WILMORE, KY—Asbury Theological Seminary is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gregg A. Okesson as the Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Okesson currently serves as the Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Seminary. Since 2012 he has served as the Dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism, and is the Ira Gallaway and D.M. Beeson Professor of Leadership Development, Mission and Evangelism. Dr. Okesson brings extensive experience in global Christianity, academic leadership, and is widely heralded as a leading thinker in public missiology.

Dr. Okesson is the author of several books. His most recent book, A Public Missiology: How Local Churches Witness to a Complex World won Christianity Today’s 2021 Book of the Year award in the Missions/Global Church category. It was also named by the International Bulletin of Mission Research as one of the top ten outstanding books in mission studies, intercultural theology and world Christianity. The book also won the 2020 Book Award for Excellence in Missiology from the American Society of Missiology.

Dr. Okesson was a church planter in Tanzania and later served for 10 years as the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Scott Christian University, Kenya. Since 2019, Dr. Okesson has been the Presidential Envoy and Director of Global Partnerships at Asbury Seminary. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Baltic Methodist Theological Seminary in Estonia, and is part of a multi-cultural church plant in Lexington, Ky.

“I am so pleased that Gregg has accepted my invitation to serve as the next Provost of Asbury Theological Seminary,” Dr. Timothy C. Tennent, President of Asbury Seminary, said.  “Dr. Okesson brings a wealth of academic and global experience which is essential as we approach our centennial and look forward to how to best serve an increasingly diverse and global world.”

Dr. Okesson is married to Kim and they have two adult children, Isaiah and Anna.  Dr. Okesson will begin his new position immediately.