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Women's History Guide: Women of Garrett

March is designated as Women's History Month. This guide is a celebration of the outstanding history of women within Methodism and in Garrett-Evangelical's history.

Current Women Faculty of Garrett-Evangelical

Esther Acolatse, Professor of Pastoral Theology and World Christianity

Cheryl B. Anderson, Professor Emerita of Old Testament

Nancy E. Bedford, Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology

Gennifer B. Brooks, Ernest and Bernice Styberg Professor of Preaching; Director of the Styberg Preaching Institute

Jaeyeon Lucy Chung, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care; Director of The Styberg Library

Julie A. Duncan, Associate Professor of Old Testament

Jen Harvey, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean; Professor of Christian Ethics

Wonhee Anne Joh, Harry R. Kendall Professor of Christian Theology and Postcolonial Studies

Anna M. Johnson, Associate Professor of Reformation Church History

Débora B. A. Junker, Associate Professor of Critical Pedagogies; Director of the Hispanic-Latinx Center

AHyun Lee, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care, and Psychotherapy

Virginia A. Lee, Associate Professor of Christian Education; Director of Deacon Studies

Kate Ott, Jerre and Mary Joy Stead Professor of Christian Social Ethics; Director of the Stead Center for Ethics and Values

Evelyn Parker, Distinguished Visiting Professor

Lallene J. Rector, Professor of Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Psychotherapy; President Emerita

Mai-Anh Le Tran, Associate Professor of Religious Education and Practical Theology

Women Firsts at Garrett-Evangelical

1853

Eliza Clark Garrett: founding benefactor of Garrett Biblical Institute (GBI)1

1855

Lucy Rider Meyer: founder, principal, and faculty member of Chicago Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions (CTS), which merged into Garrett in 1934. She is credited with being the originator, promoter, and sustainer of the deaconess movement in Methodism.1

1888

Isabella Thoburn: methods and church history faculty member of CTS, who headed the first deaconess home in the United States.1

1930s

Esther Bjornberg: first woman CTS faculty member (field work and social service) who became a faculty member of GBI upon the merger of CTS with GBI1

1939    

Georgia Harkness: first woman faculty member hired by GBI (applied theology). The first significant American woman theologian; thought to be the first woman to teach theology in an American seminary1

1977   

Rosemary Radford Ruether: first woman professor to hold an endowed chair (Georgia Harkness Chair in Applied Theology1

1984

Marjorie Matthews: first woman bishop-in-residence; also served as visiting professor of Old Testament during that residency1

1993

Rosemary Skinner Keller: first woman academic dean1

2002

Sujin Pak Boyer: first Asian woman faculty member1

2003

Nancy E. Bedford: first Latina to hold an endowed chair (Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology Endowed Chair2

2008

Gennifer Benjamin Brooks: first Black woman professor to hold an endowed chair (Ernest and Bernice Styberg Chair in Preaching1

2014

Lallene J. Rector: first woman and first layperson to serve as president of the seminary2

2017

Wonhee Anne Joh: first Korean American female full professor of systematic theology in the Unites States and the first Asian American female to earn full professor in the seminary's history3

2019

Mai-Anh Le Tran: first woman of color academic dean4

Sources:

1. Firsts at Garrett-Evangelical
2. Golden Anniversary Memory Book
3. Garrett-Evangelical Events
4. Aware: Fall 2019

Eliza Clark Garrett

Eliza Clark Garrett - Garrett Founder

Pioneering Women in Garrett-Evangelical's History

Georgia Elma Harkness - Garrett Professor

Isabelle Horton - Chicago Training School Leader & Deaconess

Ruth Kraemer - Evangelical Theological Seminary Librarian

Lucy Rider Meyer - Chicago Training School Founder

Ethel Payne - Chicago Training School Graduate & Journalist

Myrtle Saylor Speer - Chicago Training School graduate & Minister

Garrett Biblical Institute's First Female Graduate

In 1879 Mary Phillips became the first woman to receive a theological degree from what was then Garrett Biblical Institute. It is likely that she was only the third woman in the United States, perhaps in the world, to be awarded a theological degree. 

Read Mary's story here, written by Prof. Charles Cosgrove, and Karin Chamberlain, a distant relative of Mary Phillips.

The First Woman to Earn a Theological Degree at Garrett Biblical Institute: Mary A. Phillips, Class of 1879 by Karin Chamberlain and Charles Cosgrove