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I feel that I’m suited to this position for a variety of reasons. First and foremost: I’m incredibly excited to get more involved in ECCT! My extroverted, networking, storytelling brain is eager to explore this state and diocese even further, to meet people, listen, and learn – and support the fabulous work people or doing or aspire to do. The lessons I’ve learned time and again, whether in my backyard or halfway around the world, boil down to community and connection.
I won’t preach to the choir about the challenges of doing church in today’s world – anyone reading this no doubt knows that from experience. I can acknowledge how easy it is for us to silo our spaces on Sundays, or start preparing for the next diocesan convention as soon as the next one’s over. To me, the big challenge – and exciting opportunity – is bringing church and community together, every day of the week. To find Christ in our communities, not just on Sundays within the walls of our congregations, but beyond them. To explore loving our neighbors and communities – even if we disagree with each other.
I truly feel that my experiences and interests – whether global, local, and everything in between – have brought me to the right place and time. In prayerful reflection and discussion with people as I considered putting my application forward, what came back to me time and again is the reminder that community – that Christ and mission – is right here, right now. The question ahead of us is: how do we do this together?
I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Rainier Maria Rilke: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
No doubt you, like me, have been navigating a lot of questions over the years. I am excited to be here with you now and explore together just how we might be living into those answers.
As a lifelong Episcopalian and member of St. Monica’s, I have experienced the Church as a place of worship, formation, family, service, and belonging. I have also witnessed how congregations must adapt to changing circumstances while remaining grounded in their faith and identity. These experiences have given me both a deep love for the Episcopal Church and a practical understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing local parishes. The Church supported me while I was a young single mother to three children, and I will forever be grateful.
My service as Vestry Clerk, Stewardship Co-Chair, Harvest Committee member, and member of the Episcopal Church Women has strengthened my skills in organization, communication, planning, collaboration, and relationship-building. My professional experience in hospitality and insurance and now as a small business owner has also taught me to listen carefully, work with people from different backgrounds, manage important details, and approach problems with patience and practicality.
I would bring to the Mission Council the perspective of an active urban parish member who understands the importance of faithful leadership, responsible stewardship, strong lay participation, and meaningful community engagement. I am comfortable working behind the scenes to organize details, but I am also willing to ask thoughtful questions, contribute ideas, and advocate for congregations whose voices and experiences should be represented.
Most importantly, I would approach this ministry with a willingness to listen, learn, collaborate, and serve. I believe my knowledge of parish life, commitment to the wider Church, and desire to help our congregations thrive would allow me to make a meaningful contribution to the Mission Council and to ECCT’s shared mission.
I learned a lot about the Episcopal diocese of Albany when I was an employee of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Saranac Lake, NY. I am interested in bringing my knowledge from that experience to ECCT both to compare and share. I also have experience with making old churches more accessible to those with physical challenges.
With years of experience attending Annual Meetings and serving All Saints’ as a vestry member, treasurer and senior warden, I have a deep understanding of our church’s operations. I am Christ-centered, level-headed, an attentive listener and bring a healthy sense of humor to my leadership.
Based on my current and past involvement in ECCT, I believe I am well suited for this position. I also have over 40 years of experience in HR, Equity and Inclusion as I was employed as a Senior Director at Yale University until my retirement in December of 2021. Serving in varying capacities in ECCT is really my passion. Being with like-minded and faithful people is truly a blessing! Other than my grandchildren, nothing brings me more joy and satisfaction!
I am called to serve beyond my parish and want to contribute to the greater mission of the ECCT. My commitment would be on the same level to which I am committed in my other involvements. I can only promise to contribute my all to whichever committee which you feel I am qualified to serve. I will fulfill the anti-racial training and safe church training as required below in the time required.
“[T]here is not just one way to be a Christian, but [I] am head-over-heels in love with the Anglican way of following Jesus.”
I really wish I’d written that, but alas, I did not. Those words belong to Scott Gunn and Melody Wilson Shobe in Walk in Love: Episcopal Beliefs & Practices, p. xvi. But they describe exactly how I feel about our Episcopal faith.
I was raised in an atheist household, full of love, but decidedly not spiritual. Even as a child, though, I felt a “pull” toward faith I couldn’t quite understand. It was not until I had children of my own that I felt called to the Episcopal Church. In 2007, I was baptized at the Great Vigil of Easter, where my atheist family, awestruck by the baptismal rite, felt a connection to church for the first time. My love for the Episcopal faith has only grown over the years, drawing me more fully into the work and worship of St. Andrew’s and toward the ministry of the wider Church.
Much of what I would bring to this role begins with a lawyer’s instinct for understanding how institutions are structured and how governing documents shape what an organization must do versus what it may do. (What it should do is another question entirely!) I genuinely enjoy poring over constitutions, canons, policies, and bylaws (marginalia and footnotes included). At St. Andrew’s, I created a new Vestry Handbook and Covenant, revised our Vestry Norms, and designed and led our 2026 Vestry Retreat centered on formation and discernment. Professionally, I have set management standards, looked with fresh eyes at how our people and their skills might be used differently, and taken responsibility for difficult personnel matters requiring careful fact-finding, documentation, judgment, and follow-through, often amid dramatic shifts in priority.
I also tend to see the gifts people bring to an institution and imagine how they might be used more fully. At the U.S. Attorney’s Office, I have reorganized our litigation-support work, bringing existing personnel together in a centralized unit with dedicated expertise and clearer roles. At St. Andrew’s, I helped restructure our Preschool leadership within significant financial and staffing constraints, strengthening oversight and compliance. Both experiences required me to see what was not working, recognize what we already had to work with, and figure out how to make something better from it.
Finally, I’ve learned that responsible leadership sometimes means resisting the pressure to “hurry up.” Leading our rector search has required me to slow the process long enough to understand what differing answers, and the tensions among them, mean for the relationship we seek with our next priest, while still keeping the work organized and moving forward. Holding those responsibilities together has become an important part of how I understand leadership.
I would welcome the opportunity to bring these experiences to the wider Church.