Constance Greta Arthur has devoted most of her life to her current profession. As the mental health chaplain at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Warner Robins, Georgia, where she has worked for more than 15 years, she is proud to provide mental health and spiritual counseling to servicemembers and veterans. In her current role, Ms. Arthur conducts both group and one-on-one counseling sessions, specializing in marriage counseling and primarily serving veterans and their spouses or partners. She helps her clients with issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and helps them cope with grief, loss, and moral injury. Ms. Arthur is also proud to provide services to men and women who have experienced sexual trauma during their military service. Looking ahead, she plans to continue her tenure with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and later transition to a career in teaching. Specifically, she is considering teaching ethics.
As a highly qualified and credentialed professional in mental health and chaplaincy, Ms. Arthur began her higher education at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the institution with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and women’s studies, going on to matriculate at the Boston University School of Theology, where she earned a Master of Divinity degree in theology and ethics. Alongside her formal degrees, Ms. Arthur is certified in mental health integration with chaplain services through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Defense. With extensive experience serving U.S. military veterans in need of assistance, she contributed her free time as a volunteer for three years with a homeless shelter for women veterans. For her contributions and achievements in service to others, Ms. Arthur has been recognized with the Marquis Who’s Who Humanitarian Award.
During her time in seminary, Ms. Arthur attended a program called the National Capital Semester for Seminarians in Washington, D.C., which still exists. The program, tailored explicitly toward seminarians with an interest in politics and government, is a semester-long, intensive study program covering public policy, theology, and ethics. To even be considered, Ms. Arthur needed a nomination from her seminary faculty. She was nominated by the faculty at Boston University to attend the Wesley Theological Seminary, part of American University based in Washington, D.C. Before launching her career in chaplaincy, she garnered more than 20 years of experience in the computer industry. In recognition of her career excellence, Ms. Arthur was offered the position of veteran care coordinator for the LGBTQ community in the middle Georgia region.
Over the course of several years, Ms. Arthur has been actively involved in the Making Change Program at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Based on her work with the Presbyterian Church during her youth, she was recruited by the Boston University School of Theology and played a key role in developing the Youth Triennium, a program through the Presbyterian Church that remains active today. While studying in college, Ms. Arthur helped to draft the proposal for the General Assembly, which, after she graduated from seminary, was ultimately approved.
Ms. Arthur is proud of her decades-spanning career in both mental health chaplaincy and the computer industry. She attributes her success to the strong influence of her family, including her parents and grandparents, and believes strongly that the health care system in the United States should pivot toward a focus on preventive care rather than treating illnesses, believing that we can learn from the systems present in other developed nations. Motivated and strengthened by her varied life experiences, Ms. Arthur carries with her a determination to always strive for more, better herself, and make her father proud. In her free time, she enjoys creative activities such as woodworking, restoring old furniture, and playing the guitar.