Meet our newly-elected Regional Presbyter, Sallie Watson

Sallie is a native of Dallas and a lifelong Presbyterian, who grew up in the Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church of Dallas. She received her Bachelors degree from Austin College in 1978, with a major in English and minor in music. After a brief stint in advertising, where she worked for the Dallas Times Herald and two advertising agencies, Sallie discerned the call to ministry and entered Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she earned the Master of Divinity degree in 1987.
In 2007 Sallie earned the Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, where she studied preaching with the Association of Chicago Theological Schools. Her thesis is titled "Preaching in Fallow Time: Nurturing Deep-Rooted Growth Through Word and Sacrament."

Sallie has served a number of churches in Texas, California and Utah in both called and interim positions as a student intern, Associate Pastor, and Pastor.  Most recently she served as Interim General Presbyter for the Presbytery of Arkansas. She has held various positions of leadership at all levels of the PC(USA). Sallie is a former President of the Austin College Alumni Association, and has been a contributing editor for Presbyterian Outlook magazine. As a commissioner to the 1998 General Assembly in Charlotte, she served as Vice-Moderator of the Stewardship and Funding committee. While living in Austin she moderated the Committee on Preparation for Ministry of Mission Presbytery and served as adjunct professor for pastoral ministry at Austin Seminary.  In Grace Presbytery she served as Moderator of the Committee on Ministry, Moderator of the Interim General Presbyter Search Committee, and Vice-Moderator of the Mission Review Task Force.

In her "spare time," Sallie serves on the Board of Trustees for Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Sallie and her husband Paul are the proud, happy and exhausted parents of two children, Alex (12) and Meredith (10). In between carpool runs Sallie enjoys genealogy, quilting, music, writing, entertaining, and keeping up with friends and family. She is also eagerly anticipating a trip to Cuba with several leaders from the PC(USA) in March, where she will preach in a local church and present a paper on "The Mission of the American Church Today from a Woman's Perspective."