In 1990, Eaton was appointed to a one-year term as interim pastor at Good Hope Lutheran Church in Youngstown, Ohio.
[5] Eaton became the first woman to serve as bishop in the synod when she was installed on February 7, 2007, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio.
[6] She succeeded Marcus J. Miller, who resigned in 2006 to become the president of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in South Carolina.
[8][9][3] She was installed as presiding bishop of the ELCA on October 5, 2013, at Rockefeller Chapel in Hyde Park (Chicago, Illinois).
[13] Eaton is married to T. Conrad Selnick, a priest of the Episcopal Church, who is vice president of the Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation in Chicago, and together they have two adult daughters, Rebeckah and Susannah.