Founder

Rev. Dr. Phaedra D. Blocker is a preacher, teacher, spiritual director, consultant, and singer who has a passion for wholeness and creative abundance. As founder and principal of Word&Wisdomtm, a consulting ministry whose mission is to give creative expression to timeless truth, she works to empower individuals and organizations (particularly clergy and churches) to move toward wholeness and actualize their potential. Word&Wisdomtm provides spiritual and life coaching, counseling, leadership development training, and ministry/organizational consulting. Phaedra has also created the Center for Clergy & Congregational Wellness, and serves as its Executive Director. The Center empowers clergy leaders--particularly leaders of color--to facilitate health and wholeness in themselves, their ministry contexts, and their adjacent communities.

An ordained minister of the Gospel, Phaedra has served the Kingdom of God in various capacities, both lay and clergy, including as an Associate Pastor for a congregation of over 10,000 members, and as Assistant Pastor of a small faith community comprised primarily of believers who have immigrated from Liberia; she was the first African American member and leader of the congregation. Phaedra also serves as Affiliate Professor in Leadership and Formation at Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University, where she teaches in the Masters and Doctoral programs, as well as the University's Marriage and Family Therapy Doctoral program. Previously, she has served as Director of Programs at New Baptist Covenant, a ministry of action founded by President Jimmy Carter to "build bridges in places previously marked by division, and to engage churches and organizations in the work of racial reconciliation and social justice." Her ministry experience also includes oversight of Christian education and pastoral care ministries, counseling, leadership development, women’s ministry, drama ministry, evangelism and outreach ministries, and music ministry. 

Phaedra has worked with and served as a consultant for non-profit and for-profit organizations both locally and nationally, and has more than 25 years' experience in management, community relations, communications and marketing design, fund development, event planning, program and organizational development, and training. 

A graduate of Temple University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications, Phaedra also earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree in Spiritual Transformation at Northern Theological Seminary. She has also completed graduate level course work in Government Administration at the Fels Center of Government, University of Pennsylvania. In addition, she has done clinical training in marriage and family therapy at the Council for Relationships. She is a certified Civil Conversations Facilitator.

Phaedra's professional affiliations have included serving on the boards of the Transforming Center, in Wheaton, IL, which equips leaders to guide their churches and organizations to become spiritually transforming communities, and Grace & Race Ministries, Inc., which provides racial reconciliation ministry, conflict resolution, leadership development and educational opportunities. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Inter-Seminary Initiative of Interfaith Philadelphia, the Spiritual Caregivers Network of American Baptist Home Mission Society, and Spiritual Directors International. She is the recipient of citations from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the City of Philadelphia for service "to the faith and business communities," as well as a Legion of Honor Award from the Chaplain of the Four Chaplains, for “...service to community, nation, or humanity without regard to race, religion or creed.”

Phaedra is a voracious reader, gets recharged by quiet places in nature, and believes that dark chocolate is one of God’s better ideas. A guiding verse for her life is Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”