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During a previous assignment, Dr. Brown taught church history
and introduction to the Old Testament to young men preparing for
ordination in Lesotho, a small, mountainous country completely
surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. The Lesotho Evangelical
Church had first ordained a woman only six months before her arrival.
The Anglican Church there still does not ordain women. For many
of her students, she was the first woman "in authority"
they had met. "To work together in that context helped both
their faith and mine. The people as a whole have great respect
for education," she observed. Any disadvantages she may have
had as an ordained woman in this culture were offset by her extensive
and significant academic achievements.
The most positive aspect of her three-year term in Lesotho was
"to see one another’s faith grow with our mutual commitment
to mission," she says. "It was a confirmation of my
faith to see how few resources were available to teachers and
local church leaders, and yet how faithful they remained to their
calling."
Joanne is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She earned her
undergraduate degree in history and her MA and PhD degrees in
sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research, teaching,
and consulting experiences have been primarily in the Pittsburgh
area except for the period from 1980 to 1983 when she was assistant
professor of sociology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
She earned her MDiv degree from the Interdenominational Theological
Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1986. Her appointment to serve
with the Lesotho Evangelical Church was made jointly by the Disciples
of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She is a member
of the Presbytery of Pittsburgh.
A widow, Joanne has two adult sons and one grandchild. Her elder
son, Carl Richard, serves in the Navy and her younger son, Eric
Glenn who finished high school in Lesotho, is now a student at
Berea College in Kentucky.
Birthday: August 15
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