BUCKHANNON, West Virginia – The Reverend Angela Gay Kinkead ’79 will give the Baccalaureate address at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 5 in Wesley Chapel.

Kinkead is an ordained Elder in The United Methodist Church and a member of the West Virginia Annual Conference. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Education from West Virginia Wesleyan College (1979), a master’s degree in Christian Education from Scarritt Graduate School (1986) in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Divinity degree (1997) from Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville.

Since July 2020, Kinkead has served as Pastor of Elizabeth Memorial United Methodist Church in Charleston, West Virginia. Prior to serving in Charleston, she served Pea Ridge United Methodist Church in Huntington, West Virginia for five years. Kinkead has served local churches as a Christian educator in Madison and Huntington, West Virginia and Greenbrier, Tennesee, and as part-time Minister of Congregational Care of a congregation in downtown Nashville.

For more than 15 years, she led the youth-directed agency of the United Methodist Church, the National Youth Ministry Organization, lodged within the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville. In October 2001, she returned to her alma mater, West Virginia Wesleyan College, to serve as Dean of the Chapel for the next 14 years.

During her time at WVWC, Kinkead was awarded West Virginia Wesleyan’s Community Engagement “Unsung Hero” Award, she led 11 Alternative Breaks for students, including Elektrostal, Russia; Nashville, Tennessee; New York City, Washington, D.C.; and eight work teams to post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Louisiana involving approximately 200 students, staff and faculty.

Retiring from full-time ministry at the end of June, she will relocate to Wichita, Kansas to be her brother’s next-door neighbor, and adapt to “every day being Saturday, except Sundays!”

ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA WESLEYAN COLLEGE
West Virginia Wesleyan College (WVWC) is a private, four-year residential liberal arts and sciences college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. A tradition of excellence for more than 130 years, West Virginia Wesleyan is home to 14 Fulbright Scholars. The Princeton Review ranked Wesleyan one of its 2023 Best Colleges in the Southeastern Region of the United States. U.S. News & World Report’s 2022-2023 Best College Rankings designated Wesleyan seventh in Best Value – Regional Universities (South). WVWC offers students more than 40 majors and 40 minors; graduate programs in athletic training, business administration, creative writing, and nursing; 22 NCAA Division II athletic programs; multiple performing arts groups; and more than 70 organizations. Founded in 1890, the College is closely affiliated with the United Methodist Church and abides by the Wesley doctrine that emphasizes service to others. For more information, visit wvwc.edu.