Meet our Pastor

A native of Dallas, Sallie's roots in Fannin County and northeast Texas go back for five generations. She graduated from Austin College in 1978 with a Bachelor's in English. 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. A candidate from Grace Presbytery, she earned the Master of Divinity degree in 1987. She received the Doctor of MInistry in Preaching from McCormick Theological Seminary/Association of Chicago Theological Schools in May 2007.

Sallie has served as our Pastor since October of 2002. She also served a number of churches in Texas, California and Utah in both called and interim positions as an intern, Associate Pastor, and Pastor.

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 has served as moderator of the Committee on Ministry and moderator of the Interim General Presbyter Search Committee. Most recently she served the Synod of the Sun as part of their "The Next Right Thing" mission revisioning process.

Currently, along with her duties here at First Presbyterian Church, Sallie is serving as a Trustee for Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, vice-moderator of Grace Presbytery's Mission Review Team, a member of the Presbytery Council, and treasurer for the Fannin County Ministerial Alliance.

Sallie and her husband Paul are the proud, happy, and exhausted parents of two children, Alex and Meredith. In between carpool runs Sallie enjoys genealogy, quilting, southern literature, entertaining, and keeping up with friends and family.