Dr Deidre Palmer
President of the Uniting Church in Australia

Dr Deidre Palmer has had a long and distinguished career as an academic and Christian educator in Australia and the United States.

Deidre is a senior lecturer in Christian Education at Flinders University School of Theology and the Adelaide College of Divinity. She completed her Masters in Religious Education at Duke University in North Carolina, and her Ph.D. at Boston College, going on to hold several academic posts including serving on the faculty of Perkins School of Theology in Dallas teaching Christian Education.

Deidre remains an adjunct faculty member for Uniting College of Leadership and Theology, teaching Christian education and ministry with families and children.

Deidre is also a social worker who completed a Masters of Social Work at Flinders University before working part-time for four-and-a-half years as a counsellor with Uniting Communities in their Childhood Sexual Abuse Counselling team.

She served as Moderator of the UCA Synod of South Australia from 2013 to 2016 and is a member of Rosefield Uniting Church in Adelaide.

The theme Deidre has chosen for her three years as President is “Abundant Grace, Liberating Hope”.