Four Pittsburgh Seminary Faculty Made Full Professors
At its May 2026 meeting, the Board of Directors of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary voted to promote Drs. Tucker Samson Ferda, Leanna K. Fuller, Scott Hagley, and Kenneth J. Woo to full professorship. Respectively, they are now Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Christianity, Joan Marshall Professor of Pastoral Care, W. Don McClure Professor of World Mission and Evangelism, and P. C. Rossin Professor of Church History and Historical Theology.
Dr. Tucker Samson Ferda is a New Testament scholar specializing in the life of Jesus and the Gospels, Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic Jewish literature, and the history of biblical interpretation. He is the author of Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins (Eerdmans, 2024) and Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), co-editor of “To Recover What Has Been Lost”: Essays on Eschatology, Intertextuality, and Reception History in Honor of Dale C. Allison Jr. (Brill, 2021), and has published several additional essays in academic journals such as Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, Journal for the Study of Judaism, and others. Dr. Ferda is committee co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Historical Jesus Section and an editorial board member of Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. He regularly leads adult education events at area churches and with other organizations, such as Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania.
Dr. Scott Hagley specializes in congregational mission and leadership, mission history, and church innovation. He is co-editor of Sustaining Grace: Innovative Ecosystems for New Faith Communities (Wipf and Stock, 2020) and author of Eat What Is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context (Urban Loft Publishers, 2019) and has published numerous additional works in academic journals such as Journal of Religious Leadership and Ecclesial Futures and popular publications such as Christian Century and The Presbyterian Outlook. Dr. Hagley serves as co-president of the Academy of Religious Leadership and co-convener for the International Consultation on Ecclesial Futures. He is a licensed pastor in the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The Rev. Dr. Leanna K. Fuller’s expertise is focused in pastoral care and counseling, congregational conflict, and death, dying, and grief. She is the author of Embodied Reconciliation: Congregational Healing as Pastoral Care (Fortress Press, 2026) and When Christ's Body is Broken: Anxiety, Identity, and Conflict in Congregations (Pickwick, 2016) and has published further works in Journal of Pastoral Theology, Journal of Religious Leadership, Ecclesiology, and others. Dr. Fuller shares her expertise in both academic venues, such as the Academy of Religious Leadership and the Society for Pastoral Theology, and non-academic contexts such as healthcare and other nonprofit organizations, denominational settings, and local congregations. She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth J. Woo is a Reformation scholar with particular expertise in the theology of John Calvin, history of biblical interpretation, and historical constructions of religious identity. He is the author of John Calvin, Refugee Theologian: Introducing a Reformer in Exile (Baker Academic, 2025) and Nicodemism and the English Calvin, 1544-1584 (Brill, 2019) and co-editor of the forthcoming John Calvin, Women, and Gender (Brill, expected 2027). His work has appeared in publications such as The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2024), John Calvin in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Harvard Theological Review, Church History and Religious Culture, and others. He has recently spoken about his work in interviews through the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, the Faith (In)Forming Podcast, and the Asian American Center at Fuller Theological Seminary. Dr. Woo is a board member of the Foundation for Theological Education in Asia and the Pacific and secretary-treasurer of the Calvin Studies Society. He is ordained in the Reformed Church in America, where he has served on the executive team and chaired the candidate and credentials committee of his classis.
“Tucker, Leanna, Scott, and Ken have been invaluable members of the faculty at Pittsburgh Seminary,” says Board Chair the Rev. Dr. Patrice Fowler-Searcy '13/'24. “Inside and outside of the classroom, they diligently invest themselves in the formation of our students and the future of the Church. The Board is very pleased to recognize the excellence of their work and eagerly anticipates their future endeavors.”