Ryan Dowell Baum: Trainer

Contact Information:

Phone: 510-681-7498

Ryan Dowell Baum recently completed his second year in the Masters of Divinity program at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley.  He is dually affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the United Church of Christ, a member of Johannesburg Monthly Meeting of Friends in South Africa and in care as a minister-in-formation with First Congregational UCC of Oakland, California.

Originally from Albany, New York, Ryan spent his childhood and teenage years as an actor working mostly in stage and television productions.  While earning his undergraduate degree in drama from New York University, he traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to study the cultural impact of performance poetry in the struggle against apartheid and in building the new post-apartheid South Africa.  During his time there, Ryan became actively involved in the ministry of the Johannesburg Quaker community, helping to use theater to educate township youth about HIV and AIDS, and volunteering to operate a mobile soup kitchen in inner-city Johannesburg.  It was here that Ryan felt his call to ministry.

Upon returning to the States, Ryan began applying to seminaries, eventually choosing to attend PSR for its strong social justce curriculum and its urban location.

During the 2007-'08 academic year, Ryan will be working jointly with First Congregational Church of Oakland and Pace e Bene to develop his skills in the areas of pastoral care and community nonviolence education.  Working in collaboration with Rev. Lynice Pinkard in West Oakland and Rev. Sally Juarez in the High Street neighborhood, Ryan hopes to build relationships with community members, especially youth, who are caught in cycles of violence, in order to provide compssionate pastoral presence and training in community and self transformation through active nonviolence.

Ryan married his wife, Molly, in August 2007.