Lawrence resident named interim president of Overland Park seminary

The Rev. H. Sharon Howell

The Saint Paul School of Theology named the Rev. H. Sharon Howell, of Lawrence, interim president this week. Howell will begin serving in the role on July 1 while the Overland Park seminary continues its search for a new president.

Howell is a Saint Paul graduate and former staff member who also served as senior pastor at Lawrence’s First United Methodist Church. She retired in 2012 after seven years as president of Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, Tenn. Howell also served for seven years as district superintendent and was elected a general and jurisdictional delegate from the Kansas East Conference. Howell was a member of and served as term as president of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women in the United Methodist Church and upon returning to Kansas was awarded a pastor emerita honor by First United Methodist in Lawrence.

Established in 1958, Saint Paul School of Theology is a United Methodist seminary with locations in the Kansas City and Oklahoma City areas.