Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland-Tune is spiritually and professionally gifted and diverse. Her passion for social justice is matched only by her desire to serve the Lord and her love for her family.
Ordained into the Gospel ministry more than 15 years ago, Dr. Copeland-Tune has worked for a number of faith-based organizations. She is the director of the Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice, a national conference that brings 1,000 faith advocates from across the country (and those who aspire to be) to the nation’s capital each year. She also serves as a senior adviser for the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative, an anti-poverty ministry, which adds a prophetic voice and collective action to the fight to end poverty. She has served in various roles for EPI since 2015, including as director.
In addition to her anti-poverty work, Dr. Copeland-Tune has also worked on a number of other issues including environmental stewardship, racial justice and reconciliation, domestic violence, human trafficking, education and health care. She serves on the board of Grace and Race Ministries, Inc., an organization founded to promote dialogue and racial understanding among Christians. Dr. Copeland-Tune has a chapter on Christian leadership in the book, Church on Purpose: Reinventing Discipleship, Community and Justice edited by Adam L. Bond and Laura Mariko Cheifetz. Her doctoral thesis, “In the Public Eye and In Harm’s Way,” focused on clergywomen’s experience of domestic violence. She has also participated in numerous workshops and panel discussions on these topics. Moreover, Dr. Copeland-Tune is quoted and listed as a “transformed nonconformist” in the book Mobilizing Hope: Faith-Inspired Activism for a Post-Civil Rights Generation by Rev. Adam R. Taylor.
Dr. Copeland-Tune—who was born and raised in Mt. Vernon, New York—earned a bachelor’s degree from the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, a MBA from the University of Maryland with a concentration in marketing, and a Master of Theological Studies from The Divinity School at Duke University. In addition, she has a doctorate in metro-urban ministry from New Brunswick Theological Seminary and attended the Summer Theology Programme at Oxford University in England. Her coursework focused on the theme, “Religion, Ethics and Public Theology.”
Dr. Copeland-Tune is blessed to have two wonderful, justice-minded children.