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Meet Meredith Chaplain Donna Battle

On Meredith College’s campus, Donna Battle serves a fundamental role for students, faculty, and the entire Meredith community as chaplain.

As Meredith’s chaplain, Battle provides the campus with pastoral care, spiritual direction, and connects others to holistic resources within the community.

“I serve all,” Battle says, “regardless of religious background or beliefs.”

Battle is also one of the three confidential sources for students and the only confidential source for faculty and staff. She describes her role on campus as to “affirm the humanity and worth of all people,” and to “facilitate ways for Meredith, as a community, to practice the same.”

For the past 16 years, when not busy raising her three children with her husband, Dedrick, Battle has been dedicated to enriching her community. She has worked directly with a multitude of organizations, serving as executive pastor of the Way Christian Center in Berkeley, California, and as a life coach and associate dean of the chapel at Shaw University. She has also facilitated the development of healthy relationships, spirituality, identity, ethics, and values for communities through retreats and programs across the northeast and California. In addition to being ordained and licensed to preach, Battle holds a B.A. in public relations from N.C. A&T State University, an M. Div. from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy from Eastern University.

Having a role that involves a high level of interaction with students, there are many ways in which Battle connects to Meredith’s campus. Every Wednesday, a spiritual service is held in the chapel where the Meredith community can come together and “share their faith journey.” Battle also gets to interact with students during one-on-one meetings, in classrooms where she is invited to create a dialogue, with student organizations, and, in passing around campus.

In her experience working with students, one of the greatest challenges is “keeping the balanced understanding that students are learning how to be adults while technically being adults!” When asked about her favorite part of her job, Battle shared that she finds joy in “walking with students as they learn new ways to engage the world and others.”

Above all else, Battle wants parents to know that their students are in good, caring hands. “My role on campus is to be life giving, and I desire to be so to and with anyone I encounter, without exception.”

Melyssa Allen

News Director
316 Johnson Hall
(919) 760-8087
Fax: (919) 760-8330

allenme@meredith.edu