HTI Alumni
Alma Tinoco Ruiz
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Homiletics and Evangelism, and Director of the Hispanic House of Studies, Duke Divinity School
Field of Study: Practical Theology, Homiletics
Dr. Tinoco Ruiz was born in Sonora, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States in 2003. Since then, she has served in the United Methodist Church (UMC), primarily doing ministry with the Hispanic/Latine community. Currently, Alma is a provisional elder in the UMC. Throughout her ministry, she has witnessed that most preachers are poorly equipped to respond to the traumatic injuries marginalized and oppressed communities experience. In contrast, she has been impressed and challenged by the effective way Saint Óscar Romero responded, through his sermons, to the traumatic injuries the marginalized and oppressed people of El Salvador were experiencing during the years he was the Archbishop of San Salvador, 1977-1980. The title of Dr. Tinoco Ruiz’s Dissertation is “Óscar Romero’s Theological, Hermeneutical, and Pastoral Framework for Preaching to Traumatized Communities”