Upon graduating from Howard University Divinity School in May 1984, Reverend Yvonne Williams Boyd received her Deacon ordination in the Baltimore Annual Conference, at its Bicentennial celebration of Methodism within the United States. She was appointed to Asbury United Methodist Church in Hagerstown, MD. After two years as pastor at Asbury UMC, she received her Elder ordination at the Baltimore Annual Conference 202nd session, and, on July 1, 1986 relocated to Los Angeles where she became a member of the California Pacific Annual Conference. There she was appointed as an Associate Pastor at Holman United Methodist Church, and served with the Reverend Dr. James M. Lawson, Jr.
After four years of ministry at Holman, Reverend Boyd was appointed as an Associate Pastor at Simi Valley UMC.
In 1991, Reverend Boyd received her appointment to Altadena UMC. During her 23 years of pastoral ministry at Altadena she influenced the lives of young people, encouraging them to pursue vocations in ministry and serve the UMC across the connection – with seminary training, as Congressional Interns, US II Partners in Mission, and more. For five years, she served the Pasadena District as co-dean of the Junior High District Camp. From 2000-2009 Reverend Boyd was an adjunct professor in the Claremont School of Theology Licensing School, and, Course of Study. She was the Director of the Licensing School from 2005-2009.
An advocate for Social Justice, Reverend Boyd was the voice that gave birth to participation of the California Pacific Annual Conference in the Burn Church Summer Work Camp; this in response to the terror that Black churches throughout the South experienced. As a result the California Pacific Annual Conference made a commitment to send four work teams to designated Church rebuilding work sites, each year during the month of August. Reverend Boyd led 8 teams between 1996 and 2005.
Upon completion advanced studies in Clinical Pastoral Education, through the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, along with a Clinical Chaplain Residency at Providence St. John’s Health Center located in Santa Monica, CA in August 2015, Reverend Boyd is now the Clinical Chaplain at Kaiser Permanente, West Los Angeles.
Rev Boyd is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary. The program in which she is enrolled is the Clementa Pickney Public Engagement track. She anticipates graduating in May 2020.
With all this said, her greatest honor is that of loving her family, husband Dr. Homer Boyd, Jr. an Internist and Supervisor Physician in Public Health, for LA County Health Department, and their daughter Emily Kirsten Boyd, a recent graduate of Columbia University, Master of Science.