Katie Cannon

Katie Geneva Cannon was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina on January 3, 1950. She received a bachelor's degree in education from Barber-Scotia College in 1971 and master of divinity degree from the Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary in 1974. She became the first black woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. She received a doctor of philosophy degree from the Union Theological Seminary in 1983. During her career, she was on the faculties of Temple University, Episcopal Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School. She wrote several books including Black Womanist Ethics and Katie's Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community. She and Emilie M. Townes edited Womanist Theological Ethics: A Reader. Cannon received the Excellence in Theological Education Award in 2018. She died from acute leukemia on August 8, 2018 at the age of 68.