion, creativity, and a belief that God's love meets us exactly where we are.

• PhD, Boston College/Andover Newton
• MDiv, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• BS, University of Wisconsin

• PhD, Marquette University
• MA, Iliff School of Theology
• BA, Colorado College

Dr. Nick Elder studies how Scripture has been experienced across media, from ancient scrolls and codices to apps and film, showing how the medium shapes the message. Before joining the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, he taught at Marquette University, where he earned his PhD. He is the author of The Media Matrix of Early Jewish and Christian Narrative (Bloomsbury, 2019) and Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions (Eerdmans, 2024), and is currently writing The Bible is Not a Book. His work also appears in journals such as Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Journal for the Study of Judaism, and Journal of Biblical Literature. Outside the office and classroom, he is usually running, restoring his preposterously old house, or wrangling his four kids and oafish dog.

• PhD, Boston University School of Theology
• MDiv, Saint John's University
• BA, Western Washington University

• PhD, Boston University School of Theology
• MDiv, Fuller Theological Seminary
• BA, Wheaton College

A practical theologian, missiologist and pastor, Dr. James brings deep insight into the life of the church in today's rapidly changing cultural landscape. Rev. Dr. James is the author of Church Planting in Post-Christian Soil: Theology and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2017), an award-winning exploration of emerging forms of Christian community in North America. He is currently writing Reseeding Church, a call for the church in the West to abandon false hopes rooted in human ingenuity and instead cooperate with the God who is already seeding a new future for the church in the West. Rev. Dr. James leads Missio Cohorts and UDTS's Madison Learning Community, two grant-funded initiatives through which he cultivates diverse communities of missional leaders as they develop local, ecumenical kinship, discernment and collaboration. Through his teaching, writing, and project leadership, Dr. James seeks to equip God's people in the West to faithfully follow the Spirit's lead through our ongoing change of epoch.

Dr. James is husband to Lindsay, dad to two kids, and human to a miniature Bernedoodle named Theophilus Monk.

• PhD, Duke University
• MDiv, Yale University
• BA, Wesleyan University

A minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Bradley Longfield served as a pastor in Indiana and taught at Duke University Divinity School before being called to UDTS in 1992. He served as Vice President of the University and Dean of the Seminary from 1998 - 2016. His publications include The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates (Oxford, 1991), Presbyterians and American Culture (Westminster/John Knox, 2013), and (with George Marsden) The Secularization of the Academy (Oxford, 1992). Dr. Longfield teaches a variety of courses addressing the history of Christianity and co-directs the Master of Arts in Reformed Theology program.

• DMin, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• MDiv, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• BA, University of Northern Iowa

• PhD, Duke University
• MDiv, Duke University
• BA, Asbury College

• DMin, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• MDiv, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• BS, Texas A&M University

Loren is a retired PC(USA) Pastor living in Dubuque, Iowa with his wife, Becky. They have two adult children and two grandchildren. Loren and Becky are partners in Forest Walk Consulting, which serves small congregations helping them to discern God's calling for their church.

• PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary
• MDiv, Columbia Theological Seminary
• ThM, Columbia Theological Seminary
• BS, Kansas State University

A Presbyterian Minister of Word and Sacrament, Timothy Matthew Slemmons has pastored two congregations and preached as far afield as Jamaica, Scotland, and Malawi. In addition to distilling preaching and Reformed worship for lay leaders in his recent books (A Short Course in Preaching and A Short Course in Reformed Worship), his scholarship and creative work tend to focus in three areas: (1) bringing the whole counsel of God (including texts that lie beyond the bounds of most lectionaries) to bear on the life of the Church through preaching (see his Year D, Greater Attention, and Waste Not the Fragments), (2) paraphrasing and setting many neglected, often difficult ("Year D") Psalms to simple guitar arrangements (his Revenant Psalms series and other musical recordings are available on most streaming services); and (3) translating the works of first generation Swiss Reformers, especially Johannes Oecolampadius (B&NPress), in order to illumine the origins and emphases of the Reformed tradition at its inception.

• EdD, Edgewood College
• MSEd, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
• BS, University of Wisconsin - Platteville

Dr. Lindsey Ward is responsible for the oversight of field education, assessment, advising, and other administrative duties in the Seminary. Having started her career in undergraduate student life roles, she spent eight years in the trenches of young adult formation working with student organizations, advisors, and student leaders, then chased that passion for student growth and development into the classroom. For a decade, she coordinated curriculum and instruction for a series of courses that helped undergraduates explore their purpose, worldview, and vocation through a distinctly Reformed Christian lens. In her free time, Lindsey seeks adventure. You can find her at the top of a mountain (42 14,000' peaks and counting!), on a bike, on a run, on a yoga mat, in a tent, or out exploring with her husband and three growing boys.

• MDiv, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
• MLS, Emporia State University
• BA, Hanover College

Krista has a wide range of experiences in higher education and the church. She served as pastor of a church in Arkansas for 7 years and led the congregation through a time of challenge as they sought new ways to be a church (without a building) while remaining true to their roots as a Presbyterian congregation that was a cornerstone of the community for decades. Krista also served in various roles in higher education, most recently as an Instruction and Outreach Librarian. Her passion for higher education and the church has led her to embrace the call to share the mission of UDTS while seeking to find those who need to benefit from the variety of programs we have to offer.