Pittsburgh Theological Seminary names associate director for its Metro-Urban Institute

Ruth Boykin’s experience includes administration, education and community organizing

by Pittsburgh Theological Seminary | Special to Presbyterian News Service

Ruth Boykin

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is pleased to announce Ruth Boykin as associate director of its Metro-Urban Institute. She will begin at the Seminary Dec. 1.

“Ruth brings tremendous strengths and wide experience to the Metro-Urban Institute as an administrator, educator, and community organizer. We are delighted she will be joining MUI and look forward to all the ways she will enrich the Pittsburgh Seminary community,” said the Rev. Dr. R. Drew Smith, director of the Metro-Urban Institute and professor of urban ministry.

Boykin’s experience working in an urban setting with ethnic, multi-cultural, and learning communities spans several decades. During this time, she served as a faculty member teaching a variety of courses focused on communication and rhetorical studies and culture and community at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, Waynesburg University, Robert Morris University, and Duquesne University. Boykin has mentored and provided academic success guidance to students of various backgrounds.

As an educational administrator, she served as regional tech prep coordinator at Community College of Allegheny County. Additionally, she worked as registrar/assistant to the academic dean for the Semester-at-Sea International Institute at the University of Pittsburgh at which time she toured regions of South America, Africa and Asia. Her research and presentations address areas of communication and rhetoric, intercultural communication, civil discourse, and diversity and inclusion. In addition, she has worked as a project director and fiscal administrative officer for family-based organizations where she handled strategic development, staffing, and compliance.

Boykin has also served in the community through the City of Pittsburgh’s Office of Community Engagement, as a group facilitator for Pittsburgh Summit Against Racism Town Hall Meetings, as a member of the Squirrel Hill Health Center Board of Directors (a federally-funded health center serving immigrant and underemployed populations), and as a member/president of the Borough of Wilkinsburg Zoning Hearing Board.

Boykin is a graduate of Duquesne University (M.A.) and University of Pittsburgh (M.Ed. and B.S.).

The Seminary’s Metro-Urban Institute engages urban intersections of religious and social life through academic and community-building resources for seminary students, urban ministries and organizations.

Rooted in the Reformed tradition and in relationship with Christ-followers from other traditions, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary forms and equips people for ministries familiar and yet to unfold and communities present and yet to be gathered.