Rev. Alia Shinbrough (they/them) is Congregational Life Field Staff for the Central East Region, serving congregations across New York State, including New York City, and Long Island, as well as Northeast New Jersey, and Western Connecticut. Rev. Alia is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist who earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. They are a 2023 GROW Fellow, as well as a current member of TRUUsT, the UU Society for Community Ministries, and the UU Ministers Association. Their ministry is multi-contextual, and has been shaped and transformed through multigenerational camp ministry, intersectional social justice organizing, as well as community building, spiritual care, and practice in and beyond Unitarian Universalist worshipping and learning communities.
 
In every context, Rev. Alia works to embody transformative ministry in a time of political and social crisis, and to empower others to build collective resilience, and reverence for life from within the realities of this wounded world.
 
Outside of ministering in a variety of liminal spaces, Alia can often be found reading science fiction, baking fresh bread, practicing trans liberation with their partner, learning languages, making art (especially collage), rediscovering euphoric joy through play, employing the oxford comma, and connecting with nature and other beings across this Earth.