{"id":10102,"date":"2021-06-24T17:08:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlham.edu\/?p=10102"},"modified":"2021-11-22T12:54:19","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T17:54:19","slug":"gretchen-castle-named-dean-earlham-school-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlham.edu\/news-events\/gretchen-castle-named-dean-earlham-school-of-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Gretchen Castle named dean of Earlham School of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Gretchen Castle, a global Quaker leader with decades of organizational development experience, has been named the next dean of the Earlham School of Religion. She is ESR’s first female dean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the last nine years, Castle has served as the General Secretary of the Friends World Committee for Consultation in the Quaker World Office in London, traveling extensively to bring greater unity to Quakers worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a career spanning four decades, Castle has gained broad experience among Friends globally and across different Quaker traditions. She has served at the Quaker United Nations Offices in New York and Geneva, and participates in the Christian World Communions Annual Meeting of the General Secretaries, where she was recently appointed the first woman chair and the first Quaker chair. As part of the Christian World Communions, she attended the inauguration of Pope Francis in Rome in 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States, she was presiding clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Director of Leadership Development for several Quaker retirement communities, and a board development consultant for over 20 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a pivotal time for Earlham School of Religion \u2014 and all seminaries \u2014 as we envision the future of ministry in a complex and rapidly changing world.\u201d says Anne Houtman, president of Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion. \u201cGretchen\u2019s global leadership experience and deep commitment to Quaker principles and practice will inspire new ways of approaching our work and strengthen ESR\u2019s capacity to attract and educate the next generation of change-makers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castle is no stranger to Earlham or Richmond, Indiana. She attended nursery school at Stout Meetinghouse on Earlham\u2019s campus and also earned her undergraduate degree in human development and social relations from the College in 1979. Her father, David Castle, was a former pastor at First Friends Meeting in Richmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She later earned her master\u2019s degree in organizational development and adult learning from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarlham grounded my Quaker experience and gave me the great gift of knowing I have a place in the world. The life I live, the choices I make, the people I love \u2014 matter,\u201d Castle says. \u201cI learned this at Earlham and working among Friends for most of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cEarlham grounded my Quaker experience and gave me the great gift of knowing I have a place in the world. The life I live, the choices I make, the people I love \u2014 matter. I learned this at Earlham and working among Friends for most of my life.\u201d \u2014 Gretchen Castle<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Becoming dean at ESR is an important step in her global Quaker experience, she notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cESR serves a critically important role in the global Quaker community, preparing people for ministry, whatever form it takes, and I am thrilled to be joining ESR as its next dean,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Media contact<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Brian Zimmerman<\/strong>
Assistant vice president of strategic communications
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Email: zimmebr@earlham.edu
Phone: 765.983.1256<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n