Cathy George Appointed Associate Dean

May 4, 2015

The Rev. Cathy H. George has been appointed Associate Dean and Director of Formation for Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.  A graduate of Macalester College in Minnesota and Harvard Divinity School and currently an instructor at Harvard Law School and a doctoral student at Boston University, George has served both as a parish priest in urban, rural and suburban parishes, and as a chaplain in prison and hospital settings.

Berkeley Dean and President Andrew B. McGowan announced her appointment noting, “I am delighted that the Reverend Cathy George has agreed to join Berkeley. Cathy has a diverse and substantial experience of pastoral ministry.

Her published spiritual writing and her teaching experience on leadership at institutions including Harvard Law School are signs of the knowledge and insight she brings to the Berkeley and Yale communities. I am looking forward to our collaboration as we seek to form leaders who will have significant impact on the Church and the world.”

As associate dean and director of formation, George will work closely with students, guiding them in all areas of life at Berkeley including their academic program, spiritual formation, pastoral support, worship planning and placement.

Commenting on her appointment, she said. “I am delighted by Dean McGowan’s invitation to serve as the Associate Dean at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.  His commitment to the academic and spiritual formation of students, shared by the faculty, trustees and alumnae is visionary and inspiring. Having transformed parishes in rural, urban, suburban and inner city communities, I look forward to teaching and learning from the students and community I will join. The opportunity to mentor, teach and oversee the formation of priests for the church is truly an honor.”

Cathy George has written collections of daily devotions and a book on prayer, including The Stillness We Seek: Daily Devotions for Advent (Forward Movement, 2012) and You Are Already Praying: Stories of God at Work (Morehouse, 2013).  The publications reflect her experience that, she notes, “prayer and faith come alive to sustain us in daily life.”

Dean-elect George began her career as a parish priest in 1989, serving as Assistant to the Rector at churches in Newburyport and Beverly Farms, MA.  Her first job as rector took her to a small rural church in New Hampshire, and after eight years she became associate rector for Trinity Church in Copley Square, an historic 2000-member parish in Boston’s Back Bay.  In 1996 she became rector of a well-established suburban church, St. Anne’s in Lincoln, MA, where she served for many years before taking charge of two at-risk urban churches in Dorchester, MA: St. Mary’s and St. Mark’s.  Collaborating with community groups and church partners, she forged a future for these parish communities.

Early in her career she served as a prison chaplain at the state correctional institution in Framingham, MA.  She worked in a maximum security unit ministering to female offenders, providing pastoral care, bible study, religious services, post-release counseling and advocacy for the children of incarcerated women.

Dean-elect George is currently undertaking a doctoral program in transformational leadership at Boston University School of Theology.  She is married and has two adult children.