Biographical Data Sheet for Patricia D. Brown

The Reverend Patricia D. Brown, Ph.D.
Biographical Data Sheet 2007

The Reverend, Dr. Patricia D. Brown, an ordained pastor with the United Methodist Church is Executive Director of the Spiritworks Center for Formation and Leadership in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  In this position she consultants and teaches leadership and spiritual formation as well as supports educational ministry in Rwanda, Africa.

Topics, drawn from her nine published books, include Christian formation, spiritual gifts, prayer, women’s spirituality and more. “Tricia” teaches, preaches, delivers keynote addresses, and facilitates workshops and retreats close to home and across the country.
With thirty years in ministry (beginning as a Licensed Local Pastor in 1978), she has pastored six churches, both rural and urban and has worked as hospital and hospice chaplain and CPE Supervisor-in-residence at two major U.S. medical centers. She studied in Germany and served in mission in Ecuador. She served as executive director for Mission Evangelism of the General Board of Global Ministries, Director of Spiritual Nurture and Evangelism for the Central Pennsylvania Conference and Director of Spiritual Formation for the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Brown served as an alternate-delegate to General Conference and as a delegate and as Assistant Secretary to the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Patricia’s book, drawn from her doctoral dissertation, Paths to Prayer: Finding Your Own Way to the Presence of God – Discover Your Prayer Type and Explore 40 Ways to Pray from 2000 Years of Christian Tradition, was published by Jossey-Bass Publishing, San Francisco, Fall 2003. Patricia’s other books include Pilgrimage, SpiritGifts: One Spirit, Many Gifts, Learning To Lead From Your Spiritual Center, 365 Affirmations for Hopeful Living. She is a contributor to Meditations for Mothers of Young Children, and co-author and editor of Worship Resources for HIV & AIDS Ministries (Spanish and English), Meditations for HIV & AIDS Ministries, Heart to Heart, A Spiritual Journey for Women and From the Heart: A Personal Prayer Journal – most published by Abingdon Press, Nashville. How to Create Your Own Faith-based Women‘s Christian Spirituality Group: Circle of Hearts.

Patricia completed her Ph.D. in Pastoral Theology and Practical Spirituality, Graduate College of the Union University, Cincinnati. Her dissertation was: Practices of Prayer: Practical Spirituality in the Context of Pastoral Theology and her Internship was with the Formation Program in Spiritual Direction with the Institute for Christian Studies of the Episcopal Diocese in Orlando, Florida. She was Associate Professor in the School of Theology of Seattle Pacific University and Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation and Direction at Mars Hill Graduate School, Seattle before seeking her current position.

Widowed at the age of twenty-five with a three year old child, The Reverend Dr. Brown is now married to Dale Bauman, a registered nurse. She has two sons; Christian, who lives in NYC with Molly, and Stephen, an actor in Seattle.

Patricia seeks to be open to God’s presence and live in Spirit-filled ways.  The work closest to her heart is to facilitate ongoing spiritual life through the creation of sacred spaces and times specifically formulated to help individuals and communities become alive to God’s work in the world.