Carolynn Winters-Hazelton joined West Side as our pastor on May 15, 2021. She comes to us as a seasoned pastor. Ordained in 1996, Carolynn has served in a variety of pastoral roles on the East Coast, then the West Coast and more recently in the Midwest.
Since moving to Kansas in 2006, Carolynn has served as a transitional pastor with Westminster Presbyterian in Topeka, St. Paul United Church of Christ in Eudora, and the NEB-KAN Parish (First Presbyterian Churches of Hiawatha, KS and Falls City, NE), parish associate at Lawrence First Presbyterian, and as the campus minister for Ecumenical Campus Ministries at KU. In January 2020, Carolynn joined the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) National Response Team, making the commitment to be deployed to the field for four weeks a year.
Carolynn grew up in Southern California, earned a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.P.A. from Cal State Hayward. She and Kent married in 1979. She received her MDiv from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.
Currently, when she is home Carolynn spends most of her time keeping her two rescue dogs, Cabo and Hampton, in line as well as working in her garden.