Wendy Griffin (September 23,1941-February 12, 2021), a longtime member of the SSSR died peacefully at home. Wendy is best known for her research on the Goddess movement and her work in establishing contemporary Pagan studies as its own interdisciplinary field. She published numerous articles and book chapters, and was the editor of Daughter of The Goddess: Studies of Healing, Identity, and Empowerment (AltaMira, 2000). With Chas Clifton she began a Pagan Studies Book Series for Rowman and Littlefield. Working with a number of other scholars she helped to form the Contemporary Pagan Studies section at the American Academy of Religion and served as its first co-chair with Michael York. 

Wendy received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in sociology from the University of California, Irvine. She was a non-traditional student returning after spending over a decade traveling, working in the theater, and singing and playing her guitar in New York and throughout Europe. She returned to college as a single mother supplementing her scholarships writing romance novels. The skills she honed as a novelist were useful when she turned to writing ethnography. She was gifted at catching the atmosphere, smells, and tastes of rituals she attended. After receiving her PhD, Wendy became the first full-time faculty member and later chair of the Women’s Studies Department of California State University, Long Beach. She retired from CSULB as a full professor and became the Academic Dean of the Cherry Hill Seminary, the preeminent Pagan seminary. 

After retiring from Cherry Hill, Wendy returned to novel writing under the name Wendy Lozano. In 2018 she published an historical novel, The Fifth Sun, which was to be the first of a trilogy, about the conquest of the Aztecs. However, a debilitating stroke ended those plans. Wendy is preceded in death by her daughter, Tauka Lozano, who died at the age of 16 in a car crash and is survived by her husband Clay Douglas (Doug) Cox, stepson, Chris Cox, two grandchildren, Charlotte and Collin Douglas Cox and her sister Gay Riseborough.