Ellen Edwards
Director of Children's Ministries
Room S-203. Extension 17.
Like many other St. Paul’s members, Ellen Edwards found St. Paul’s when she was a graduate student in the Texas Medical Center. She and her husband had moved into the neighborhood, admired St. Paul’s architecture, and they came to see what is inside. They liked what they saw, and they stayed.
Born and reared in Port Arthur, Ellen holds a B.S. in biology from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Texas Health Science Center.
During their graduate school years, Ellen and Richard joined the Roundtable Sunday School class, then the St. Paul’s Choir. They also were youth counselors and were part of the Society of St. Stephens that founded the Emergency Aid Coalition.
By the early 1990s Ellen joined the St. Paul’s staff part-time while also teaching graduate students and raising two pre-schoolers, Ryan and Elissa. The combination of her St. Paul’s work as volunteer and staff blends. In one mode or the other over the years she has also lead children’s music, taught junior high Sunday school, been a youth coordinator and the St. Paul’s School Council chair.
Eventually she selected St. Paul’s children over medical center graduate students. Her responsibilities have continued to change over time, for several years including adult education as well as children’s.
Now she concentrates on all the many aspects of children’s ministry, which has blossomed under her leadership. She now directs children’s Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Musikgarten, and Kids Night Out/Kids Day Out and manages a reliable, long-tenured childcare staff. She also continues to sing in St. Paul’s Choir, descending from the choir loft during the first and third services to escort children in worship to join others for Children’s Church in the Jones Building.
Her children are now grown. Ryan is an audio engineer at KUHF Houston Public Radiio and was part of the team that produced the only U.S. recording nominated in the Opera category for the 2011 Grammy awards, Hasse’s Marc Antonio e Cleopatra performed by Houston’s Ars Lyrica. Elissa has graduated as a soprano voice major from Boston University and is looking forward to graduate studies in vocal performance. Her husband Richard continues to sing in the St. Paul’s Choir and to be a member of the Roundtable class, and he also provides a major supporting hand with many of the children’s activities.
