Phoebe Alison Roaf

Roaf was consecrated bishop on May 4, 2019, at Hope Church (a congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church) in Memphis, used because of its large facilities, something no area Episcopal parish had. At the time of her election as bishop she was rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, the largest historically African American Episcopal Church in Virginia. She was the first African American woman to be ordained a priest in the Diocese of Louisiana and is the first African American woman to serve as an Episcopal bishop in the South.[1][2][3][4]

Roaf received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, concentrating in history. She later earned a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit for two years. She worked as a commercial real estate attorney in New Orleans before deciding to enter the ministry of the Episcopal Church. She studied for the ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary, receiving the M.Div. degree in 2008. She is the first woman and the first African American to serve as bishop in West Tennessee.[1][2][3][4]