It is our great joy to announce that after an extensive national search, the Board of Directors of Westminster House has selected the Reverend Dr. Carol Antablin Miles as the 11th Executive Director of Westminster House. Dr. Miles will also serve as Presbyterian Campus Pastor and Director of the Westminster Institute. The Board Search Committee worked very hard for the past nine months, and abundant thanks are due to them. They are: Bill Nebo, Pastor Emeritus, First Presbyterian Church, Livermore; John Turpin, Pastor Emeritus, First Presbyterian Church, Oakland; Catherine Coleman, First Presbyterian Church Oakland; Sammy Seo, First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley; Ned Robinson, Lafayette–Orinda Presbyterian Church; Jesus Arciniega, First Presbyterian Church, Berkeley; Randy Bare, ex–officio.
A native Californian, Dr. Miles earned her bachelor of arts magna cum laude from Cal in 1983, and her master of arts from the University of Southern California in 1986; she received her master of divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1991 and 2000, respectively.
An ordained Presbyterian minister, Dr. Miles has served in ministry to youth, university students, and young adults for three decades. She began her public ministry as an intern and community outreach deputy in the late 1970s at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana, California. The year she finished her undergraduate studies, she interned in the University Ministry at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, and later served as Co–Director in 1987–88. While studying at Princeton, Carol served as a seminarian with the Young Adult Ministry at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.
An abiding interest in theological education led Dr. Miles to teaching positions in the Southwest and the Midwest first, as Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1999–2005) in Austin, Texas, and subsequently as Associate Professor of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dr. Miles understands the dynamics of the written and spoken Word to transform lives. Her leadership and communication styles are informed by close attention to the subtle, elusive nuances of the language of scripture, and the challenging and often unsettling ramifications these verbal distinctions have for our everyday lives. She brings a scholar’s commitment to the integrity of the written text together with her belief that the living Word addresses us in the most complex contexts in which we find ourselves.
Since 1990, Dr. Miles has been in demand as a conference and retreat speaker throughout North America. She has appeared on the Chicago Sunday Evening Club (PBS), and been the featured preacher and worship leader at many teaching and learning events. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature and the Academy of Homiletics, and serves on the editorial boards of Word & World: Theology for Christian Ministry and the Center for Biblical Preaching, whose link is Here.