MaryAnn's Background & Credentials
MaryAnn Morris began her career in the United Methodist Church in 1986. During her tenure working for the denomination, she served 2 United Methodist agencies and 8 different United Methodist congregations.
In 2001, MaryAnn took a part-time pastoral appointment and became bi-vocational. At that time, she served the local church while simultaneously working on the professional speaking circuit, specializing in Conflict Resolution. She has worked in 47 US states as well as Canada, England, Scotland, and Wales. Her client list included: Wachovia, The Chicago Board of Trade, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Georgia Power & Light, Kodak, Moen, and Yahoo.
In July of 2010, she became a part of the United Methodist Church’s Missouri Annual Conference Healthy Church Initiative (HCI) as a coach and consultant and was a member of the HCI Executive Team. While serving the denomination in that capacity, she led 37 congregations through the consultation process and worked as a ministry coach for 29 different clergy leaders.
From 2012-2015 MaryAnn taught Religion and Philosophy courses for the Humanities Department at Ozarks Technical Community College.
In 2015 MaryAnn joined the staff at Phillips Theological Seminary and during her tenure, held various titles. She retired from the seminary in 2021 as the Dean of Students. While serving Phillips, she worked extensively with the student body to cultivate intercultural competence. As a part of that work, in 2017 she became a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Instrument. ​
After retiring from Phillips Theological Seminary, MaryAnn began to cultivate her love for coaching and became a Certified Professional Coach (CPC) in the spring of 2022.
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In 2022, MaryAnn also returned to the classroom at Ozarks Technical Community College to teach Religion and Philosophy. She is currently serving the college as the Director of Academics on the Richwood Valley campus and teaches both seated and online classes each semester.
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MaryAnn is a graduate of Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri and a graduate of Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has received extensive post-graduate training in Christian Mediation and Conflict Transformation from the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center in Chicago, Illinois. Having completed all state-mandated training at Missouri State University’s Center for Dispute Resolution in 2020, MaryAnn is also a qualified court mediator in Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. As well, she has a Post-graduate Clinical Certificate in Bowen Family Systems Theory from Rutgers University.
MaryAnn is a published author. She penned her first book in 1999 and co-authored her second in 2003 with a group of colleagues. She has also published various magazine, newspaper, and academic journal articles. She is currently working on a new writing project and hopes to have more to share very soon.
She is married, has two grown sons, and lives in Springfield, Missouri.