Scarritt Bennett Center Names Interim Executive Director
Scarritt Bennett Center has named Dr. Maxine Clarke Beach, Interim Executive Director, as its Board of Directors launches a search for new leadership.
Dr. Beach was the very first Executive Director of Scarritt Bennett Center from 1989 to 1993 and is also a graduate of Scarritt College, class of 1966. She most recently served as Vice President and Dean of Drew Theological School. During the course of her distinguished career she served as Associate General Secretary of the General Council on Ministries of the United Methodist Church, as Director of the Office of Research for the General council, and as vice president and chief academic officer at the United Theological Seminary in Dayton. She holds degrees from York College, Scarritt College, M.A., Harvard Divinity School, Ph.D., and Boston University.
“The Board of Directors is confident that Maxine possesses the drive and expertise to pave the way for the next leader of the organization,” said Pat Clark, President of the Scarritt Bennett Board of Directors. “Maxine has decades of experience and having served as Scarritt’s very first Executive Director, she is strongly connected to Scarritt’s historical legacy. We are looking forward to a bright next chapter for Scarritt.”
Under her leadership in the early days of the Center, Beach was instrumental in transforming Scarritt into a conference and training center for laity. “As I took the job as the first director, I was so aware of the power and the beauty of the tradition that was now to be translated into new dimensions” Beach said. “I believed then and believe now that hospitality can be holy. Creating space for rest and renewal or simply for people to meet to work can be a sacred task. Programs that move people to new understandings of race, power, gender or cultural and religious sensitivity can also awaken new life in the spirit and add to wholeness in the world. So I believe in this work.”
Scarritt Bennett Center hopes to have a permanent Executive Director in place by January 2017.