M. Garlinda Burton

Director of Resource Development

As Director for Resource Development, Garlinda expands and implements a comprehensive diverse resource program that increases knowledge within the church of intercultural differences and competencies, anti-racism, equity, and justice. She is responsible for creating and delivering training tailored for use across annual conferences, local churches, and denominational entities, with the goal of equipping all levels of the Church to successfully function in multicultural environments. She also manages the development of various resources with outside consultants to ensure that content meets the agency’s needs, and follows our in-house style guide.

A deaconess in The United Methodist Church, Garlinda has more than 30 years of experience as a writer, editor, producer, and trainer around issues of intercultural competency, racial justice, and gender justice. She is also committed to helping the church engage and nurture children, youth, and young adults as positive and powerful change agents for the cause of Jesus Christ.

Contact

  • If you would like to request Garlinda Burton for a consultation, training/workshop, public speaking engagement, or other type of facilitation, please fill out the form at https://www.gcorr.org/services

  • If you would like to contact her directly, you can reach her at gburton@gcorr.org or at 202-495-2940

Full Biography

Garlinda’s headshots are available here and here.

M. GARLINDA BURTON, a United Methodist deaconess, is the Director for Resource Development for the denomination’s General Commission on Religion and Race. Immediately before assuming this role, she served as executive director for the Nashville Freedom School Partnership©, a literacy/enrichment program for under-served, urban children created by the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. She is also founder of MotherWit, a consulting company that helps organizations achieve cultural/global justice and inclusion, and foster personal and team excellence and cooperation. She has also worked since 2013, producing resources on anti-racism, intercultural competency, tribalism, and global communications for the Commission on Religion and Race.

Ms. Burton frequently leads spiritual life retreats and offers motivational presentation for churches, faith-based organizations, colleges and universities, and social-action groups. She has worked for the international agencies of the United Methodist Church for more than 30 years. From 2003 to 2012, she was CEO of the Chicago-based General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, one of the Church’s 12 international general agencies. As head of the commission, Ms. Burton worked with lay and clergywomen to foster leadership and advocacy skills; challenged church leaders to identify and confront institutional sexism; trained bishops and other leaders on how to address sexual misconduct and gender discrimination; advocated for inclusion of women’s leadership; and identified emerging issues in women’s empowerment, particularly the concerns of women of color and churchwomen in Africa and the Philippines.

Before coming to the Women’s Commission, Ms. Burton was editor of INTERPRETER, a 200,000-circulation national magazine for laypeople and pastors in local United Methodist churches. She also served as director of United Methodist News Service and editorial director for the denomination's Korean magazine, Spanish-language magazine and official churchwide calendar.

Ms. Burton has traveled throughout southern Africa, Latin America, the Philippines and Europe as a writer, trainer and lecturer, motivational speaker, and frequently leads retreats and training at the local, regional, national and international level.

Ms. Burton is a specialist in racial, gender, and class issues in the media, academia, church and corporate life, and she frequently conducts training for media professionals, educators, businesses and church leaders on combating sexism, classism, racism and heterosexism/homophobia. Her first book, Never Say N*gger Again, an anti-racism study guide, was published in 1995. She recently contributed a chapter to the book, Holy Contradictions: What’s Next for The People Called United Methodists, about the struggle for LGBTQ rights. She writes and edits books and articles. Ms. Burton has also published a booklet on “body image” for teenage girls, and contributed to a book of meditations and reflections for mothers and step-moms.

As part of a Lilly Foundation Study on Methodism and American culture, she published a paper on “Media and Methodism: An Exploration of Resources Yet Untapped,” which later became a chapter in the foundation’s book on the influence of United Methodism on U.S. society.

Ms. Burton degrees from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. She did additional graduate work in Spanish at Puebla, Mexico, through the Wichita (Kan.) State University, and New York Theological Seminary. She is a member of the Board of Visitors for Vanderbilt Divinity School and serves on the board of directors of the Wesley Foundation at Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tenn. She is also a field education supervisor for seminary students at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Just for Fun

If you could have one magic item what would it be?

A flying carpet

What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy afternoon?

Reading Agatha Christie or J. California Cooper

What’s the best flavor combination you can think of?

Spicy broth and noodles