Her Story
About Dorie
I've been in my field since 2002. When I was first out of seminary, I produced an interfaith dialogue television show called Faith in the City that put representatives of different faith systems around the table to discuss whatever was happening in the Georgia State Capitol from an interfaith perspective. After that, I was the project manager for an education nonprofit, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. Through all of that, I maintained a chaplain seat to journalists that covered traumatic events, which was more of a volunteer thing, but I actively stayed in touch with war correspondents, people that covered natural disasters, 9-11, the tsunami, Oklahoma bombing, Columbine, and any major event. My early background in my 20s and early 30s was in sports PR and marketing, working in the press room where photographers and videographers would come in having just covered disasters, and I'd hear their stories. Years later in seminary, taking pastoral care classes and learning about chaplaincy, I realized my journalist friends could use a calm presence because they see difficult things like first responders do. I developed a model of chaplaincy to journalists and continue that on a volunteer basis up till today. For the past 9 years, I've been the chaplain for the Roswell, Georgia, Fire Department, and I'm the first woman to be the chaplain for the Roswell Fire Department. I also work at Emory St. Joseph's Hospital as a chaplain part-time.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dorie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I found early that I had the ability to make connections with people, and to hear their stories and affirm them. I remember having a profound conversation with a journalist from New Jersey at the Final Four in 2002, in a press room teeming with hundreds of people. We went from superficial talk about being from New Jersey to discussing that he lost people in the towers on 9-11, and he ended up with tears in his eyes in that crowded room. We really dug deep in a conversation about loss. My supervisor at the time said she had those conversations too, but they were in her office with the door closed. That's when I realized I had this gift for creating space for people to open up, even in the most unlikely settings, and being an encourager for them.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Well, it is a calling, because you don't get into this to make money. As our seminary professor said, a Master of Divinity degree is about the only master's degree that guarantees you'll not make much money. Chaplaincy as a profession does not pay that well. Hospital chaplains probably make the most, and a lot of people still have to have a part-time job. You have to know those things going in because a lot of people start pursuing it and find out at the end of the degree, and then end up having to do something else because their financial needs are so great. It's also very important to know who your people are that you can turn to, because you hear other people's stories and you're in very difficult situations, especially things like end-of-life situations. So it's important to build your own support network.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Chaplains have a PR problem. Most people don't know what we do.
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