Biographical Sketch

Beverly White Cushman

Assistant Professor of Christian Education and Religion

I was born in Orlando, Florida, and attended Stetson University, where I met my husband, David.  I went to Vanderbilt University for my Master of Divinity degree with specialties in Pastoral Theology, Church History, and Old Testament.

In 1977, I received a call from Raceland Presbyterian Church, and was ordained as the first woman minister in the state of Louisiana. Raceland is about fifty miles southwest of New Orleans and is a small Cajun town situated on Bayou Lafourche. I learned to cook Cajun and to make strong Cajun coffee.  Also, David and I had our first child, Jeremiah David, while living there.

I served that congregation for four years before moving to New Orleans, where I was Associate Pastor of Lakeview Presbyterian Church.  My work at Lakeview focused on Christian Education and pastoral care.  It was while working at Lakeview that our second child, Amanda Katherine, was born.

I was then called to serve as Interim Pastor at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in New Orleans East.  This congregation had a vital ministry with the Laotian community in New Orleans East.  On Pentecost Sunday, 1985, I was priviledged to baptize twenty-one Laotians into the Christian faith.

When David was given the opportunity to return to Vanderbilt in 1986 to do some teaching, I began my doctoral work in Bible. 

From there our family moved to Tampa, Florida, in 1987.  I served one year as the protestant chaplain for the University of South Florida.  I then began my work as Parish Associate at Tims Memorial Presbyterian Church in Lutz, Florida.  In my four years there, the congregation grew from approximately two hundred and fifty members to nearly five hundred members.

In 1992, David got a position at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.  Saskatoon is the largest city in the province of Saskatchewan.

I served a number of churches in my ten years in Saskatchewan.  I also began teaching religion at the University of Saskatchewan, at St. Thomas More College, and at the three seminaries, St. Andrew's Seminary (United Church of Canada), Lutheran Seminary (ELCA), and the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad (Anglican).  I also served as registrar at Emmanuel and St. Chad.  In 1999, I completed my dissertation and was awarded the Ph.D. from Vanderbilt.

In 2002 I returned to the United States where I taught for two years at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In 2004 I came to Westminster College with the mandate to reinvigorate the Christian Education program.  In 2005, my husband, David, was invited to come to Westminster as chair of the Economics and Business Department.  In 2006, he was appointed to the Captain William McKee Chair of Economics and Business.

Our son, Jeremiah, works in Washington, D.C., as weapons editor for the on-line publication Military Periscope.  Amanda is in the graduate program for writing and publishing at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.