About Dorie

***2/10/2019 Please note: I am no longer updating the blog posts for Citadel parents. See the official school website for the most up to date information***

After a career in various public relations and marketing positions in college and professional sports and the hospitality industry, Dorie L. Griggs attended Columbia Theological Seminary, where she earned her Master of Divinity degree in 2002.

During her final year at Columbia, Dorie developed a model of chaplaincy for journalists who cover traumatic events. She has served as a volunteer with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, an organization founded by Dr. Frank Ochberg, MD.

She is currently the Chaplain for the Roswell (Georgia) Fire Department and  a member of the City of Roswell, Public Safety Peer Support committee.

Dorie served as the Communications Manager for the nonprofit, Faith And The City, from 2002-2004. In that capacity she produced the award-winning interfaith dialogue cable TV program, Faith And The City Forum. You can see the full list of show produced her her CV on the website, www.dorielgriggs.com

She is the author of a self-care advice column for newspaper journalists, One-On-One, which appeared in the e-Letter of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in 2003-04.

Dorie completed a year as a chaplain resident through the clinical pastoral education (CPE) program at the Atlanta VA Medical Center in June of 2015. She now serves on the Professional Advisory Group for the Office of Chaplain services at the AVAMC.

In April of 2014 Dorie was named the 2014 Pioneer in Ministry Award recipient by Columbia Theological Seminary in appreciation for her ministry of presence with journalists and for her support of parents of Citadel cadets. Read more here.

In May of 2015 she was part of the Surgical ICU team as a chaplain resident at the Atlanta VA Medical Center that received the DAISY Team Award.

Memberships and organizations: Professional Advisory Group member (PAG) Chaplaincy Department of the Atlanta VA Health System;  P.E.O.; commissioned Stephen Minister and founding chair of the Military Ministry at Roswell Presbyterian Church; a speaker with the Interfaith Speakers Bureau; Community Emergency Response Team member and instructor with the Roswell, GA Fire Department: 25th year as a press box volunteer with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

Her background in traumatic stress studies as well as being a Level II graduate of the Jeff Justice Comedy Workshoppe has helped her in her role as mother to 3 children: Nelson,  of Dallas, TX; Taylor the family comedian; and Chelle (pronounced Shelley) the actress of the family. Dorie is married to Stanley Leary, a freelance photographer.

You can contact Dorie here: dorie@dorielgriggs.com

Our family welcomed Nelson home from his first deployment in July 2013.
Photo by Sarah Kohut Harrell