Jill Raitt

Jill Raitt (born 1931) was the first woman to receive tenure at Duke University's Divinity School faculty.

While working on a cattle ranch during high school, she developed an attachment to horses and farms that would follow her into adulthood.

[1] After graduating from Santa Monica High School as Salutatorian in 1949, Raitt began her first year at Radcliffe College where she studied Latin and English.

In Rome she attended the General Historicum of the Society of Jesus where she studied philosophy and theology under the guidance of E. J. Burrus.

After graduation, Raitt joined the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and spent eleven years in the cloister.

In the summer of 1964, after leaving religious life, Raitt enrolled at Marquette University to continue her theological education.

After establishing a successful department, Raitt taught full-time at the University of Missouri from 1981 to 2001, and, after retirement, part-time from 2002 to 2008.