Dr. Melisa Ortiz Berry

About Melisa

That’s how Dr. Melisa Ortiz Berry describes herself—and it’s what has shaped everything she does.

Dr. Berry is a Bible teacher, speaker, professor, and podcaster, as well as the founder of Crown of Life Discipleship Ministries, which began out of a simple but real need: mentoring.

In 2006, while finishing her second master’s degree and teaching Greek, she realized she needed practical ministry training—and she wasn’t the only one. Women would quietly come to her and say, almost in a whisper, “I think God is calling me into ministry too.”

So she did what she has continued to do ever since—she prayed, and then she built something.

That “something” became Women of the Word, a two-year mentoring and training program for women already serving in ministry who wanted to grow deeper. They studied Scripture, theology, history, speaking, and writing together, met regularly, and even traveled for training and retreats.

Many of those relationships remain some of the closest in her life to this day.

Today, that mentoring vision continues through The Called Initiative, a community designed to help women discern their calling, grow in their faith, and step into leadership with clarity and confidence.

Alongside mentoring, Dr. Berry teaches and creates content across multiple platforms. She is the host of The Called Life podcast, where she leads thoughtful, guided conversations with scholars and ministry leaders around key theological and practical questions. Each series explores a central topic through multiple perspectives, helping listeners grow in both understanding and application. She also teaches daily through her online devotional @drberrydaily and leads Crowned for Christ, a writing community that helps women stay consistent, grow in their voice, and write with purpose.

She is the author of the forthcoming book God Has Named You: 25 Spiritual Identities That Reveal Who You Are, and a scholar of Henrietta Mears, with a second upcoming book, Evangelical Spirituality. Her academic work has focused on evangelical women, orthodoxy, and the boundaries of evangelicalism.

She was interviewed as a featured scholar in the award-nominated documentary MEARS: How One Woman Changed American Christianity (2025), where she discussed Henrietta Mears's enduring influence on evangelicalism, Christian leadership, and the development of modern American Christianity. (Watch the trailer here.)

Dr. Berry holds a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University in the History of Christianity and Religion in North America, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and additional graduate degrees in New Testament and history. She has taught at Bushnell University and Azusa Pacific University, and has received recognition for excellence in teaching.

But more than her academic background, she is known for how she teaches—bringing together biblical depth, honesty, humor, and a style that is engaging, expressive, and real. Whether speaking at a university, church, camp, or conference, she helps people understand Scripture clearly and live it out with confidence.

After one university chapel message, a university president shared that her talk was among the top three most powerful he had heard in the three years that he’d been there.

At the end of the day, her goal is simple: to help people know Christ, understand who they are in Him, and live like it.

She lives in Oregon with her husband, James, and their two daughters.