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A longtime administrator with the United Methodist Church’s Board of Higher Education and Ministry will be the guest speaker at Martin Methodist College’s annual Convocation on Religion and Race, set for Tuesday, Jan. 29.

Angella Current-Felder, who served as the Board of Higher Education and Ministry’s executive director of the Office of Loans and Scholarships from 1985 until her retirement in 2010, will give the convocation address.

The event will be held at 9:30 a.m. in the Curry Christian Life Center, and the public is invited. There is no admission charge.

Current-Felder, a resident of Nashville, had a distinguished career of service for more than 40 years, after earning degrees from Morgan State College and the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work, beginning with assignments in Ann Arbor, Mich., Philadelphia, Pa., and Washington, D.C. From 1973-75, she worked in Richmond, Va., as a senior planner for the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Intergovernmental Affairs and as a director and instructor of the Urban Studies program at Virginia Union University.

From 1975-85, she served as executive director for Shiloh Family Life Center and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., both in Washington, D.C., and the Northern Virginia Urban League in Alexandria, Va.

Then, in 1985, she joined the UMC’s Board of Higher Education and Ministry, where she was responsible for the administration and management of the Office of Loans and Scholarships, which awards approximately $6 million in loans and scholarships to more than 3,500 students each year.

While in that position, she also served as the agency liaison for the Endowment Fund Campaign for Africa University, the institution established by the United Methodist Church in 1988. She also provided technical and programmatic support to the school’s Board of Directors.

Following her retirement, she was elected to the Africa University Board of Directors in March 2011.

She has published two books, “Breaking Barriers: An African American Family and the Methodist Story,” and “The School of Dreams in the Valley of Hope: The Africa University Story,” published in April 2012 in commemoration of the university’s 20th anniversary.

For more information about the convocation, contact the Rev. Laura Kirkpatrick McMasters, campus minister, at 931-363-9825.