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Ammie L. Davis has been named presi­dent and dean of Turner Theological Seminary. She will be the first woman to head the African Methodist Episcopal institution in Atlanta.

Davis currently serves as pastor of Zion Chapel AME Church in Hatties­burg, Mississippi, and as connectional first vice president of AME/Women in Ministry. She is also state director of the Child Evan­gelism Fellowship of Mississippi.

Prior to pastoring, Davis spent almost 28 years in the US Navy—14 as a hospital corpsman and 13 as a chaplain. She retired from active military service in 2016.

Elizabeth Conde-Frazier will be the next director of the Association for His­panic Theological Education, an orga­nization dedicated to promoting and improving theological education for Hispanic individuals and communities.

She has been involved with AETH since its inception in 1992 and currently serves as its coordinator of relations with theological entities.

Abdul Aziz was among ten people to receive New Zealand’s highest honor for civilian bravery on December 16, 2021. Aziz is one of two Muslim worshipers who at different times charged toward a gunman to try to stop his massacre.

Aziz survived after dodging bullets and chasing the gunman away in the 2019 attack at two Christchurch mosques, in which 51 people were killed. Naeem Rashid, the other worshiper, was killed when he tried to tackle the gunman.

The New Zealand Cross has previously been given to just two other people since it was founded in 1999.

Gloria Jean Watson, known by her pen name, bell hooks, died on December 15, 2021, at her home in Berea, Kentucky, where she was a resident professor of distinction at Berea College. She was 69. According to a statement on Twitter by her niece, Ebony Motley, she died surrounded by family and friends. The Washington Post reports that she died of end-stage renal failure.

Phil Saviano, a clergy sexual abuse survivor and whistleblower who played a pivotal role in exposing decades of predatory assaults by Roman Catholic priests in the United States, has died. He was 69.

Saviano’s story figured prominently in the 2015 Oscar-winning film Spotlight, which dramatized the Boston Globe investigation that revealed how scores of priests molested children and got away with it because church leaders covered it up.

He died on November 28 after a battle with gallbladder cancer, said his brother and caregiver, Jim Saviano.

Bridget Moix has been named the next general secretary of the Friends Com­mittee on National Legislation, a Quak­er organization that lobbies Con­gress on issues of peace, justice, and environmental stewardship.

She succeeds Diane Randall, who announced in June her intention to leave the FCNL after ten years.

Mehmet Oz, the celebrity surgeon and host of The Dr. Oz Show, has launched a campaign for Pennsylvania’s open US Senate seat. If Oz wins the Republican nomination, he will be the first Muslim to be nominated for a Senate seat by a major American political party.

The son of Turkish immigrants, Oz was a widely known cardiothoracic surgeon and Columbia University professor of medicine before rising to national prominence on television, initially as a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show before debuting his own syndicated show in 2009.