Lisa Asedillo (she/hers) is an ethicist and liturgist with research interests in decolonial/postcolonial feminist theory, transpacific and Asian American Christian Ethics, and Philippine studies. With support from the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Lisa also co-founded New Day Church in the Bronx, New York in 2009 — a vibrant, queer, anti-racist and boundary-crossing faith community (www.newdaychurch.nyc) — serving in various roles, including Assistant Pastor of Inviting and Welcoming and Chair of Worship, for over a decade. Given her mixed race heritage, queer identity, and transnational upbringing, she takes seriously that her particular embodiment gestures back towards painful colonial history, and also towards a particular experience with something to offer the work of solidarity, community building and ritual, and spiritually-rooted leadership development.
Lisa earned her MDiv at Union Theological Seminary, and her PhD at Drew University in the Religion and Society area. Lisa’s co-authored chapter, “Becoming Asian American Christian Ethicists,” is included in Asian and Asian American Women’s Contributions to Theology and Religious Studies: Embodying Knowledge, edited by Dr. Kwok Pui Lan (2020); and she is a contributor to INHERITANCE magazine, which amplifies the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience of Christianity. Lisa is also a board member of Pacific Asian North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM), an organization for education, mentoring, and networking that was founded in 1984.
Lisa loves poetry and art, writing workshops, public performance, tending to plants and learning about various healing modalities. A former track athlete, she also loves running and co-founded a community running crew in the Bronx called the Bronx Nomads in 2018 — they continue to meet every week if you are ever in the area. She also loves playing guitar and has a hard time not opening an academic lecture with a song, poem, or lament.
Lisa now lives in Oakland with her partner, Cat, many houseplants, and usually at least one or two dogs (they are popular pet sitters). After living in New York City for most of her adult life, she is excited to live in the Bay Area and work at PSR where her parents met as students in 1980 — so although she is new to the area, it is also a kind of “return.”
