Dr. Leah Gunning Francis is a seminary dean, mother and the author of two books about clergy involvement in the Ferguson uprising and the pursuit of racial justice. She currently serves as the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. As a mother of two African American sons, she has grounded her scholarship and activism in an ethic of love that honors the humanity of black youth in a society that too often has little regard for them. Her starting point as a practical theologian is the imago dei, that all people are created in the image of God, and fashions her teaching and preaching to posit this as a core tenet for building beloved community. For Dr. Gunning Francis, faith and justice are inextricably linked. The life of faith call us to do justice, and the work of justice requires us to accept that the way things are, are not the way things have to be – and have the courage to do something about it.