Texas Baptist CLC names first female director

Texas Baptist CLC names first female director

DALLAS — Suzii Paynter has been named director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission (CLC) — the first woman to hold the influential position.

The directorship of the ethics and public-policy organization is historically one of the most high-profile positions in the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) and religious life in Texas. She had served as interim director since March 2, after the death of longtime director Phil Strickland from cancer.

Paynter’s husband, Roger, is pastor of First Baptist Church, Austin, Texas, where she is a frequent teacher and ordained deacon.

Charles Wade, executive director of the BGCT, said Paynter has a deep passion for Christ, for serving Texas Baptists and for improving the state. She served as public-policy director of the Texas CLC before becoming director and is considered an effective lobbyist and coalition-builder for progressive Christian issues in the state’s capital.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and master’s degrees from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and the University of Louisville in Kentucky.  (TAB)