Nancy Lynne Westfield
Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D. is author of Glimpses of Me and Mine: A Creative Biography (Wipf and Stock, 2023). In addition, she is author of ,i>Dear Sisters: A Womanist Practice of Hospitality (Pilgrim Press, 2001); co-author of Black Church Studies: An Introduction (Abingdon, 2007) and editor of Being Black, Teaching Black: Politics and Pedagogy in Religious Studies (Abingdon, 2008).Westfield is Director of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, Crawfordsville, Indiana (2019 to present). As part of the Wabash Center programming, Lynne's blog entitled Teaching on the Pulse explores the day-to-day challenges and joys of teaching in higher education and theological education. She hosts a podcast entitled Dialogue on Teaching focused upon conversations with thought leaders in higher education and theological education. She serves as Editor-and-Chief of the Journal on Teaching (ATLA). For a full description of the Wabash Center see: https://wabash.center/.
Lynne grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as part of a multi-generational household who believed that education was a way of life. Her family was tightknit. Her father was a school psychologist for the Philadelphia public schools. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom who, as a volunteer in the public schools, mobilized parents to create an unprecedented partnership with school administrators resulting in both a significant increase in funding from the state of Pennsylvania and drastic improvements to the quality of services for poor children. Lynne spent her early career serving as Minister of Christian Education on the staff of The Riverside Church in NYC. After earning a doctorate, she joined the faculty of Drew University Theological School as Professor of Religious Education. Throughout her career as a womanist scholar, Lynne is known for her creativity, innovation, humor, and decisive leadership marked by collaboration, mutuality, and deep commitment to communal values of solidarity and care.