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About The Reverend Paula Lawrence Wehmiller
Consultant to Communities of Faith, Service and Learning Paula Lawrence Wehmiller, nationally known educator and author, received her BA degree from Swarthmore College in 1967 and her Masters degree from Bank Street College of Education in 1971, and began her teaching career in 1969. In the years that followed, her work as educator and child advocate included teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in education, working in the field of community mental health, and serving as principal of an elementary school. In 1990, she became a full-time consultant to schools, traveling nationally and internationally to work with educators, helping them navigate the complexities and struggles they find themselves in as they strive for inclusiveness and excellence. Nourishing the spiritual development of the community is at the heart of Lawrence-Wehmiller's teaching. In 1997, Paula Lawrence Wehmiller earned the degree of Master of Divinity from The General Theological Seminary. Following her ordination to the priesthood, she served as Pastoral Associate on the Bishop's staff in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania overseeing the ordination process and liturgical planning and providing pastoral care for clergy and for the diocesan staff. In 1999, she answered the call to deepen her work as a sojourner and resumed full time speaking, writing, and offering of retreats, conferences and workshops aimed at supporting and nourishing the spiritual life of educators, clergy and the communities they serve. Lawrence-Wehmiller is a much sought after keynote presenter at national gatherings of school, church and community associations. She has served as visiting lecturer and scholar-in-residence at schools in the United States as well as Europe and leads retreats for faculty, boards, administrative groups, clergy and lay leaders across the country. She served on the advisory board of "Different and the Same, Helping Children Identify and Prevent Prejudice," a video project of Family Communications, Inc., the parent company of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and authored a chapter in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Children, Television and Mr. Rogers. Lawrence-Wehmiller is a faculty member for two David Mallery National Seminars: The Administrator's Life and The Westtown Seminar on Teaching. In 2007, Lawrence-Wehmiller received "The Ecumenical Award in recognition of dialogue and bridge building," from the Benedictine Women of Madison, an ecumenical monastic community in Madison, Wisconsin on whose board she served for nine years. Paula Lawrence Wehmiller's writings also include "Miracle of the Bread Dough Rising," and "Face to Face: Lessons Learned on the Teaching Journey," published as occasional papers by the Friends Council on Education in Philadelphia. In 1992, The Harvard Education Review published "When the Walls Come Tumbling Down," Lawrence Wehmiller's essay addressing the need to build covenants in our school communities. Her piece, "Sojourners in Our Schools: Strangers Within the Gates" is published in the 1992 Proceedings of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls. A reviewer of Lawrence-Wehmiller's book, A Gathering of Gifts, calls her "a sojourner, story-teller, and dream-bearer, an educator who will go to the mat for the right of each child to live out his or her own birthright as a child of God. Fierce, loving, learned, colloquial, she has found a way to draw us into the marvel of her own story, and to encourage us to claim the wonders of our own." Published in March of 2002 as part of Church Publishing Inc.'s "Journey Book" series, A Gathering of Gifts is available at Church Publishing or at Amazon. |
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