Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray is Elected President of the Unitarian Universalist Association

First Woman Elected to that Office

New Orleans, LA – The Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray has been elected president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) at the Association’s General Assembly in New Orleans. Frederick-Gray is the first woman elected to serve as the UUA’s president.

Frederick-Gray, 41, has been serving as the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. She begins her six-year term on Sunday, June 25.

“I am honored that Unitarian Universalists elected me as our next president. I am excited about moving forward with a vision of a spiritually vital, mission-focused UUA that is grounded in partnership and organized for impact,” said Frederick-Gray.

Frederick-Gray defeated the Rev. Alison Miller of Morristown, New Jersey, and the Rev. Jeanne Pupke of Richmond, Virginia. She succeeds the Rev. Peter Morales, the Association’s first Latino president, who resigned from his position in April 2017. Since April, the UUA has been led by three interim co-presidents appointed by its Board of Trustees to fulfill Morales’ term in office.

While serving the Phoenix congregation, Frederick-Gray led the Unitarian Universalist response to Arizona’s anti-immigrant laws in 2010. She was a leader of the UU Arizona Immigration Ministry and a key organizer of the 2012 UUA Justice General Assembly in Phoenix. Frederick-Gray affirmed, “I believe that Unitarian Universalists bring to the world organizing leadership that has been shaped by the experience of resistance to SB1070 in Arizona.”

Frederick-Gray previously served as minister of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, Ohio, where she was a leader in congregation-based community organizing efforts, and served as intern minister at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, Tennessee. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Harvard Divinity School. She is married to the Rev. Brian Frederick-Gray and they have a nine-year-old son, Henry.

For more information about Rev. Frederick-Gray, please visit UUWorld.org.

Learn more about Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray in this story from UU World.

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In 2012, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray was part of a religious delegation that visited the Tent City jail in Maricopa County.

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