Date: October 28, 2026
It is truly an honor and a delight to add the word “Doctor” to the title of our Associate Dean of Students, the Rev. Dr. Rachelle Sam. Rachelle has successfully completed her Doctor of Education at Vanderbilt University. This is an astonishing achievement under any circumstances, but especially given everything else happening in her life. Alongside the demands of doctoral study, she has welcomed a beautiful child into the world, navigated the complexities of a demanding administrative and pastoral role, and served as a key member of the leadership team during the evolving affiliation between Virginia Theological Seminary and The General Theological Seminary. Any one of these commitments would be substantial. To manage all of them simultaneously is quite extraordinary.
One of the fascinating dimensions of Rachelle’s doctoral journey is the way she has integrated her academic work with the challenges and opportunities of our institutional life. Her courses required sustained engagement with real-world questions of educational leadership, organizational change, and institutional development. For Rachelle, the affiliation between VTS and GTS became a central focus of that reflection. Indeed, I suspect that no one on planet Earth has thought more deeply, or engaged more thoroughly with the scholarly literature, about our particular affiliation than Rachelle! Her studies have not simply been an academic exercise; they have enriched our conversations, sharpened our thinking, and helped us navigate the possibilities of two historic theological institutions working together.
This is a wonderful moment for Rachelle, her family, and our entire Seminary community. A doctorate requires intellectual discipline, persistence, sacrifice, and an extraordinary capacity to keep going when the demands of life are pressing in from every direction. Rachelle has demonstrated all these qualities, alongside the warmth, wisdom, and pastoral sensitivity that make her such a valued colleague. We are enormously proud of her achievement and grateful for the gifts she brings to our common life. Congratulations, Dr. Sam! You have earned those two additional letters after your name, and we could not be more delighted to celebrate with you.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary.