Renita J. Weems (born 1954) is an American Protestant biblical scholar, theologian, author and ordained minister.
She is recognized as one of the first scholars to bring black women's ways of reading and interpreting the Bible into mainstream academic discourse.
In 1989 she received a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies from Princeton Theological Seminary making her the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the field.
She was one of the many female econ majors (FEMS) trained and mentored by the feminist economics professor at Wellesley, Carolyn Shaw Bell, who enrolled in MBA programs and worked in executive jobs on Wall Street in unprecedented numbers beginning in the 1970s.
Upon graduation from Wellesley, Weems worked for a short time for Coopers & Lybrand Public Accounting Firm and later as a broker for Merrill Lynch.
degree she would like the men in her class to be hired in some area of full-time parish ministry but when church doors remained closed to her because she was a woman, she had to come up with a Plan B.
[2] Weems is featured in Black Stars: African American Religious Leaders (2008), a collection of biographies of some of the most notable Black religious leaders over the last 200 years, including such figures as Adam Clayton Powell, Elijah Muhammad, Sojourner Truth, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King Jr.