The Rev. Dr. Toni Dunbar is a founding elder and the Pastor of Education at City of Refuge United Church of Christ in Oakland, California. She holds both a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. Throughout her extensive career in human services and community ministry, she has achieved several notable “firsts.” These include serving as a grant writer and principal for some of Oakland’s first African American faith-based HIV/AIDS housing and education programs, becoming San Francisco’s first professional juvenile probation chaplain, organizing an inner-city, multi-disciplinary family resource center, and becoming the first seminary intern in the Northern Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC). She was also the first Black and first female Associate Conference Minister of the Northern Nevada Conference UCC.
Today, as the founder of Imara Heritage LLC—a for-profit organization with strong nonprofit roots—she continues to serve marginalized communities by offering grant writing, community education, and consulting services.
