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Newsmakers: Pamela Webb, Julie Lytle

Episcopal News Service. September 14, 2006 [091406-2-A]

Pamela Webb appointed director of Alumni Affairs at Virginia Seminary

[SOURCE: VTS] The Very Rev. Pamela C. Webb will assume responsibilities as director of alumni affairs and church relations at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) on October 1.

Webb, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Tappahannock, Virginia since 2000, received her Master in Divinity from VTS in 1994. She has served the church with great distinction, as assistant rector at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Newport News, Virginia from 1994-1996, and rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Smithfield, Virginia from 1996-2000.

"We are very excited that Pam will assume this important position in the life of the Seminary and the ministry of our graduates," Ed Hall, vice president for institutional advancement at VTS said. "Her enthusiasm and experience will enable the seminary to enhance its continuing commitment to the clergy and congregations of the Episcopal Church at this time of challenge and opportunity."

Webb currently serves as dean of Region II and alternate delegate to the executive board in the Diocese of Virginia. She is married to Dan Webb, an architect in Newport News, Virginia and has three children; Tricia, a teacher in Opelika, Alabama, John, an English teacher in Perugia, Italy, and Matthew, a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

"I cherish countless memories of my three years as a student at VTS, and now am thrilled to have the opportunity to work at the seminary," Webb said. "I look forward to continuing my ministry by helping to build relationships between alumni, parishes and Virginia Seminary."

VTS, founded in 1823, is the largest of the 11 accredited seminaries of the Episcopal Church. The school prepares men and women, representing all eight of the domestic provinces of the Episcopal Church, as well as students from several different provinces and countries within the Anglican Communion, for service in the church, both as ordained and lay ministers, and offers a number of professional degree programs and diplomas.

Julie Lytle appointed to Episcopal Divinity School faculty

[SOURCE: EDS] As part of its commitment to growing its distance learning programs, Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, appointed Dr. Julie Lytle as the assistant professor in Instruction Technology/Design and Pastoral Theology.

Lytle, who assumed her position in August, was appointed at the May board of trustees meeting. This is her first semester at EDS as faculty although she worked with the school in 2005 as a consultant, primarily in the design and development of the online program being created for the Diocese of Wyoming in partnership with Living Stones and LeaderResources.

Prior to serving as a consultant to EDS, she taught as an adjunct faculty member and teaching fellow at Boston College’s Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry. There she developed and taught online and classroom graduate and undergraduate courses.

Lytle brings to the faculty a background in theological and pastoral studies, coupled with educational and communications competencies that address EDS’ need to expand to online and flexible study options.

"Dr. Lytle is one of the few professionals in the field of theological education today who is fully credentialed in educational technologies and in a theological discipline," the Rev. Dr. Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, EDS academic dean, said. "Besides sharing in the overall work of the EDS faculty, she will have particular responsibility for helping us to move the academic riches of our school into the 21st century."

Her appointment facilitates the development of EDS' new flexible study option for its masters and doctoral level students. With the flexible study option, students can earn an EDS degree through a program of intensive courses and distance learning, making it unnecessary to relocate to EDS' Cambridge campus to pursue a theological education.

"EDS has a rich history of fine faculty who are gifted teachers and renowned scholars. Yet we are a small school, and thus far our mission of progressive theological education has been limited by our numbers and the costs associated with theological education," Kujawa-Holbrook said. "It is our hope that through the innovative use of a variety of educational technologies and innovative instructional design, such as flexible study, teleconferencing, and distance education, we will be able to offer an EDS education to students who previously would not have been able to participate."

[thumbnail: The Very Rev. Pamela C. W...] [thumbnail: Dr. Julie Lytle]