Ryan Chambers Hahn '90
Written October 2007
Ryan Chambers Hahn describes herself as “very quiet” and “pretty shy” during her time at Harding. All that changed in eighth grade, when, well coached by French teacher Pam McKnight, she aced the required speech in front of the middle school and won the speech award. “That set off a spark in me,” says Ryan, now an ordained minister who feels as comfortable preaching before a large group as she does counseling individuals one-to-one.
Ryan, who is the daughter of Harding art teacher Carol Chambers, gained local fame when, in 2000, she became the first woman ever ordained in the First Baptist Church of Nashville’s more than 200-year history. But Ryan knew that God had not called her to be a minister with a congregation. She had discovered her true calling as a student at Harvard Divinity School, when she fulfilled a fieldwork requirement at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, working as a hospital chaplain. “I knew this is what God wanted me to do,” she says.
Since then, she has been a chaplain at the Veteran’s Hospital of Nashville, and at nursing homes in Providence, Rhode Island, and Lebanon, Ohio, where she currently lives. (She has relocated several times, on account of husband Chris’s job with Procter & Gamble.) In medical settings, she notes, “I don’t smell the smells, I don’t see the equipment. I feel at home there.” She has counseled and ministered to chronically and terminally ill patients, mental health patients, substance abuse patients—all kinds of people of various faiths and beliefs. Her role, she believes, is to let patients set the agenda, to let them take what they need from her. She says, “I see myself as a plate that is set before them, with all different things on it, and I let them choose what they need to take from it.”
Ryan is grateful for the “family atmosphere” at Harding that helped to bring her out of her shell, and she has hopes of returning to Tennessee someday. Until then, she says, “My mom keeps me updated!”
Ryan, who is the daughter of Harding art teacher Carol Chambers, gained local fame when, in 2000, she became the first woman ever ordained in the First Baptist Church of Nashville’s more than 200-year history. But Ryan knew that God had not called her to be a minister with a congregation. She had discovered her true calling as a student at Harvard Divinity School, when she fulfilled a fieldwork requirement at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, working as a hospital chaplain. “I knew this is what God wanted me to do,” she says.
Since then, she has been a chaplain at the Veteran’s Hospital of Nashville, and at nursing homes in Providence, Rhode Island, and Lebanon, Ohio, where she currently lives. (She has relocated several times, on account of husband Chris’s job with Procter & Gamble.) In medical settings, she notes, “I don’t smell the smells, I don’t see the equipment. I feel at home there.” She has counseled and ministered to chronically and terminally ill patients, mental health patients, substance abuse patients—all kinds of people of various faiths and beliefs. Her role, she believes, is to let patients set the agenda, to let them take what they need from her. She says, “I see myself as a plate that is set before them, with all different things on it, and I let them choose what they need to take from it.”
Ryan is grateful for the “family atmosphere” at Harding that helped to bring her out of her shell, and she has hopes of returning to Tennessee someday. Until then, she says, “My mom keeps me updated!”
Inspiring The Mind • Nurturing The Spirit