The General Superintendent’s Office is honored to welcome Dr. Kristen Welch as the new part-time Director of the IPHC Archives & Research Center.
Dr. Kristen Welch
Kristen received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Central Oklahoma, both in English, and in 2007, she completed her doctoral degree from the University of Arizona specializing in Rhetoric, Composition, and the Teaching of English. It was during her doctoral work that she met Dr. Harold Hunter, former Director, and began working in archival research.
Kristen has been a college professor for 25 years and will continue her position as an English professor for Spartanburg Methodist College in South Carolina.
Kristen is also a published author. Her four novels focus on the role of women within the PH denomination. These titles are Women with the Good News: The Rhetorical Heritage of Pentecostal Holiness Women Preachers (2010), Deep Roots: Defining the Sacred Through the Voices of Pentecostal Women Preachers (2013), The Role of Female Seminaries on the Road to Social Justice for Women (2015), and This Present Darkness: Meet Me on the Battlefield (2021).
Along with being a professor and published author, Kristen is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She and her husband will celebrate 25 years of marriage this year, and she has a daughter, son, stepson, and three granddaughters.
IPHC has been a constant in Kristen’s life. Her grandfather, Rev. R. L. Rex served as World Missions and Evangelism Director for the IPHC, and she is proud to continue contributing to IPHC’s legacy through her own work. As the archivist, Kristen plans to build upon what Dr. Hunter created by increasing digital archives and expanding them through interaction and engagement by anyone in the denomination. She wants to make the information more easily accessible so people can learn more about the denomination, as well as the “smaller” stories that make IPHC unique, along with its living history of 21st Century events.
