Rev. Cynthia Johnson-Oliver, JD, is a preacher, poet, and public servant. She is the founder of the FaithJustice Foundation, a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization formed to equip and empower faith communities to take action for social justice.
An ordained elder in the CME Church, she is currently on research sabbatical from church ministry as she writes a biography about her grandfather, Bishop Joseph A. Johnson, Jr., the first African American to graduate from Vanderbilt University. She is founder and president of the Bishop Joseph Johnson History Project, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. She has received grants from the Lilly Endowment via the Louisville Institute, Vanderbilt University, and the United Methodist General Commission on Archives and History.
Cynthia received the AB degree magna cum laude in Comparative Religion from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School. She has also studied poetry and nonfiction writing in the Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University.
Cynthia’s career has woven the threads of ministry and advocacy, religion and social justice to create a more just, more equitable world. She has served in regional and national roles in the CME Church and the United Methodist Church, including Regional Director of Evangelism and Mission of the Seventh Episcopal District, CME Church; National Organizer for Health Care Justice for the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society; National Director of Youth Ministry for the CME Church; and National Coordinator of Faith-Based Outreach for the Democratic National Committee.
For ten years, she served “on loan” to the Virginia Conference, United Methodist Church, as Associate Pastor of Adult Discipleship at Annandale United Methodist Church, where she founded the Academy of Discipleship and the FaithJustice Forum. She has also served as co-pastor of the Black Church at Yale and assistant pastor/youth pastor at Israel Metropolitan CME Church in Washington, DC.
Cynthia has been a national speaker at churches, conferences, and workshops, including a city-wide Martin Luther King, Jr. Day worship service in Hartford, Connecticut, Guest Preacher at the CME East Tennessee Annual Conference, the New York Washington Annual Conference, and Ninth Episcopal District Leadership Training School,
as well as the Plenary Speaker at a CME National Youth Conference. She spoke at health care forums sponsored by the General Board of Church and Society, Memphis Conference United Methodist Women, and Harvard Black Alumni Association.
Cynthia has written commentaries for Sojourners Magazine and the Virginia Advocate, The Christian Index, and numerous blog posts. She is a contributing author for Upper Room Disciplines 2024, to by published Fall 2023 by Upper Room Books in Nashville.
