Pastor Cari Willis

Pastor Cari is excited about being a first time pastor here at Calvary UMC. Prior to this, she was a Chaplain Resident at the VA Hospital in Durham where she spent 16 months with our Veterans. She honed her pastoral care skills there and she now calls herself the “6 foot ear.” She has spent a lot of time working in hospice both at the VA and in other non-profits, namely Joseph’s House in DC and Community Home Care and Hospice in Cary. She has also visited with the dying on the hospice units at the Federal Prison in Butner.

Pastor Cari is a 2009 graduate of Duke Divinity. This Fall she will continue at Duke Divinity as the Teaching Assistant for the class: “Restorative Justice, Prison Ministry, and the Church.” Pastor Cari has a heart for a myriad of social justice issues and hopes to get deeply rooted in the lives of her congregation as well as the life of Durham.

Prior to answering the call into ministry, Pastor Cari was the Vice President of Employee Services e-business group with Fidelity for 2 years.  She also worked at IBM for over 18 years in many roles from Human Factors Engineering to middle management in Human Resources (HR).  Cari used to speak at numerous HR conferences about how to transform HR operations.  She also led the Women’s Diversity Network Group at both IBM and Fidelity.

Pastor Cari graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1982 with a degree in psychology. She is married to Roger. She has one son, Luke. And her mother, Jane, lives very close by her home.