MEMPHIS LAW ALUMNA MAKES HISTORY IN MISSISSIPPI

Memphis Law alumna the Rev. Dr. Dorothy Sanders Wells recently made history in early February, becoming the very first woman and the first African-American ever elected as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.

She will become Bishop elect on May1 and then ordained on July 20.

Rev. Dr. Wells, who will become the 11th bishop of the Mississippi diocese, is Rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Germantown, Tennessee, and is chaplain of the church's preschool. She has served the church since 2013.

"I am truly humbled by the confidence that the council has placed in me, and I am so looking forward to working with the good people of the Diocese of Mississippi," Wells said. "We are reading all kinds of statistics and reports about declining church attendance and declining church engagement, but we know God is in the midst of all of this and I am looking forward to exploring with this Diocese all of the ways we can continue love God and love one another and serve our neighbors and care for the people around us."

Wells is a native of Mobile, Alabama and received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. She also holds a master's degree in divinity from the Memphis Theological Seminary and a doctorate in ministry from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. 

Prior to her ordination into the ministry, Rev. Dr. Sanders Wells was a practicing employee benefits attorney for 18 years in Memphis, at FedEx Corporation for 15 years and at the law firm of Waring Cox, PLLC. 

Wells also is active in the Memphis community, having served on the boards of directors of the Metropolitan Inter-faith Association (MIFA), Church Health, Community Alliance for the Homeless, and Room in the Inn-Memphis.