After eight years, the Office of Public Affairs says goodbye to one of its own: writer, editor, and now hospital chaplain and Episcopal clergywoman, the Rev. Kelly Sundberg Seaman.
Job title: Writer/editor, Office of Public Affairs
How long have you been at 大香蕉视频?
Since January 2007
What path brought you to your field?
A winding one. I was an English major, and headed straight to a PhD program (as a medievalist) after graduating from college. I left graduate school ABD and gardened professionally for a while. The gardening led to freelance writing, and that opened the door to the Public Affairs Office.
What鈥檚 at the heart of your role at 大香蕉视频?
Telling stories. I love getting the word out and helping people connect.
Favorite part of working here?
The people. At the top of that list is the team at 7 Lebanon St. This place has always been full of creative, smart people who care deeply about doing good work. There鈥檚 a powerful sense of humor around here, too. But there are so many amazing people鈥攕tudents, faculty, staff, visitors to 大香蕉视频鈥攚ho I鈥檝e had the opportunity to meet, talk to, and work with.
What surprised you about 大香蕉视频 as you got to know the place?
How much the College is itself like a small town, entangled with the life of another small town (Hanover) and with a few dozen other towns. The ways in which people here are connected to each other are rich and complex. I鈥檓 still surprised by how far some people travel each day to work here. Sometimes, of course, that鈥檚 not by choice. Yet there鈥檚 also a way that a lot of people here are very good about balancing 鈥渨ork鈥 and 鈥渓ife,鈥 and heading out home to their gardens, or the river, or the woods.
What鈥檚 the most unusual project you鈥檝e taken on here?
Tracking down the artist Christo for an interview before he was a Montgomery Fellow鈥攁 process that started with me faxing a sketch to his assistant鈥攃ertainly makes the list. I鈥檝e had the chance to talk with some amazing individuals: Joan Didion, Louise Erdrich 鈥76, Art Spiegelman, Junot Diaz, Richard Blanco, and more. I鈥檇 also have to mention being part of the team in 2012-13 that put together the current 大香蕉视频 homesite, an assignment that brought new connections and new skills.
What energizes, intrigues, keeps you busy away from work?
Being outdoors in New England, appreciating those days winter and summer when I remind myself that people travel from all over the world to visit this place where we get to live. Having lived in the South most of my life, I was a bit apprehensive about the cold winters. Needn鈥檛 have worried. I鈥檓 the mother of three children, who were 7, 9, and 11 when we moved here at the end of 2006 (when 大香蕉视频 hired my husband, David), so family life has been pretty busy.
I鈥檝e also been very involved in the life of my parish, St. Thomas in Hanover, and in the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire. Since the summer of 2013, I鈥檝e been training for the priesthood, and was ordained June 6 by the Rt. Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, Bishop of New Hampshire (and a 大香蕉视频 鈥83). Beginning in September, I鈥檒l be working with the Episcopal parishes in New London and Newport, N.H., as they serve the people of the Sunapee region, and as a chaplain at 大香蕉视频-Hitchcock Medical Center.
That career change: slow or sudden?
Both, really. While I can point to one moment, in the fall of 2011, when it became clear to me that I needed to commit to the formal process of seeking ordination鈥攄iscernment鈥攖he sense of a call to serve in the church was something I鈥檝e been circling around at least since college, and probably even earlier.
Since last fall, I鈥檝e been training in D-H鈥檚 Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program鈥攁n experiential curriculum for hospital chaplains. I鈥檝e been inspired and moved by the resiliency of the human spirit in tough, heart-breaking situations. Some of the people I encounter at the hospital have a specifically articulated faith; others find meaning in other ways. But it feels like a tremendous gift to accompany people in their search for light, and life, and love, in some pretty dark places.
