Staff
The Rev. Molly Dowell Baum
Global Ministry Fellow 2010-2012
Molly grew up in Atchison, KS, a small town on the Missouri River north of Kansas City. She has been a member of the PCUSA since she was 8 years old, when her family switched their affiliation from the Southern Baptist Convention. She was baptized at First Presbyterian Church of Atchison, where she was nurtured to grow in personal faith and actively participate in the community, eventually being ordained as a deacon. Throughout middle and high school, Molly served as a Youth Advisory Delegate and Youth Committee member at presbytery, synod and national levels. It was particularly through these leadership experiences that Molly first felt called to ministry.
In 2001, Molly was given the extraordinary opportunity to study musical theatre at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and so the girl from Kansas embarked for the Big Apple. Molly received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Drama from NYU in January of 2005. She spent the next year and a half living in Brooklyn, auditioning for theatre jobs and doing small roles, while supporting herself waitressing, tutoring, temping, and driving a fruit truck for NYC farmer’s markets. In the fall of 2006, Molly moved across the country to California to begin seminary at San Francisco Theological Seminary. She completed internships with Interfaith Campus Ministry at the College of Wooster in Ohio, where she led students in an international service and reflection trip to Sehithwa, Botswana, as well as at Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, CA. In May 2010, Molly received her Masters of Divinity from SFTS and a Certificate in Sacred Dance from the Center for Art, Religion, and Education (CARE). She will be ordained in June 2010 as a minister of Word and Sacrament.
Molly enjoys gathering up groups of people for conversation over a good meal. You might also find her admiring neat plants and animals in the park, trying to garden in any patch of soil available, creating meals out of whatever can be found at the farmer’s market and pantry. Molly loves to sing and dance, and is always looking for new ways that the arts can enrich personal and communal spiritual life.
