I am a switchboard operator of religious education resources, a weaver of words and ideas, a sower of stories, and a farm girl at heart. My ministry weaves together interests in children’s spiritual lives, program development, and support for parents and teachers in meetings, churches, and Friends schools.
One of my first memories is sitting in a field on the family farm where I grew up, looking at the vastness of the sky and experiencing a sense of both smallness and connectedness in the world. A similar experience in an English meadow while on a Quaker Youth Pilgrimage at age 16 led me to become a student of world cultures and a teacher.
I consider my vocation to be a teaching ministry. I spent almost 20 years developing history and religion curricula in Friends schools. My own young family transformed my sense of belonging as a Friend, and I felt called to hold a concern for the place of children and families in Quaker communities. Watching my children explore and question our faith, practice, and witness in the world, I wondered how to nurture their spiritual lives and support the adult practitioners of this ministry. I’ve also come to see a need for us to shift away from scholastic models of religious formation toward experiential, belonging-focused ways of being with children and inviting them into life-long spiritual community with all ages.
My children were raised on Godly Play and Faith & Play stories, and one of the things that I most enjoy is being in a circle on the floor with children, wondering together. I became a Godly Play storyteller in 2005 and an accredited US Godly Play Trainer in 2010. In 2008, the first edition of Faith & Play: Quaker Stories for Friends Trained in the Godly Play Method was published, which I co-authored and edited. This method of storytelling, facilitation, and spiritual nurture finds its way into almost everything I do!
My ministry has taken me into children’s religious education programs, multigenerational worship spaces, school classrooms, teacher workshops, and international gatherings of Quakers in Peru, England, Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Kenya. Closer to home, I’m a member of a meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
Since I stepped into the work of developing religious education content and programs, I’ve been blessed to learn and grow with Quaker collaborators and ecumenical circles of practitioners all over the world. The perspective from other faiths and cultures has deepened my Quaker faith and provided windows on other ways to live in spiritual community and welcome children. This quote by Maria Montessori is framed on my desk:
Education is not so much teaching with love
but participating, as one teaches,
in the energy of God, who is love.
Education
Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Master of Arts in Ministry and Leadership, May 2024
Thesis: “Children in Quaker Worship - All Together Now”
2024 Schaff Prize in Church History
2023 Lutz Prize in Christian Education
University of Michigan, School of Education, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Master of Arts in Education, June 1995
Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bachelor of Arts in History cum laude, May 1992
Continued Learning
Walter Winks Fellowship, Auburn Theological Seminary, Fellow, 2026
Atlantic School of Theology, “Family Ministry” Continuing Education Student, 2026
Educator’s Neighborhood, Fred Rogers Institute, Participant, 2025-26
Yale Divinity School, Youth Ministry Institute: Certificate in Youth Ministry Leadership, May 2025
National Council for Mental Wellbeing: Certificate in Youth Mental Health First Aid, February 2025
The Companioning Center: Certificate in Spiritual Accompaniment with Children, December 2024
Speaking
Keynote Speaker, Earlham School of Religion Quaker Leadership Center annual conference, 2026
Podcast Guest, Godly Play Foundation (Episode 5, “Silence”), 2025
Podcast Guest, Mess Makes Meaning” (Episode 9, “Power in Silence”), 2024
Keynote Co-presenter, Southeastern Yearly Meeting Sessions, 2022
Plenary Speaker, “Preparation, Formation, Belonging,” Quaker Religious Education Collaborative conference, 2021
Conference Facilitator, East Africa Religious Education Gathering, Friends Theological College, Kaimosi, Kenya, 2019
Worship Leader and Workshop Presenter, Britain Yearly Meeting, London, England, 2018
Plenary Speaker, Illinois Yearly Meeting Summer Sessions, 2016
Plenary Speaker and Workshop Presenter, FWCC World Plenary, Pisac, Peru, 2016