Brooks School Dean Will Be Inducted Into MLK Jr. Board of Preachers

NORTH ANDOVER — Terri Ofori, dean of diversity equity and inclusion at North Andover's Brooks School, is scheduled to be inducted into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College on Thursday in Atlanta.

Ofori, who began working at the Brooks School this school year, is an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church.

The Board of Preachers honors clergy from various traditions who have used their religious positions of leadership to promote peace, tolerance, interfaith understanding, healing, reconciliation, nonviolence, moral cosmopolitan social progress, agapic justice and care for the ecosystem.

Nominees are selected by former inductees, as well as Morehouse College administration, employees and alumni.

This year's induction ceremony is part of a two-day event that also includes the rededication of the King Chapel following an $11 million restoration and the 37th annual College of Ministers & Laity.

The latter event, according to the Morehouse website, is a conference in which clergy and laity from diverse backgrounds come together as students of Dr. King's philosophies and ethical principles.

The theme of this year's conference is "Saving Democracy While Thriving in the Wake of Cosmic Trauma."

Ofori previously served as college chaplain director of religious and spiritual life at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania and has been a chaplain and lecturer at Harvard University, Brown University, Wellesley College, Emerson College and Simmons University.

This past summer, Ofori explained what she hoped to bring to her new position at Brooks School.

"I hope to contribute to the vitality of discourse surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion at Brooks School by implementing a values-based model of diversity, equity and inclusion that engages the whole person — body, mind and spirit — in a meaningful change of systems and worldviews to build the beloved community," Ofori said.