Viola Abbitt

I (she, her, hers, they) have been a lifelong resident of New York State. I grew up in the Hudson River Valley in the towns of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown (now Sleepy Hollow). I currently live in Malta, which is between Saratoga Springs, and the capital of Albany.

I am currently serving my second of two years as the part-time ministerial intern at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Greater Springfield in Massachusetts. Immediately prior to that, I served as an intern chaplain at the Albany Medical Center. Before that, for ten years, I worked as the Director of the Office of the Ombudsman for the New York State Office of Children and Family Services. There I supervised a staff whose core mission was to protect and promote the legal rights of youth in the juvenile justice system. I consider that among the most rewarding work I have ever engaged in.

I was previously employed by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, first as an Assistant Attorney General in New York City, and later as the Deputy Bureau Chief for the upstate division of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau. There I was involved in the prosecution of cases involving securities and tax fraud, environmental crimes and public corruption. At the beginning of my legal career, I served as an Assistant District Attorney in Bronx County, where I prosecuted street crimes, and later as Deputy Counsel for the Borough President in the Bronx. My interest in a law career arose from my sincere commitment to justice and fairness, and started when, as a teenager, I saw a peaceful protester wrongly arrested by police on the streets of New York City during a demonstration protesting apartheid in South Africa.

My work experience has also included helping to supply the information needs of researchers and executive staff in both the profit and non-profit world.

Church and religious thought have always played a large role in my life, and I ultimately found a spiritual home in Unitarian Universalism in 2002. I am currently a member of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady, in New York, as well as the Church of the Larger Fellowship. Over the years, I have served in various voluntary and paid positions in congregations in the Hudson-Mohawk cluster of UU congregations in New York State, and had the honor to preach at congregations in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York. I currently sit on the board of Unirondack, a Unitarian Universalist camp and conference center located in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. I contributed to the liturgical materials for the Promise and the Practice of Our Faith Campaign, and I am a new a member of the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Association. I was awarded a B.A. in economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton, an M.S. in information science from Long Island University and a J.D. from the Fordham University School of Law. I anticipate graduating from Meadville Lombard with an M.Div. in 2019.

I have one adult son Taylor, who is currently living his passion, and following his dream of making a living as a musician.