Michael Ortiz

Michael Ortiz was born in New York City to Cuban immigrants. After receiving a law degree from SMU in 1988 and developing his practice in Florida, he submitted his life to Christ. Dr. Ortiz developed a hunger for biblical and theological studies. In 2015 he received his PhD in Theological Education from Seminario Teológico Centroamericano (SETECA) following his ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) in 2008. Most of his ministry has involved theological education leadership and teaching in Spanish-speaking countries, especially Cuba. He started working at DTS in 2016 and served as the initial director of DTS en Español, a department developed to offer master’s-level programs to the Spanish world. He has also been a professor at DTS in the Missiology and Intercultural Ministries Department since 2016, and currently serves DTS as Vice President for Global Ministries. His primary academic interests relate to global theological education and contextualization and often speaks at conferences on these topics as well as others. As related to ICETE, he became its Executive Director in November of 2019 and has initiated a number of changes, including ICETE’s new mission statement, governance structure, staff expansion, and broadening ICETE’s global footprint not only in the formal, but also in nonformal theological education worldwide. Under his leadership, ICETE C-22 in Izmir proved to be ICETE’s largest and most diverse global consultation in its 40 plus years. Dr. Ortiz has been married to Kathy for over thirty-five years, and they have two adult children.