Padilla DeBorst Presented with Gunter Servant-Leader Award

At a recent ceremony, Trevecca presented its 2025 Nina Griggs Gunter Servant-Leader Award to Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst.
The school also announced the student winner and finalists for the Nina Griggs Gunter Leadership Scholarship.

Padilla DeBorst serves as the Richard C. Oudersluys associate professor of world Christianity at Western Theological Seminary. For decades, she has worked to advance theological education and leadership development across Latin America through her work with Resonate Global Mission, the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI) and the International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation (INFEMIT). She is a theologian who is passionate about social and ecological justice and has written extensively on these themes. She lives in Costa Rica with her husband, James, as part of Casa Adobe, an intentional Christian community.

At the ceremony, she spoke on the prominent role of women in the New Testament and urged the global church to continue recognizing and celebrating the gifts and leadership of women.

"Women like the apostle Junia, like my mother and the women scholars honored today, join countless others through history and across the globe in servant leadership," Padilla DeBorst said. "Not because they are women, not because they're seeking to prove any ideological point, but because the Holy Spirit has gifted them."

The award was established by family and friends of Dr. Nina Griggs Gunter, a 1958 Trevecca alumna and the first female general superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene.

During the ceremony, Trevecca also announced student Michelle Loria Alvarado as the winner of the Nina Griggs Gunter Leadership Scholarship, which is awarded to a current female student who embodies leadership and service in their work at Trevecca and in the community. Five other student finalists were recognized and will also receive scholarship awards: Briley Daniels, Chane' DeBeer, Salama Edita, Kristin Gregory and McKenna Smith.

The first Gunter Award was presented to its namesake in 2009.