Dr. Robbie Pinter

Dr. Robbie Pinter serves on the Board of St. Mary’s Sewanee. She taught English at Belmont University for forty years.  She now enjoys what was once her “career within a career,” offering Spiritual Direction, retreats, and Centering Prayer groups.  She is also a supervisor for those offering Spiritual Direction. After a nudge to dwell more fully in the world of metaphor, symbol, ritual and social justice, she converted to Catholicism. Raised in the Baptist tradition, Robbie now speaks two spiritual languages.

A three-time graduate of Shalem Institute (The Spiritual Guidance Program, Transforming Community and the Soul of Leadership), Robbie has served as a Spiritual Director for 18 years. She also serves on the leadership team for Contemplative Outreach, west and east Tennessee.

Throughout her career, Robbie taught classes that she designed such as Journaling within and beyond the academy. This course incorporates wisdom from sources such as Ira Progroff’s eponymous program, “In a Journal Workshop” to Suleika Jaouad,  The Book of Alchemy.  She has also offered academic papers and non-academic workshops for those interested in spiritual writing.

Robbie has a deep love of teaching—both teaching and spiritual direction are a little alike in that they both involve “listening a person into existence” as Mary Rose O’Reilley writes. Both teaching and spiritual direction offer their own kinds of listening.  All of these courses inform her current work.

Robbie is wife to Mike, a Math professor at Belmont University, and mother to Nicholas who teaches pre-school at the Jewish Community Center (she’s thrilled he joined the family business of education).