1973 – Delegate from Captain Shreve High School
Currently – Pastor
Pattie Morrison came to LYS as a delegate in 1973. She returned to serve as Junior Counselor in 1974 and 1975 and as Counselor in 1976 and 1977. She is a member of the 5 Year Club and the LYS Hall of Fame. Pattie serves on the LYS Board of Directors and the Board Recruitment Subcommittee.
Dr. Kitchen received her bachelor’s degree from Centenary College, her Master of Education from the University of Virginia, her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminar, and her Doctor of Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary. Pattie lives her life in service to others. Dr. Kitchen has served in the area of Mission and Outreach in several churches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Shreveport, Louisiana, and Denver, Colorado. In addition, she demonstrates her leadership and pursues her passion for helping people around the world by leading ministries of Presbyterian outreach and partnership in Haiti, Kenya, South Africa, Guatemala and Cuba.
Pattie has three grown children, all of whom have attended LYS and have served on staff and who love LYS: Crawford is at Princeton Theological Seminar; Ben is a Tulane graduate and founder of the New Orleans festival “Hip Hop for Hope”, established to donate funds to restore educational needs in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina; Elizabeth is a student at SMU in Dallas. Dr. Kitchen is married to Dr. James Kitchen a retired cardiologist, involved with international Presbyterian medical missions.
Although Pattie has lived outside of Louisiana for most of her years since her graduation from Centenary College, she loves her home state of Louisiana and she is dedicated to making a difference with the youth of Louisiana through the Louisiana Youth Seminar. When asked about LYS in August 2008, Dr. Kitchen commented:
“In thirty-five years of association with LYS, the impact of this unique leadership program is difficult to quantify. In my experience, the essence of LYS is the transfer, from generation to generation, not of power but of the power of grace in relationships... a quality that can surely change our global village, one young and tenacious leader at a time. Such leaders are being born at LYS summer after summer....
When Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, I made acquaintance with countless evacuees of all colors and shapes and perspectives, as many re-settled in Shreveport. I realized as I looked into the face of hope of my new friend Joan, as we measured and hammered to build her Habitat/Fuller Center house, that the comfort of diversity I experienced with her had first been established at LYS in the turbulent early 70's when I served with a loving, wholesome checkerboard of black and white delegates and counselors... in the south! While the National Guard prepared to guard the halls of our high school, we laughed, learned parliamentary procedure and lost our voices screaming with support for our Home Groups, oblivious to the pigment of one another's skin. Leadership is colorblind... that was one of the life-altering gifts, for me, of LYS...
Do you yearn to work and live in a neighborhood, a town, a city, a world, where the buoyant chords of 'No Man Is An Island' are heard... and lived? The hope of that prospect is what I took home from LYS... as an adult, it is an ethic I strive to foster for my colleagues every single day.... No one is an island, no one stands alone, each one's joy is joy to me, each one's grief is my own, we need one another, so I will defend, each one as my brother or sister... and each one as my friend.”
(Note: The LYS Theme Song is “No Man is an Island”)