Rev. Dayna Edwards

Biography

Rev. Dayna Edwards is called to a ministry of love, creativity, and justice. Currently, she serves as the Minister of Faith Formation at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Congregation. 

She is the recipient of the Roberta Nelson Scholarship for Excellence in Religious Education and the Barbara Marshman and Ann B. Fields Scholarship. She holds an M.Div from Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary, a M.A. in Education and Human Development from The George Washington University, and completed her undergraduate degree at American University. 

Rev. Dayna has been in the community organizing world since she attended her first protest with her parents in a stroller at the age of three. After growing up in the labor movement, she decided to disrupt the school to prison pipeline by teaching under-resourced at-risk youth in the Washington, DC area. In collaboration with Hip Hop artist Asheru (who wrote the theme to the Boondocks cartoon) she wrote HELP, a Hip Hop Educational Literacy Program. More recently, she has worked with the cultural movement arts and Maryland coordinating committee of the Poor People’s Campaign and the Kairos Center. In 2024 she served as a chaplain to students at the GWU Free Palestine encampment and has regularly met with elected officials and faith leaders to call for an end to the genocide in Palestine. Additionally, she does behind the scenes work supporting undocumented neighbors in the Washington, DC area and is volunteering with Casa de Paz to write letters to people who have been detained due to their documentation status.