What do events that featured the late Rev. James Lawson, entertainers George Clinton and Garth Brooks, poet Nikki Finney, author Jim Wallis and other distinguished individuals all have in common?
They are among many community-centered programs at Vanderbilt Divinity School that Sha’Tika Brown has helped craft and elevate. As senior program manager, Brown is committed to building and strengthening the Divinity School’s formidable relationships in Middle Tennessee and beyond.
“The events that we host—whether at the Divinity School or in the broader community—represent the Divinity School’s commitment to programing that is deeply relevant and public facing as we respond to what is happening in the world,” Brown said.
A Nashville native, Brown earned a bachelor of arts from Clark Atlanta University and worked in human resources for Coca Cola Enterprises before joining the Divinity School in the early 2000s. “Early in my time at VDS, I recognized the need for someone who could manage events across program foci,” Brown said. She drafted her own job description, successfully pitching the idea to then-Dean James Hudnut-Beumer and other school leaders.
Fast forward two decades and radical hospitality continues to be a priority for Dean Yolanda Pierce and the Divinity School community. Brown’s multifaceted role ranges from brainstorming with program directors in the planning stages, coordinating big picture logistics including serving as liaison with partners, designing the space for programs, and developing promotion strategies.
“The opportunity to work with influential scholars, artists and community people is a privilege I deeply appreciate,” Brown said. “For example, I never imagined George Clinton, mastermind of the Parliament-Funkadelic Collective, coming to the Divinity School until one of our students, Terrance Dean, MTS’14, MA’18, PhD’19, proposed a symposium on Afro-Futurism in Black Theology.
The symposium was a creative and well-attended event that engaged a very diverse audience. “It was exciting for local community members because, while George Clinton is known for his larger-than-life, energetic stage performances, the funk music pioneer was genuine and down to earth in real life,” Brown said.
Nine years later she worked with singer-songwriters Garth Brooks and Stephanie Davis for a public conversation on the continuing importance of their song, “We Shall Be Free.” The VDS-hosted event was held at Langford Auditorium to a full
audience representing many sectors of the Middle Tennessee community. “Our Associate Dean Jimmy Byrd initially broached the idea with then-Dean Emilie Townes. I was thrilled to work with Brooks’ team, and meeting him was just amazing,” she said.
Another favorite memory for Brown began shortly after activist Bree Newsome scaled a 30-foot flagpole to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house grounds. “VDS had received funding for work in transformative justice, so I suggested to Dean Townes that we invite Newsome to speak at Benton Chapel,” Brown said. “She said, ‘Go for it.’ I was able to reach her and plan what turned out to be a wonderful and inspiring talk.”
The launch of the James Lawson Institute in 2022 felt like a full-circle moment for Brown, who remembered when the Rev. Lawson, one of the university’s and Divinity School’s most revered alumni, returned to campus in 2006 as a Distinguished Professor.
“When the Rev. Lawson came to campus to help celebrate the institute, he took time to engage with our students—many of whom were discerning how to be involved in public religious leadership,” Brown said. “Working with the director to create spaces for
conversations and teach-ins made for a very full and complex program. The Rev. Lawson moved between each event with such graciousness and passion. These are among my special memories of Lawson.”
Brown is grateful for the unique spaces in which her role places her as she works with speakers who have a rich legacy to not only in relationship to the university, but very often the world.