Alabamians appointed at NOBTS

Alabamians appointed at NOBTS

Two educators with ties to Alabama were approved by New Orleans Seminary’s (NOBTS) trustees during their March 14-16 meeting in New Orleans.

Samford University graduate Bayne Pounds was approved as the first trustee-elected Southern Baptist Convention seminary professor of women’s ministry. Judson graduate Laurie Watts, in a presidential appointment, was named professor of education technology, an administrative support position designed to undergird faculty and staff in technological issues related to their teaching.

Pounds earned her bachelor of arts degree in church recreation from Samford in 1977 and both her master of religious education and doctor of philosophy degrees from New Orleans Seminary in 1979 and 1999.

She and her husband, Jerry, who serves as assistant to the president at NOBTS, have two children.

She has served a variety of positions at NOBTS since 1989, most recently working with its women’s ministry program and serving as adjunct faculty member and contract teacher in the Chris­tian education division of the college of undergraduate studies. Previously, she served as a graduate fellow in the master’s level Christian education program.

Qualifications

A conference leader in the areas of ministerial liability and youth ministry, Pounds also served as adjunct professor in church recreation/religious education at Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, Tenn., from 1987-88. She has served in a variety of ministry positions, including director of single adult ministries at First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, S.C., from 1994-97, and Sunday School teacher/department director at First Baptist Church, New Orleans, since 1997.

An assistant professor of educational technology, Watts has served a variety of positions at NOBTS since 1985, including her present position as assistant to the vice president for business affairs for information technology services. She also has served as adjunct professor in the areas of Christian education and computer technology. Previously, she served as minister of children at Elysian Fields Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, from 1987-97.

She has also served as consultant of collaborative programming on the Logos Church Management Accounting System for Lowell Brown Enterprises in Los Angeles, as well as various ministry positions in Louisiana and Alabama.

Watts earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology and religion from Judson in 1984 and both her master of divinity and doctor of education degrees from NOBTS in 1988 and 1996. She and her husband, Stanley Jr., who serves as NOBTS director of special services, have one child.

Trustees also elected two other new faculty members. Curtis Scott Drumm and Norris Grubbs were approved as specialists in church history and New Testament, respectively, for the college of undergraduate studies.                                  (BP)