Two doctoral students researching how to apply Christian ethics to congregational life have been awarded scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year by the T.B. Maston Foundation.
Sheila Anderson, a Doctor of Ministry student in Wake Forest University’s Divinity School and Erica Whitaker, Doctor of Philosophy student at the International Baptist Studies Center, each will receive a $5,000 scholarship, announced David Morgan, executive director of the foundation.
The Maston Foundation, chartered in 1986, perpetuates the teaching and legacy of its namesake, a renowned professor of Christian ethics and Baptist champion of racial justice in the 20th century. The foundation awards scholarships to graduate students majoring in Christian ethics. It also conducts retreats, including one annually for undergraduate students, called Young Maston Scholars.
By awarding scholarships to doctoral-level students, the Maston Foundation seeks to encourage ongoing leadership and scholarship in the field of Christian ethics, Morgan said. It also attempts to challenge other Baptists to live out an authentic Christlike ethic.
Anderson and Whitaker are the 32nd and 33rd Maston scholarship recipients since the foundation began presenting scholarships in 1982.
“Sheila Anderson brings ministry experience and legal background to investigating how churches might employ and model best business practices in their mandate to serve as a visible light to the world,” noted Kris Norris, program consultant for the Center for Public Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary and co-chair of the Maston Foundation’s Scholarship Committee.
“Her practical and meaningful work seeks to ensure that congregations utilize the most ethical practices, as her project works to construct a church operation manual that conforms to an ethical business model.”
Anderson is the interim staff attorney for the Maryland Center for Legal Assistance and an e-discovery attorney and consultant in private practice in Baltimore. She has been an attorney-adviser for the U.S. Social Security Administration and a contract attorney specializing in legal discovery.
She was the chief business officer for Reid Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church in Glenn Dale, Maryland. She has also taught at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Anderson earned an undergraduate degree from Duke University, a law degree from Villanova University School of Law, and master’s degrees from Temple University School of Law and Villanova University School of Business. She expects to complete her Doctor of Ministry degree from Wake Forest in 2027.
“Erica Whitaker is conducting an ethnographic research project on symbols of whiteness in Baptist congregations,” Norris said. “This work could not be more important in our current reality. As current cultural trends suggest, we should move on from our past racial oppressions.
“Whitaker’s research enjoins us to dive into the way Baptist churches have been shaped by representations of whiteness, and it seeks answers to how we might engage in repair for those sins.”
Whitaker is the director of development at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, where she also serves as a teaching professor of preaching, Christianity and culture, and is the associate director of the Institute for Black Church Studies. She has been an African-American history instructor at Simmons College and the University of Kentucky.
She is the interim pastor at Mumfordville Presbyterian Church in Mumfordville, Kentucky, and previously served as the senior pastor at Buechel Park Baptist Church in Louisville.
Whitaker earned an undergraduate degree from the University of North Texas, studied Clinical Pastoral Education in the Methodist Health System in Dallas, and earned a master’s degree from Baylor University’s George W. Truett Seminary. She expects to complete her Ph.D. degree from the International Baptist Studies Center in 2026.
Applications for the 2026-27 Maston Foundation scholarships open this fall. To access the application form, click here.
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Founding Coordinator (retired) of Fellowship Southwest, an intentionally ecumenical, multicultural, multiracial Cooperative Baptist Fellowship network, and a member of Good Faith Media’s strategic advisory board for news and opinion.
