Rochelle-Stephens, Bria

Bria Rochelle returned to her alma mater to serve on the Huntingdon faculty in 2021 after completing her Master of Divinity degree at Duke Divinity School. As an undergraduate at Huntingdon, Ms. Rochelle was deeply involved in all walks of student and academic life, serving as captain of the volleyball team; an inaugural member of the beach volleyball team; a member and chaplain for Alpha Omicron Pi women’s fraternity; a Huntingdon Ambassador and Orientation Leader; and a Huntingdon Leadership Academy Mentor. She was a recipient of the College’s prestigious Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and was selected as Homecoming Queen in 2017, the first Black student to win that recognition. She served as a pastoral intern at First United Methodist Church-Montgomery as an undergraduate and again while at Duke Divinity School at FAM Houston NGO in Houston, Texas, and at Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was elected as a class representative to the Divinity School Council and served as co-president of the Council. She was also elected by her peers to serve as the Divinity School’s Orientation preacher for the 2020–2021 academic year and was invited to preach for the United Methodist Church Exploration Conference in 2019. She preached the sermon for Huntingdon’s Baccalaureate service during Commencement Weekend in 2019.