Nancy Lynne Westfield was appointed director of the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Created in 1995 and sustained by grants from the Lilly Endowment, the Wabash Center seeks to enhance and strengthen education in North American theological schools, colleges and universities.
Dr. Westfield has been involved with the center for the past 16 years. She currently serves as a professor of religious education at the Drew Theological School in Madison, New Jersey. Dr. Westfield is an ordained deacon of the United Methodist Church.
“The Wabash Center has been of primary influence in every season of my career,” Dr. Westfield said. “The Center has provided me with much-needed vocational conversations, financial support for projects, and access to a network of scholars across the nation. Now, as the Director of the Center, I am humbled to continue this life-giving, critical work for scholars of theology and religion. The work of leading the Center will be my joy.”
Professor Westfield is the author, co-author or editor of several books. Among her works are Being Black, Teaching Black: Politics and Pedagogy in Religious Studies (Abingdon Press, 2008), Black Church Studies: An Introduction (Abingdon Press, 2007), and Dear Sisters: A Womanist Practice of Hospitality (Pilgrim Press, 2007).
Dr. Westfield is a graduate of Murray State University in Kentucky. She holds a master’s degree in Christian education from the Scarritt Graduate School in Nashville, a master’s degree in theological studies from the Drew Theological School, and a Ph.D. in religious education and womanist studies from the Union Institute in Cincinnati.