In 2014, she was appointed Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. Gafney's first teaching position was at the Lutheran Seminaries in Philadelphia and Gettysburg, beginning in 2003.

She was a US Army Reserve chaplain and a congregational pastor in the AME Zion Church, as well as a member of Germantown Jewish Center, Reconstructionist Jewish congregation in Philadelphia. Gafney is an Episcopal priest, licensed in the Diocese of Fort Worth and formerly resident in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Her doctoral dissertation became her first book, Daughters of Miriam, a study of female prophets in ancient Israel. She completed a PhD in Hebrew Bible from Duke University in 2006, where she was mentored by Roland E. She completed a Master's of Divinity from Howard University, an historically black college, in 1997. Gafney earned a BA from Earlham College, a Quaker institution, in 1987, where she was one of only seven Black students on a campus of over 1000 students. She grew up attending a non-denominational church, was baptized in an AME Church, and attended a Catholic high school. Gafney's parents were both teachers, who divorced when she was young. She is specialist in womanist biblical interpretation, and topics including gender and race. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Gafney, also known as Wil Gafney, (born 1966) is an American biblical scholar and Episcopal priest who is the Right Rev. Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel

Wilda gafney womanist midrash