The Reverend Dr. Joan Parrott is the Vice President of the Children’s Defense Fund responsible for Leadership Development and Spiritual Renewal Programs at Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, TN. The Farm is the Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) center for spiritual renewal, character and servant leadership development, intergenerational mentoring, interracial and interdisciplinary communication, and community building.
Reverend Parrott’s education and work experience demonstrate a wide range of interests and accomplishments. She is a native of Newark, New Jersey and a graduate of the East Orange Public School System; Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ; Union Theological Seminary, New York City; Bossey, The Ecumenical Institute in Celigny, Switzerland; United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio and the John F. Kennedy School of Government Community Builder Fellowship Program at Harvard University.
Her work experience includes being a fourth grade teacher; an adult education guidance counselor; a United States Peace Corps Volunteer working with children in Niger, West Africa; Regional Program Manager for Contracts and Procurement with the Internal Revenue Service, NYC; Executive Director of the Lighthouse Community Services Homeless Shelter in Newark, NJ; Deputy General Secretary for the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. in Valley Forge, PA and the Vice-President of the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A. Prior to coming to CDF, Reverend Parrott completed a two-year fellowship working as a Community Builder with the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in Camden, NJ, the third poorest city in the country.
An American Baptist minister, Reverend Parrott made history when she became the first woman ordained in the one hundred and thirty-year history of Bethany Baptist Church, her home church in Newark, NJ. Since that time she has preached throughout the country and all over the world and had the rare privilege of two private audiences with Pope John Paul II.
Never forgetting her Newark roots, Reverend Parrott continues to strive for a life full of compassion, integrity and excellence, where her actions and deep faith in God will be a paradigm of servant-leadership and a sign of hope in a divided world.