Meet Westina

Writer | Teacher | Speaker | Retreat Leader | Spiritual Director

For over 35 years, Westina Matthews has turned her passion and creativity into realities for so many in the community at large. In 2009, Westina retired from Merrill Lynch with the title of managing director which reflected her progressive responsibilities, including philanthropy, global diversity, community development and business development. Upon her retirement, she was a Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University where she researched women and girls in Burundi in east-central Africa. She then joined the Jackie Robinson Foundation for four years as vice president, chief program officer. For twelve years (2010 – 2022) Westina was an adjunct professor at General Theological Seminary in the Center for Christian Spirituality where she taught contemplative spiritual direction.

Today, Westina serves on the boards of Spiritual Directors International (chair); the Gathering of Leaders — for clergy and lay leaders who have demonstrated entrepreneurial skills and who possess a hope-filled vision for the Episcopal Church); and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. She is a mentor for both The Leaders Way at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the Trinity Church Wall Street Fellows Program; and offers spiritual direction at General Theological Seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary and Berkeley Divinity School.

Committed to leadership by example, Westina is or has served on the boards of over 30 not-for-profit organizations, seminaries, colleges, and universities, including: International Women’s Forum; Women’s Forum of New York (past president); Executive Leadership Council; University of Dayton; Bank Street College of Education; Wilberforce University; Trinity Church Wall Street; Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, and New York Theological Seminary.

Westina is the author of three books in the Have A Little Faith Series (2003, 2004, 2005); Dancing from the Inside Out: Grace-filled Reflections on Growing Older (2019); This Band of Sisterhood: Black Women Bishops on Race, Faith, and the Church (2021); and Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership (2023). She has contributed to several Forward Movement anthologies, including A Year of Daily Meditations (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016); as well as to Wisdom Found: Stories of Women Transfigured by Faith (2011) and Sisters! Bonded by Love and Laughter (2021) and I’m Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Trust in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope (2021). Westina also was a frequent contributor to Sacred Journey: The Journal of Fellowship in Faith.

Westina earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in education from the University of Dayton, a PhD in education from the University of Chicago, and served as a postdoctoral research fellow at both Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.