(RNS) Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., has hired a noted progressive priest, the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, to be its new president and dean.

Ragsdale, president and director of the liberal think tank Political Research Associates, is openly gay, and has sat on the boards of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

On July 1, she will succeed the Right Rev. Steven Charleston, who led the prominent seminary from 1998 to 2008. Ragsdale graduated from EDS in 1997 and is vicar of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Pepperell, Mass.

Ragsdale said she is excited to serve at EDS, “an institution that has long taught cutting-edge theology and been at the forefront of working to build a church and society that reflects the things we believe, the values we hold.”

EDS was formed in 1974 with the merger of Philadelphia Divinity School, which was founded in 1857, and the Episcopal Theological School, founded in 1867.