Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
Executive DirectorThe Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis is a theologian, author, pastor, and anti-poverty organizer. She is Founder and Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. Rev. Dr. Theoharis is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), co-pastor of the Freedom Church of the Poor, and teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Rev. Dr. Theoharis is the co-author of You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons from the Movement to End Poverty (Beacon, 2025), co-editor of We Pray Freedom: Liturgies and Rituals from the Freedom Church of the Poor (Broadleaf Press, 2025), editor of We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People’s Campaign (Broadleaf Press, 2021), author of Always with Us?: What Jesus Really Said about the Poor (Eerdmans, 2017) and co-author of Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing (Beacon, 2018). She has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Politico, The Hill, The Guardian, The Nation, Boston Review, CNN, Religion News Service, Sojourners, Religion Dispatches, the Grio, La Jornada, Salon, Slate, and elsewhere.
The recipient of numerous recognitions and awards including the 30th Annual Freedom Award by the National Civil Rights Museum, Selma “Bridge” Award, the Hunger Leadership Award from the Congressional Hunger Center, Women of Faith Award by the Presbyterian Church (USA), and Villanova Peace Award, Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been named one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress, one of 11 Women Shaping the Church by Sojourners, one of the Politico 50 “thinkers, doers and visionaries whose ideas are driving politics,” and more.
Rev. Dr. Theoharis has been organizing among poor and low-income communities for thirty years with organizations such as the National Union of the Homeless, the National Welfare Rights Union, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Domestic Workers United and many more. She is co-founder and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Raised in a family committed to social justice, civil liberties and human rights, she has been involved in the movement for her whole life.
Rev. Dr. Theoharis received her BA in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania; her M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in 2004 where she was the first William Sloane Coffin Scholar; and her PhD from Union in New Testament and Christian Origins.
[Download headshot. Photo Credit: Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis by Stephen Pavey]
