Dr. Gregory S. Gray Sr. has served as ۿ۴ýUniversity’s dean of the Chapel and university professor of religion and society since his appointment in 1999. In this role, he supports the university’s vision and mission through five areas of concentration: All-University Worship (including Faith Week); religious studies; pastoral care and counseling; administration of the chapel staff and facility; and community outreach. He chairs the university’s Convocations and Special Events Committee (which includes planning for spring and summer commencement exercises) and is a member of the Council of Deans. In addition, he worked for 10 years with the ۿ۴ýUniversity National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care and holds a certificate in bioethics from the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.
For 18 years, he served on the faculty of Morehouse College, teaching in the departments of Philosophy & Religion and Psychology. He has also taught at Emory College, Atlanta University, Clark-Atlanta University, and Morris Brown College.
An ordained Protestant clergyman, Dr. Gray has served congregations in Indiana, Georgia and Alabama. As the Theater Guild director of Atlanta’s Friendship Baptist Church, he produced a number of plays that included James Baldwin’s “Amen Corner,” Emily Mann’s “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” Neil Simon’s “God’s Favorite,” Thornton Wilder’s “The Long Christmas Dinner,” Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” and Jeff Stetson’s “The Meeting.”
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Manchester University, a master of divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center’s Morehouse School of Religion, and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree from Emory University’s Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts. With academic training at Emory’s Psychoanalytic Institute and the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, Dr. Gray’s career experience includes additional appointments at the Georgia Mental Health Institute and Georgia Regional (Psychiatric) Hospital. He has published scholarly articles in the areas of psychoanalysis and religious studies.
His professional development includes the Harvard University School of Education’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education and the American Association of State College and Universities’ Millennium Leadership Initiative. His professional memberships have included the American Academy of Religion, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Anthropological Association, and the National Association of College and University Chaplains.
He is married to Linda Dianne Gray, student loan specialist at ۿ۴ýUniversity, and together they have two adult children and one grandson.