About Me

I am an only child, raised by somewhat eccentric, artist parents in my home city of Los Angeles. I attended the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago in the mid-1990’s–a theater conservatory, where I met my now husband, Jason. Acting was my first call, and I loved life in the theater for many years.

I have also worked as an executive in entertainment and corporate PR; been a middle and high-school English teacher (my Bachelor’s degree is in Education); taught natural childbirth classes to countless parents-to-be; worked as a church administrator for a Presbyterian church; and last, but certainly not least, stayed at home caring for my two daughters when they were young.

I was called to ministry in 2015 after making a home at the First Religious Society UU in Newburyport, MA, where I served as an active lay leader for several years. Discovering Unitarian Universalism and the power of belonging to a people, church and movement brought me alive in ways I never thought possible. I carry this into my ministry with you–for I know what it is to love one’s church.

I attended seminary at Boston University’s School of Theology, and graduated in 2019. During this time I worked as a chaplain at Hebrew Senior Life in Dedham, which serves a population of long-term residents struggling with dementia. I loved this ministry and these patients. In 2019, I was offered the position of Island Minister on Star Island, one of just a few UU retreat and conference centers off the coast of New Hampshire. This year-round ministry focused on the spiritual well-being of Star Island staff, particularly the young workers (“Pelicans”) who live and work on the island from April-October. I also played a large role in Star Island’s latest commitment to dismantling systems of oppression, the Beloved Community Project, where I served as a staff liaison for the past two years. I will be stepping down as Island Minister as of May 1st (for good reason!) but will stay connected to the work of the Beloved Community Project, as well as the island itself–for it is a true spiritual home to me and my family. I have served as Intern Minister at the UU Church of Haverhill since 2019, as well as their Sabbatical Minister since January 2021. Both roles will come to a close in June. I will be ordained at the First Religious Society–where it all began–on May 23rd.

I have been with my husband, Jason, for nearly 20 years. Jason has performed in the show Blue Man Group as a Blue Man for 18 of those years (in Chicago, Toronto and, for the past 10 years, in Boston). Jason is also a candidate for UU ministry! He will graduate from Boston University in May, and begins his internship at the UU Church of Sherborn in September.

We are also the proud parents of two daughters, Olive (age 14) and Poppy (age 11), who can’t wait to have their own rooms on the top floor of the parsonage! They so look forward to making new friends and being a part of the community at First Parish.

We have lived on the North Shore of Massachusetts for 10 years (in Amesbury) and love New England. We take regular trips to Maine and Vermont, have built a beloved network of dear friends and colleagues here, and now can’t wait to make a home for ourselves on Marshall Street and to discover all the wonders of Watertown!

A few fun facts about me: I could play board games for days (sometimes I do!). I love gardening and vegan cooking/baking. I also love polar plunging, roller skating at roller rinks, being mischievous in the name of fun, and all things The Grateful Dead (I sense I might not be alone in this at FPW!) I laugh loudly and heartily (particularly at myself), and love a spontaneous dance party. I hope you might join me in some of them!

Last, but certainly not least, I come with a hypo-allergenic, Siberian cat named The Duchess who dons a year-round lion's cut that brings out the best in everyone. We are also the owners of two pampered and beloved lop-eared rabbits, Pumpkin and Willow, who think they rule the house, the cat...and us. They are correct in this assessment.

I dream of owning a dog that joins me in ministry one day...

Share your ministerial presence and leadership style:

Congregants and colleagues have described me as a "warm and caring presence," "grounded," and someone who "lights rooms up." I am an extrovert; I love people; I can be ridiculous, and delight in a good practical joke. I am also a deeply introspective person and a quiet contemplative. All of this shows up in my ministerial presence.

I would call my brand of leadership to be of the adaptable-collaborative variety. This requires: patience, the willingness to really listen, and the ability to take in the bird's eye view of things. While I am a minister who loves to take faithful risks, and has a lot of creative energy, I see good leadership as being in collaboration with the people–never over or around.

I know how to hold folks accountable, how to speak hard truths, how to be clear in communication, and make hard decisions. I set healthy boundaries and uphold them. I do my work to know where I end and you begin.

My years in PR, education and administration have taught me about the liberation and joy that is good time management and organization. I am a careful planner, someone who is naturally organized, and who thrives in systems that value this. A minister once said to me that, "the devil and the delight are in the details." And, especially in church life, there comes a time (especially in worship) where, to quote Charlie Parker, you forget all that and just wail. Simply, I believe good organization, process and time management allows for the Spirit to move (for Parker, it was thousands of hours practicing on his saxophone).

Regarding shared ministry what do you see as your work as minister? What do you see doing in partnership with the congregation? What do you see as the work of the congregation?

A wise mentor once said to me: don't steal the ministry from the people.

My role is to support and nurture your ministry with one another and out in the world, and to serve as your trusted spiritual leader. I am not the decider, or the final word on who does what or what gets done, but am, rather, the steward of good process. I am not the default doer of that which no one wants to do, but rather the one that asks the congregation: who is called to pick this up? Is it time to put this down? My role as your minister will orient all that we do towards that which is our Ultimate Concern***.

My belief is that when we speak of "ministry" in our faith tradition it really does mean so much more than the minister. Ministry is the love and time that the staff gifts to the church community; ministry is every faithful layperson showing up and doing their part to forge a sustaining place to belong to, for all. This is the hope and mission that the minister and the congregation partner in, and gather around; what we nurture in each other; what we hold when one of us falls short or needs rest.

The congregation's work is to move away from a consumer mindset and, instead, to know themselves as true stewards of the church, bound together by spiritual principles that undergird all that they do.

***Our Ultimate Concern comes from theologian Paul Tillich, which he uses to describe God. Please translate that word, God, for yourself.

Give a story that embodies your ministry:

When I pulled up to the dock at Star Island, one of the handful of Unitarian Universalist Retreat and Conference Centers off the coast of New Hampshire, I had no idea what the summer was going to look like. I had been hired to "provide ministry" to the 120 young staff (ages 18-28), or "Pelicans" as they are lovingly called, and that was (more or less) all I had to go on. I arrived with a large tote bag filled with readings, service ideas, rituals–a kind of ministerial medicine bag at the ready–and remember standing at the end of the dock, praying this prayer: God, show me where you want me. Help me to know what these young people need.

I must have said that prayer a hundred times that first summer.

There is a path that circles the island called "the perimeter." On that arrival day I began the first, of countless, slow walks on it. Over time, the perimeter became a scheduled meeting place for Pelicans to tell me their stories, share some ice cream with after a long work day, or wrestle with big theological questions. To hold hands for bit. To have a good cry.

At the end of the summer I cleaned out my room and realized that I never once opened my "ministerial medicine bag." Nothing in there was needed. At all.

How does this embody my ministry? I am a patient perimeter walker who is willing to take as many proverbial laps as are needed so as to really see and get the people I serve and love. Once you see and get people, you know how to serve them. This is my ministry embodied.

Describe your theology and the role of the ministry in a congregation that has multiple theologies:

I believe in the transformative power of God/dess which I call by many names. For me, God is the majesty of this our Universe, God is the Divine well within every human body and spirit, God is the expanse of seen and unseen Mystery which thrums around us and through us all the time–perpetually trying to get our attention.

I spend much of my days seeking this Mysterious thrum in hidden places–a simple act of human kindness, a bare tree in winter, even in those whose actions cast doubt about the goodness in the world.

I, of course, struggle with the hiddenness of it all, and see this as a part of being faithful. For to be faithful means to be doubtful at times. I look to our UU Principles and Sources, Jewish and Christian mystics and traditions, Goddess thealogy, Buddhism, Hinduism, Twelve-Step theology, and Earth-based traditions, as tried and true teachings that return me to faith.

Jean Valjean in Les Miserables sings, "to love another person is to see the face of God." This is certainly what compels me to do justice work in the world. I would extend this to how I love and care for this our precious Mother Earth. Really, the word God as being interchangeable with Love just makes good sense to me.

How to minister in a congregation that has multiple theologies? Well that is what makes me a Unitarian Universalist! Our multiplicity of thought, belief and action is our theology. And it is compelling.

I do believe that how we articulate our understanding and sense of Spirit, God, belief and non-belief requires a reckoning with our past spiritual wounds, not the banishment of all that reminds us of them. Our bold UU theology–for it is bold–requires radical witnessing of diametrically opposed belief systems not as something we do to be nice or tolerant, but as a lived expression of our faith. We become these radical witnesses for each other when we heal spiritually. This is the kind of healing ministry I am called to offer.

Describe your ministerial approach to:

Anti-oppression work:

Most of us have inherited and unintentionally perpetuate norms that exclude massive swaths of folk. This does not make us bad. We have all been raised being taught about a certain lived experience, or norm, and inevitably it takes time to wake up to how many are left out by virtue of it.

To examine how we have inherited this, and how we perpetuate it, means asking ourselves who we are and how we are as we learn to face one another. Our congregations are poised for this kind of spiritual reckoning, and as your minister I am committed to doing this work alongside you.

I am not a life-long anti-oppression activist. I have woken up to my part in this system only in the last 10 years. I have so much to learn. I am looking for a congregation that wants to do this work with me–to roll up its sleeves and start looking at the cracked and broken places that we all share–especially those of us who identify as white. As your minister, I can offer a holding spiritual breadth that will help to undergird us. And, I am arriving ready to be transformed myself.

Social justice / social action:

Now we are talking about going out beyond our walls and healing this our beautiful, broken world. We start with ourselves and then we carry the message of love out.

Not everyone is called to this in the same way. My relationship with social justice and action often shows up in smaller circles, is a personally lived act, and is relational in nature. A few tangible ways this might show up in my ministry: leading folks through engaging reads like Centering, Justice on Earth, or The New Jim Crow, just to name a few; committing myself to preaching prophetic sermons regularly, as well as holding engaging services that honor our marginalized communities, as just one example, Trans-Remembrance Day; sharing openly about, for example, my lived everyday commitments to ethical eating/food justice, environmental justice, feminism, the opioid epidemic, LGBTQIA+ visibility, and owning my white privilege and role in white supremacy culture.

How does social justice call to you? Howard Thurman said,“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Coming alive so as to meet the needs of the world will be our work together.

Children and youth:

I believe that a spiritual life of richness and depth developed from a young age, and nurtured during the formative teen years, is the necessary foundation of our UU faith. I trust the leader(s) of RE implicitly–frankly, I see them as close partners in church life. Together, I hope to weave themes, teachings, and programming throughout the entire congregation.

Another way I show up in the religious lives of our kids is by making sure they know I'm their minister too. My office, for example, will always be open to them. Having books, toys and age-appropriate spiritual practices that they can explore, will make a home for them there. I hope to come to know each and every one of your children, and for them to know me.

Last, sharing worship and the life and leadership of the church with children and youth matters deeply to me. I have been known to invite our kids to read from the pulpit, to schedule time to teach them how to speak into a microphone, to show children how to light candles in preparation for a prayer, and to encourage youth to serve in leadership positions. I am not afraid of encouraging our children and youth to be leaders in our church or to aspire to enter the ministry themselves. They are, after all, the future of our faith.

Worship and preaching:

I see worship as the most important time in a church week. And this need not be constrained to Sundays–although I must admit that Sundays are my favorite day of the week.

My ministerial approach to worship service is always oriented toward the spiritually transformative experience. This requires consistently asking why we do what we do, so as to create an integrated, nourishing service for all. And I do not do this alone, nor would I ever want to. When planning worship I work best in partnership with the music director and/or musicians, worship associates and/or a worship committee and the DRE. All of these faithful hands (and so many more!) are key ingredients for bringing worship alive in a congregation.

Sermon writing is a big part of my week. It's a spiritual practice to me. I am known to be a strong preacher that knows how to both challenge and love people through a well-delivered sermon. I do not see the pulpit as an academic lectern. Sermons should, of course, open our minds, but I see their primary function as being one of opening hearts.

Incorporating music, the arts, and creativity into congregational life:

Partnering church and the arts is to pair what never should be separated, for together they offer our community a myriad of ways to truly touch fingers with the Divine.

I'm someone who especially loves unconventional music in worship, and in alternate services, for I believe that spiritual music need not be confined to ages past. By doing this, we fold in those who might come alive to, say, the music of Aretha Franklin, The Grateful Dead, or the soundtrack of Moana, just to name a few (it should be known that I've used all of this music in past services). I am also a minister who sings and is known for offering song in both my sermons and other areas of worship.

The role of music and art offers wonderful opportunities for community bonding through concerts, fundraisers and holiday celebrations. They hopefully are a part of adult RE as well as RE for children and youth. Many of our youth and young adults make great connections through the arts. Music and art can also extend out into the larger community in the form of events and partnerships which draw people of all cultures into the church building for social occasions or social justice efforts.

What do you hope for the future of Unitarian Universalism?

That we are seen as a radical, religious movement that paves the way for a completely re-imagined vision of church! My hope is that we as Unitarian Universalists grow bold in spreading the good news that we have to share with the world. This requires getting clear about what it is that holds us–the theology and prophetic message we are bound to–as well as believing that we have a saving message to offer the world. For we do.

My hope is that we stop hoarding the gifts of Unitarian Universalism–that we stop being so afraid to evangelize our faith. I say this not to be provocative, but because there is a world of spiritually starving, disenfranchised people among us longing to find a place to belong to. Let us not be afraid to throw open our proverbial doors and welcome them in.