Presbyterian Pan American School welcomes the Rev. Dori Kay Hjalmarson as chaplain
The former PC(USA) mission co-worker is the school’s first resident chaplain in seven years
Presbyterian Pan American School announces the appointment of the Rev. Dori Kay Hjalmarson as chaplain, effective immediately. Hjalmarson will be the school’s first resident chaplain in seven years.
Hjalmarson brings 10 years of experience in ministry leadership to the Presbyterian Pan American School, which is in Kingsville, Texas. As a mission co-worker for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), she served in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where she facilitated theological education and leadership development across 30 congregations in the denomination’s partner Presbyterian Church of Honduras.
Before serving in Honduras, she was a chaplain in hospital and hospice settings and worked as a newspaper editor and reporter. She was ordained in 2017 by the Presbytery of Santa Fe as a Minister of Word and Sacrament, where she served remotely on the presbytery’s Commission on Preparation for Ministry. She received her Master of Divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 2015.
Well-versed in cross-cultural relationships, Hjalmarson will lead the school’s chapel services, preaching weekly to a diverse congregation of students, staff and faculty. She will also be the school’s liaison to Austin Seminary’s Arc of Ministry Center, an initiative funded by the Lilly Endowment to facilitate vocational exploration in the ministry for high school and college students. As a partnering school, PPAS will receive a portion of this grant. Hjalmarson will be the representative on joint projects with Austin Seminary and the other partnering institutions.
“The spiritual life and development of our students is a critical part of our work. It requires a professional like Rev. Hjalmarson,” says Dr. W. Joseph King, President of PPAS. “We are looking forward to her joining our campus community and playing a key leadership role in student life.”
Hjalmarson says, “I am eager for this new challenge. I have long felt called to accompany people through joys and challenges of life, especially in multi-cultural, multi-lingual settings. I am glad to join Pan American and its mission to provide creative and robust religious formation and spiritual care to young people.”
About Presbyterian Pan American School
Founded in 1911, Presbyterian Pan American School is a Christian coeducational international boarding school serving students from across the Americas and beyond. Rooted in faith, learning and leadership, PPAS provides a college preparatory education within a nurturing, culturally diverse community guided by the teachings of Jesus Christ and the principles of the Christian church.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
