(RNS) The Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of African-American seminaries in Atlanta, has named a new president.

The Rev. Ronald Edward Peters, director of the Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, will begin the new post on Sept. 1, the center announced. Peters, 65, also is an associate professor of urban ministry at the Pittsburgh seminary. Peters, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), was a pastor in Florida for 18 years before joining the seminary faculty in 1991. The author of “Urban Ministry: An Introduction,” he has advised his denomination on urban theological education and social witness policy.

He succeeds Thomas W. Cole Jr., president emeritus of Clark Atlanta University, who served as interim president after former ITC president Michael A. Battle was named U.S. representative to the African Union last August.