Hope Gold
Hope Gold is a philosophy instructor who has been working in education for more than sixteen years. She has taught all ages- from preschool through adult- during her professional life, and really honors those classroom experiences because she learned that most people, no matter their age, learn similarly.
Hope spent six years as a Director of Religious Education for several Unitarian Universalist Churches, and she authored the intergenerational curriculum "Principles for UU and Me,” used around the U.S. in different congregations. She facilitated youth and adult education programs, including a contemplative spirituality group, and a world religions class. Currently, she is a member of Wedgewood Baptist Church.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer in the late 1990s in Macedonia, Hope trained teachers and served as an educational resource for two years. Seeing former Yugoslavia slowly emerge from a couple of generations of Communism was a life-changing experience. Her daughters, Aia and Della, are half- Macedonian.
Hope has a BA in American History and Secondary Education from Erskine College, and an MA in Colonial American History with an emphasis on religion and the founding fathers from the University of South Dakota. She also nurtured a fascination for Native American History and spirituality while there, and she admits that she probably saw “Dances with Wolves” too many times as an undergrad, which prompted her move out west.
Hope is preparing to become a certified Spiritual Director/Life Coach, and looks forward to embracing this new path in life, as well as to continuing community service work.
Her husband is Joshua Gold, a counselor education professor at USC in Columbia. Together, they have a son named Will. Altogether they have three children, a cat named Rose, and two fish- Sapphire and Pearl. The fish are at the mercy of her daughters.
