Daniel Ramirez, Ph.D.

Dr. Daniel Ramirez obtained his Ph.D. in American Religious History from Duke University in 2005. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies. His areas of research and teaching include religions of the Southwest borderlands and migration, with a special interest in the history of religious contact, conflict, and conversion in the Americas and in the transnational and cultural dimensions of religious practice. Of particular interest are the role of music as a religious or symbolic remittance and catalyst for religious change and the question of indigenous conversion. Dr. Ramirez has authored many articles on the history and culture of Latino and Latin American Pentecostalism and Pentecostalism for several anthologies and journals. His current book project, "Migrating Faiths: A Social and Cultural History of Pentecostalism in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands," examines the origins and growth of early 20th-century Mexican/Chicano Pentecostalism and its more contemporary counterpart within the Oaxacan homeland and diaspora known as "Oaxacalifornia." Ramírez holds a M.A. degree in Religion from Duke University, and completed his undergraduate studies at Yale College. He has held visiting researcher positions at the Colegio de Jalisco, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Oaxaca and Mexico City (Seminario Permanente de Estudios Chicanos y de Fronteras, DEAS-INAH), and the Centers for U.S.-Mexican Studies/Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California San Diego. Relevant fellowships and research projects include funding from the Hispanic Theological Initiative, Mexico-North Research Network, the Social Science Research Council, and the U.S. Department of Education. He is an active participant in the Red de Investigadores del Fenómeno Religioso en México and a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Society for Pentecostal Studies. Ramirez’s deep familial roots (clergy and lay) in the Latino Apostolic movement continue to inform his perspective on the imperatives of Christian solidarity with the stranger, sojourner, and immigrant on the modern Jericho and Emmaus roads.

Rev. Gabriel Salguero

The Rev. Gabriel Salguero is the director of the Hispanic/Latino Leadership Program at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center of Continuing Education. Rev. Salguero received his M.Div.(magna cum laude)from New Brunswick Theological Seminary and is a Ph.D. candidate in Christian social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He and his wife, Jeanette, co-pastor the multicultural Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene in New York City. He serves on the board of Sojourners and is a member of the Latino Leadership Circle. He also serves as a member of the Equal Employment Advisory Commission for the state of New Jersey. Salguero has a two-year-old son and enjoys basketball and reading.

Mark W. Wethington, Ph.D.

Dr. Wethington was born in Durham, North Carolina but was raised the first nine years of his life in the Philippine Islands where his parents served as Methodist missionaries. Dr. Wethington has a BA in Philosophy and Religion from American University in Washington, DC; an M.Div. from the Duke University Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies and Christian Origins, with a minor in Christian Theology, from Duke University. He did one year of his doctoral studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. He served for 27 years as a local pastor of United Methodist congregations in North Carolina and also served for 18 years as part-time adjunct faculty at Duke University Divinity School. In October 2005, he became President of the Wesley Heritage Foundation, Inc., a non-profit ministry in theological education that works in Hispanic ministry, mostly among Latinos/as in both Central and South America, and predominantly among the Methodist Church in Latin America. Over his years of ministry he has been strongly engaged in “practical divinity,” having initiated a number of non-profit ministries, including a program for homeless families in Moore County, as well as a free medical clinic in Moore County (a clinic which offers free medical care and prescriptions to persons who are uninsured and who are low income). He also teamed with the late Professor Frederick Herzog in establishing a covenant relationship between the North Carolina Conference of the UMC and the Iglesia Metodista del Peru (active for 18 years now), as well as between the Duke Divinity School and arms of theological education within the IMP. The Wesley Heritage Foundation, Inc. began its ministry in 1989 and completed its first major project in 2000, which was the translation, publication and distribution of Wesley’s Works into Spanish, Obras de Wesley (14 volumes).   

Rev. Josefina “Cookie” Santiago

American by birth, Latino by heritage, Rev. Josefina “Cookie” Santiago brings an unequaled passion to the spectrum of Hispanic/Latino ministries in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church in her role as director. In addition to her role in the North Carolina Conference, Santiago serves as a consultant for the General Board of Global Ministries – National Plan for Hispanic/ Latino Ministries. Rev. Santiago’s life is a celebration of the diversity of the people that she leads in ministry. She amplifies empowerment of all people to be in ministry to those who are considered to be “the least of these”, teaching, encouraging, training, and equipping people from all walks of life, races, and places to embrace our brothers and sisters of Hispanic/Latino heritage.

Rev. Santiago is the creator of E.M.B.R.A.C.E. (Empowering Ministry to Bridge, Reach out, and Affirm Cultural Esteem). Purposely omitting the words Hispanic or Latino in the acronym, the focus is to reach out and “embrace” all of our brothers and sisters from all places, celebrating their diversity, accepting their culture and uniting all people as one in the family of God.

Rev. Santiago’s ultimate goal is to move the people of United Methodist Church in the NC Conference to the place where we worship together as one. She dreams of the day that every church in the conference offers bilingual Bibles in the pews, Mil Voices displayed as prominently as The UnitedMethodist Hymnal and all of God’s children worshipping and working together with their unique heritages, languages, and traditions to proclaim the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to all people.  

Edgardo Colon-Emeric, Ph.D.

Dr. Edgardo Colon-Emeric is Assistant Research Professor of Theology and Hispanic Studies and Director of the Hispanic Studies Program at Duke University Divinity School. He has earned the M.Div and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University.