Fuller Seminary Names Director for $10 Million Theological Education Consortium

Fuller Theological Seminary has named Rev. Dr. Mycal X. Brickhouse as program director for the FORWARD Consortium, a $10 million collaboration funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. that positions the Pasadena seminary as lead institution for a seven-school network, according to a Fuller press release.

Brickhouse, currently director of programs and grants at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School, will assume the role at Fuller’s North Oakland Avenue campus in spring 2026, the press release stated. The appointment moves the consortium from its planning phase into operational execution, with day-to-day leadership based in Pasadena.

Fuller received the grant through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, which has distributed more than $700 million to 163 theological schools since 2021, according to the foundation. Fuller’s award was one of 45 large-scale collaboration grants ranging from $2.5 million to $10 million, placing it at the maximum funding level.

The consortium brings together Fuller with six partner institutions: the Association for Hispanic Theological Education, Hampton University School of Religion, Harbor Genesis Christian College, LABI College, Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University, and Western Theological Seminary, according to Fuller’s press release. Magellan Learning Solutions serves as a consulting partner.

Fuller describes the consortium’s work as organized around three strategies it calls “digital-forward connection,” “digital-forward curriculum,” and “digital-forward capacity building.”

Brickhouse holds a Doctor of Ministry and a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School, along with dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and African American studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to the press release. He has a decade of experience as an associate and senior pastor and is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the announcement stated.

“The FORWARD Consortium was built on the conviction that no single institution can meet the full complexity of what the church needs today, and Dr. Mycal Brickhouse embodies that spirit of generous collaboration,” Dr. Jeffrey F. Keuss, dean of Fuller’s School of Mission and Theology, said in the press release.

Keuss called Brickhouse “a pastor, a scholar, and a bridge-builder who understands both the urgency of this moment and the long arc of what faithful ministry formation requires,” according to the statement.

Fuller Theological Seminary, founded in 1947, is headquartered at 135 North Oakland Ave. in Pasadena, with additional campuses in Phoenix and Houston. The seminary can be reached at (626) 584-5200 or https://www.fuller.edu.

The FORWARD Consortium was formally announced in December 2025.