Dr. Betty Pries
Dr. Betty Pries is a passionate advocate for the Church, dedicating her work to helping congregations navigate the complexities of conflict with wisdom, insight, and a deep understanding of God’s Word. With a heart for reconciliation, she works alongside communities to offer a fresh perspective on resolving conflicts, both within the Church and in our relationships with one another.Dr. Betty will be sharing her insights on the profound conflicts we experience with God and each other. Drawing from scripture, Betty will explore the deep, transformative lessons that can emerge from our struggles and the ways in which God uses conflict to shape us into His people. Through her teaching, Dr. Betty brings both a pastoral heart and an academic lens, offering a compassionate approach to navigating conflict while fostering a spirit of unity and healing in the Church.
With over 31 years of experience coaching, mediating, training, facilitating and consulting, Betty is highly regarded as a Conflict, Change, and Leadership Specialist. Betty specializes in working with complex challenges, supporting leaders and their organizations to be at their best. Betty’s capacity to care deeply, listen well, and provide wise and thoughtful support allows her to help her clients engage in tough, meaningful, and important conversations, set directions, and achieve positive organizational change. Betty is a specialist in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), leading anti-racism / anti-prejudice workshops, supporting EDI committees, reviewing and writing EDI-related policies, coaching leaders and offering support to organizations wrestling with EDI challenges. Betty brings a wealth of experience to her work, having worked with a wide range of organizations, both nationally and internationally. Betty has extensive education, training, and experience in coaching, mediation, negotiation, consensus building, consultation, facilitation, and organizational health. As Co-Founder and CEO at Credence, Betty’s great joy has been the opportunity to mentor and support the growth of the Credence team. Betty has a PhD from the Free University Amsterdam on the topic of conflict transformation. She is a Chartered Mediator with the ADR Institute of Canada and a member of the ADR Institute of Ontario. Betty is a regular instructor at the University of Waterloo. Dr Betty Pries, and others at Credence, have experience supporting numerous organizations with both recent and historical allegations and/or findings of abuse by leaders and/or congregants/employees.