Rev. Dr. Perzavia T. Praylow

Director of Black Church Studies;
Assistant Professor of Historical Theology and Black Church Studies;
Director of the Black Church Cornerstone Collaborative

Drew University, BA; The University of Illinois, MA in Education Policy Studies, MA in History, PhD in History; Columbia Theological Seminary, MDIV; Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, STM.

The Reverend Dr. Perzavia Praylow, PhD is a minister of Word and Sacrament ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She serves as Director of Black Church Studies and Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she teaches courses in Black Church Studies and Practical Theology. Dr. Praylow also directs the Black Church Cornerstone Collaborative, a seminary-based initiative that equips and empowers Black church leaders serving in rural and small-town communities across the region.
A historian, practical theologian, and teacher-scholar, Dr. Praylow’s vocation lies at the intersection of teaching, scholarship, and pastoral leadership. She joined the Louisville Seminary faculty in July 2024. Prior to this appointment, she served at Howard University School of Divinity as Director of Contextual Theology and adjunct professor of Field Education, and previously as Assistant Professor of American History at Augusta University in Georgia. Her pastoral leadership includes service as Pastor of Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church and Interim Pastor of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, both in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Praylow earned her PhD in American History, MA in Education Policy, and MA in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; her Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary; her Master of Sacred Theology from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary; and her BA in History from Drew University. Her scholarly work centers on twentieth-century race relations, American religious history, African American social equality, and the history of education. Her current book project, Carrying the Load: Black Presbyterian Women and Mission in the Rural South, examines the leadership and theological witness of Black Presbyterian women in rural ministry contexts. She is also completing a second book project, Fisk University, Black Colleges, and the Socialization of Students for Race Leadership Since Reconstruction, which explores the role of historically Black colleges and universities in shaping African American leadership and civic engagement.

Dr. Praylow is an active member of the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Black Women Historians, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the American Society of Church History, the Association of Practical Theology, and the Academy of Religious Leadership, and she participates in the Network for Ecclesiology and Ethnography.

She is deeply committed to teaching, scholarship, preaching, mentoring, and coaching, and to equipping congregations and leaders for faithful, transformative, and justice-oriented ministry in the church and the world.