Rev. Dr. Kristen Adkins Whitesides
Senior Pastor
Rev. Dr. Kristin Adkins Whitesides is a native of Martinsville, Virginia. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond, Duke Divinity School, and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. She was ordained at Starling Avenue Baptist Church on June 19, 2005 where her father was pastor for 38 years. Before coming to First Baptist Church in 2005 as the Associate Pastor and Minister to Youth, Kristin worked as a chaplain intern at Duke Hospital, and as a pastoral intern at Baptist churches in North Carolina and Virginia as well as a Methodist church in North Carolina.
Kristin was a 2010-2011 member of the Lewis Fellows Outstanding Young Clergy Program through Wesley Seminary, was a recipient of a grant from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s College of Pastoral Leaders, and a grant recipient of the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Seminary.
Kristin has taught as an adjunct professor in the religion department at Shenandoah University. Additionally, she has served as the 2013-2014 president of the National Alumni Council of Duke Divinity School, and on the steering committees for the Virginia Baptist Women in Ministry, and the Valley Interfaith Council Steering Committee, serving as president from 2016 to 2020.
Kristin was called as Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Winchester, Virginia in the Spring of 2017 and feels blessed to be a part of a congregation that seeks to love God and love their neighbors through worship, service, and study.
Rev. Dr. Ka’thy Gore Chappell
Executive Director
Rev. Dr. Ka’thy Gore Chappell is Executive Director for Baptist Women in Ministry of North Carolina. In 2020, Ka’thy earned a D.Min. from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee. Kansas. In 1974, she received a M.R.E. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and in 1972, a B.S. from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.
Originally from Alabama, Ka’thy spent most of her professional years in North Carolina, serving First Baptist Asheville, First Baptist Cary and Forest Hills Baptist Raleigh. In 2004, Ka’thy and her husband, Russell, and daughter, Ali, departed North Carolina for Richmond, Virginia where Ka’thy served as Associate Dean with Students at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. In 2011, the Chappell family returned to North Carolina where Ka’thy assumed a new role as Leadership Development Coordinator for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina.
Ka’thy was married to Carey Russell Chappell for 28 years; Russell died from a lengthy illness in 2018. Alethia Ellen Chappell DeHay, their daughter, lives in Waco, Texas where she serves on a local church staff, Calvary Baptist Waco, is married to Harrison DeHayand is loving owner of Papi, the wonder dog. #VABWIMNC
Rev. Dr. Libby M. Grammer
Senior Pastor
Rev. Dr. Libby Grammer was called to be Senior Pastor of FBC Martinsville in 2018. She is a graduate of Shorter College in Rome, Georgia, where she earned a Spanish degree with minors in Religion and English in 2007. She graduated with her Master of Divinity degree from McAfee School of Theology in 2010 then studied at the University of Virginia and earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies (Theology, Ethics, and Culture) in 2015. In 2019, she completed a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree with McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta, GA with a focus in Justice & Peacemaking/Ethics.
She is the author of Privilege, Risk, and Solidarity: Understanding Undocumented Immigration through Feminist Christian Ethics (Wipf and Stock, 2017). Libby served as a Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty Fellow in July 2017 and now works to advance the mission of the BJC as an ambassador for Religious Liberty.
Originally from North Georgia/Southern Tennessee, Libby was ordained to the ministry in December 2010 in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. She has served as a teacher, a pulpit supply preacher, and in music ministry leadership roles in various churches since that time. Prior to her current role, she served the congregation of River Road Church, Baptist in Richmond, Virginia as Pastoral Resident and Interim Minister of Christian Education & Spiritual Formation. She also worked as an immigration paralegal with a large law firm for 10 years while in school and became proficient in immigration law and practice, leading to her advocacy efforts for and writing about the issue of undocumented immigration.
Friday, May 7, 2021
Zoom Web Meeting
Time: 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Cost: Free
Registration deadline: April 30, 2021
The Zoom meeting room will open by 9:45 am and will stay open after the event ends for as long as folks wish to gather.
