Dr. Marquisha Lawrence Scott

Marquisha is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. She centers her research, teaching, and community engagement on ensuring that community and religious congregations, are equipped to serve their identified communities (e.g., youth, marginalized communities). With a background in macro social work (MSW, Washington University in St. Louis; PhD in Social Welfare, University of Pennsylvania), community organizing and understanding religious congregations as organizations of faith and service (MDiv, Eden Theological Seminary), her work centers religious congregations as social problem solvers. During qualitative research with clergy in Philadelphia, the need to get climate change and ecojustice-based information and resources to local congregations and communities was a core focus for clergy. The Philadelphia-based interviews led to additional research in assessing what clergy and congregations across the United States are doing to bring climate work to the local level. The work with the BTS Center and EcoPreacher is another layer of evidence building to support congregations in bringing climate and environmentally-focused resources to religious congregations. Marquisha is also a collaborator at the Center for Religion and Cities (Baltimore, MD). She travels, goes on long walks, reads, and enjoys life with her husband and daughter.