The Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon

Denomination: United Church of Christ (UCC)
Organization: Friends Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, College Station, TX

Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon is Pastor of Friends Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in College Station, Texas. Friends is an Open & Affirming church whose vision is to offer God's extravagant welcome to all.

In June of 2013, Rev. De Leon became the Vice President of the South Central Conference of the UCC. He is also on the Nominating Committee for the national UCC through 2017, serving as Vice Chair for the Nom Com's 2014-15 biennium to the UCC's General Synod.

In the community known as "Aggieland," Rev. De Leon serves as an Aggie Allie, providing support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students of Texas A&M University. In April of 2013, Rev. De Leon was awarded the Phyllis R. Frye Advocacy Award by the Department of Multicultural Services at TAMU for showing "great leadership in the advancement of GLBTI (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Intersex) civil rights at the infrastructural and/or interpersonal level."

Since 2006, Rev. De Leon has served on the Dialog Institute of the Southwest Board (formerly the Institute for Interfaith Dialog) in Bryan-College Station, seeking to foster constructive relationships across the lines of culture and religion. In November of 2013, he was awarded the Dialog Institute of the Southwest's Peace Award for working "locally, nationally, and internationally as a bridge-builder and peacemaker in areas of interfaith dialog, sexual orientation and gender identity, race relations and care for immigrants, eco-justice and sustainability, homelessness and hunger."

In that same spirit of ecumenism, Rev. De Leon has served on the Board for United Campus Ministry of Aggieland since 2005, which ministers to college students of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ on the campuses of Texas A&M University and Blinn Junior College of Bryan.

Rev. De Leon previously served for six years as the Associate Minister to Youth at Highland Park Baptist Church in Austin, Texas, and, prior to that, as the Interim Youth Minister at First Baptist Church of Austin. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism in Public Relations from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He was ordained into the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on January 20, 2002.

Rev. De Leon is married to Stacy De Leon, and they are proud parents to son, Mac, born in March of 2005 and daughter Ruthie born in January 2008.