Dean, Auburn Theological Seminary, NY
Board Member, American Academy of Religion, Co-Dean (volunteer), Freedom Seminary, Children’s Defense Fund.
Author of The Purpose Gap: Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and Thrive (2021) winner of the NetVUE Council of Independent Colleges Big Book Read for 2022.
Children’s Defense Fund selected Reyes’s first book Nobody Cries When We Die as the inaugural book for the CDF Book Club in 2019. Nobody Cries was the Hispanic Theological Initiative’s book prize winner in 2019.
A Chicano writer, theologian, and executive leader, Patrick B. Reyes, Ph.D., Auburn Theological Seminary’s Dean, and the bestselling and award-winning author of The Purpose Gap and Nobody Cries When We Die. Prior to joining Auburn, he worked in administration in higher education and the faith-based non-profit sector. Patrick provides leadership on several boards in theological and higher education, publications, and the nonprofit sector, supporting the next generation of Black, Indigenous, and Chicano spiritual and cultural leaders. He is a current board director for the American Academy of Religion and serves as the Co-Dean of the Freedom Seminary for the Children’s Defense Fund. He is a past board president of the Religious Education Association.
In the last decade, he has been recognized for his service and scholarship by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Boston University, Drew University, Duke Leadership, Children’s Defense Fund, Hispanic Theological Initiative, Hispanic Youth Leadership Academy, and Raices Latinas, among others. His publications can be found in peer-reviewed journals, popular platforms, and contributed to several anthologies. He has offered endowed lectureships and public keynotes across North America.
Patrick was recently inducted into the Morehouse College MLK Jr. Collegium of Scholars. The Council of Independent Colleges NetVUE selected The Purpose Gap as the Big Read for 2022-2023. Because of the NetVUE selection, several institutions in higher education are becoming “purpose gap” institutions.
Patrick holds a doctorate and master’s from Claremont School of Theology, an M.Div. from Boston University School of Theology, and is a proud graduate of California State University, Sacramento. He also holds certificates from IDEO, Harvard Business School, Institute for the Future, and the Center for Creative Leadership. He spends time in New York for Auburn and lives on ancestral land in New Mexico, embracing the cultural and religious traditions and communities he and his family inherit and belong to.
