Faculty Bios

Alice Ogden Bellis, Ph.D. Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature

Alice Ogden Bellis is professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Howard University School of Divinity, where she has been on the faculty of her alma mater since 1989. Her research interests are in women of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Hebrew prophets, and African presence in and influence on the Hebrew Bible. She has written extensively and authored several books. Her first, "Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes: Women's Stories in the Hebrew Bible," was published by Westminster/John Knox in l994. In 2002, Pilgrim Press published "Science, Scripture, and Homosexuality," which she co-authored with Professor Emeritus Terry Hufford of George Washington University. Dr. Bellis was ordained in the old Presbyterian Church, US (southern) in l974 and joined National Capital Presbytery the following year. She served first as part-time Protestant chaplain at Catholic University, then from l977 to l991 as Associate Pastor at Providence Presbyterian Church of Fairfax, Va. There she was twice acting Head of Staff during interim periods. She attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, graduated from Duke University in l971 with a B.A. magna cum laude in religion; from Howard University School of Divinity in l974 with an M.Div. cum laude; and from the Catholic University of America with an M.A. in l977 and a Ph.D. in l986 in Semitic languages. Dr. Bellis is the mother of two adult daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, both attorneys. She lives in Darnestown, Md., with her husband Jeffrey Nicoll, a physicist. She is an avid cyclist, and enjoys entertaining friends, reading, and working on her house and yard.