FROM THE STAGE TO THE PULPIT

Mia looks for ways to integrate the diversity of her interests, passions and callings for the sake of life and liberation.

 A native of New Orleans, Mia danced her way onto the stage at two years old and began her love affair with music shortly after, studying classical piano, voice, and violin. She went on to graduate of Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and pursued a career in the performing arts that took her to many stages around the US. A proud member of the Actor's Equity Association, Mia has appeared in Hairspray, Ain’t Misbehavin’, All Shook Up, Sistas: The Musical, and more.

Mia is a published songwriter, arranger, composer, and member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In addition to producing personal projects, she has written and produced for artists, groups, and churches, including jazz-pop singer Lori Pasqualino, The United Church of Christ, and Groovestand A Cappella.

Mia holds a degree from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts where she explored the intersection of performance arts and black identity politics. Her thesis presentation was an original one-woman interactive performance piece entitled Color Me. She is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York with a Master of Divinity degree where she concentrated on homiletics and psychology. While at Union, she was active in the Black Women’s Caucus and was the recipient of the Jonathan Kneeland Preaching Fellowship and the Karen Ziegler Feminist Preaching Prize.

A licensed Baptist minister and ordained in the United Church of Christ, Mia currently serves as the Senior Pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. where she is the first African American and first woman to serve in the role in the church’s 165-year history. Prior to Riverside DC, Mia served as the Associate Minister of Faith Formation and Outreach at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Interim Director of Children’s Ministries at Fort Washington Collegiate Church in New York City.

She is the recipient of the Innovation Grant (2021), awarded by the Foundations of Christian Leadership program at Duke Divinity School, which enabled research and production around decolonizing liturgical practice and space, and she launched a 4-week course entitled Decolonizing Liturgy. Most recently, she has served as liturgist and songwriter for the United Church of Christ at General Synod 34, and for the United Church of Canada + United Church of Christ Advent Unwrapped 2022 and 2023 projects.

Highlights