Heather Deal

Prof. Deal currently serves as the Director of Development for Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) which supports women who pursue ministry and leadership with sustaining resources and community, and advocates for the full affirmation of women in ministry and leadership in Baptist life. Previously, Prof. Deal served as the Director of Development for Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. She is a current doctoral student at the Garland School researching congregational readiness to engage in social justice activism.

She has presented at various development and fundraising conferences including The Bridge Conference which focuses on integrated marketing and fundraising. This fall she will lead a workshop titled Culture Wars in Social Work Classrooms and Beyond: How Should Social Work Educators Respond? at the CSWE Annual Program Meeting. She will also lead workshops at this fall’s NASCW Annual Meeting including Christian Nationalism and the Christian Social Worker, Promoting Sustainability in Social Work: Perspectives of Educators/Students, and Minority Stress Theory and Applications to Spirituality in LGBTQ People.

She earned her M.Div. and MSW from Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and the Garland School of Social Work where she specialized in congregational social work and wrote the “Understanding Poverty” unit for the Center for Family and Community Ministries’ Walking Alongside curriculum which helps guide congregations as they are considering how God has called them to serve their communities.