Leadership Nominations
Deacons
Sarah Lehman
I’m excited to join Deacons and be a part of the strategic direction and visioning work at Plymouth. I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the Board of Outreach, the Transition Planning Task Force, the Leadership Council, organizing the 100 Hands program and being a Church School teacher. I’m energized to support Plymouth adapt to the realities of being a 21st-century church, to build community both in and outside our walls, and meet the responsibilities of our larger cultural moment. I worked in architecture for 10 years before deciding to stay home with our children. My recent interest and study has been focused on deepening my communication and facilitation skills. I live in south Minneapolis with my husband, Matt Thomas, and children, Ellie and Peter.
Jay Matre, partial term (ending 2023)
Jay grew up moving around small-town Iowa. His family would join whichever Methodist or Presbyterian Church had the best sermons and/or the best choir. He married the love of his life, Lisa, a couple of weeks after graduating from Iowa State University, and he started his career in the IT consulting industry. Lisa and Jay lived in Ohio, Illinois, and Arizona before their son Benjamin arrived and pulled them back to the Midwest. They moved to St. Anthony Village in 2008 and fell in love with Plymouth for its intellectual curiosity, welcoming atmosphere, and great music. Jay has been involved in the church on several boards, the Growth Task Force, and many youth activities. He is passionate about building a diverse and engaged community here at Plymouth as we transform and adapt.
Lynn Moline
“Vital” and “inclusive” are words that come to my mind when I think of Plymouth, my spiritual home since the early 2000s. Those traits drew me to Plymouth after having been one of the “spiritual but unaffiliated” for my entire adult life to that point. Since joining, I’ve served in many lay leadership roles—Moderator, Growth Task Force chair, Leadership Council chair, Governance Task Force member, ministerial search committee member, and others. In every role, I’ve tried to ensure that Plymouth remains vital and inclusive as well as welcoming, relevant, and involved in justice. It’s been some time since I’ve last served Plymouth. I’m also in the process of retiring from my long career as an organizational leadership and strategy consultant, so it’s an opportune time for me to reengage as a Deacon candidate. My decision has the full support of my spouse, Becca Norris, who currently serves on the Board of Trustees. Outside of work and church, I love anything that gets me active and outdoors, preferably on or near water.
Annette Atkins, Clerk Nominee
I joined Plymouth for many reasons, especially our commitment to be on a spiritual journey in community. That journey’s path for me has been enriched by so many Plymouth people, sermons, activities, actions. I am currently on the Board of Deacons and have been grateful to Katie Dillon for her faithful clerking for the Church. I am a Minnesota/United States historian. I taught for my career at Saint John’s University/College of Saint Benedict. I live within walking distance of Plymouth Church—but rarely do! I write, knit, ice skate, and like to try new things.
Mike McCallister, Treasurer Nominee
Leadership Council
Barb Iverson, Racial Justice Initiative Co-Chair
Barb Iverson is a new member of Plymouth, having joined in December 2020 after beginning to attend in 2019. She co-chairs the Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) with Ann Manning. Barb is a communications professional and retired in 2020 after spending 21 years as president of the financial service industry practice at Weber Shandwick, a global public relations firm with headquarters in New York City. She especially brings strategic planning and communications expertise to the RJI. Barb was widowed in 2016. Now that she’s retired, she regularly visits her adult children and three granddaughters in San Diego and New York City. She spends her spare time socializing with friends, traveling, volunteering, consuming the news, reading, and listening to music. Until recently, she chaired the alumni advisory council for the Greenlee School of Journalism at her alma mater, Iowa State University.
Ann Manning, Racial Justice Initiative Co-Chair
Eric Olsen, Chair-Elect
Returning Leadership Council Members
Nancy Gores, Chair
I joined Plymouth in 1986, enriching my spiritual, personal and communal life. I met my now-former husband in Guild Hall, and our son, Jacob Wood, thrived at Plymouth. Jacob is now a civil engineer living in Washington, DC. I played second base on the Plymouth Rocks co-ed softball team back in the day. I have served on the former Deacons; Trustees; as a member of Jim Gertmenian’s, Paula Northwood’s and Dan Wolpert’s search committees; on the Transition Task Force; and in 2019–2020 as the Leadership Council Secretary. I am also on the Nominating Committee and, to my surprise, was nominated as the Leadership Council Chair-Elect this past year. After 16 years on our local school board, I retired in 2020 and retired as civil litigation attorney this year. I thought I would be traveling, but the pandemic has changed expectations. As Leadership Council Chair, I hope to do my part to remain open to where the Spirit takes us, to work with DeWayne as he finds his path here, to keep the Growth Task Force report out of the drawer and on our action agenda, and to keep in mind we are on a Congregational covenant-journey together.
Anne Seltz, Secretary
Anne Seltz has served as Leadership Council Secretary during the 2020–2021 program year. She formerly served as Chair of the Board of Stewards and actively developed the NonViolent Communication Program at Plymouth, which features Dr. Yvette Erasmus.
A former Deacon and BeFriender, she has served Plymouth in several capacities over the years. She is most well known as the mother of Emily Chandmuni Bains Seltz, who arrived from India some years ago.
Anne says, “I have been a strong supporter of our valuable embroideries and hope to see them hanging in Guild Hall in the future.”
Mary Welfling, Archivist
Since joining Plymouth in 1998, I have volunteered with Simpson Housing, the rain garden crew, and Third Sunday Meal and served as Chair of Visitors Committee, Chair of Board of Pastoral Care, a BeFriender, Clerk, and most recently Archivist. Looking back, these years as Archivist have presented the most challenging and rewarding opportunities of all my roles. As Archives’ activities resume after our COVID-19 hiatus, I look forward this next year to identify priorities to help guide the Archives in the near future and work on a plan to pass the baton in a future nomination process.
Board of Community Life
Toni Azad
I have been a Plymouth member for more than 15 years. I live in New Brighton with my husband and three girls, who are 6, 9, and 12. I’ve been home with my children for several years but am an ESL teacher by profession and have continued to volunteer in an adult ESL program during my years at home. I really value getting to know and work with people from a variety of cultures. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, biking, and reading. So far, I’ve mainly been involved at Plymouth teaching in the Church School program, but I look forward to becoming involved in other ways and serving on this board. I do believe we can best live out our faith in community.
Lexis Ebeling
Nominated for Second Term
Heidi McCallister
Board of Finance & Administration
Ryan French
Ryan French is Associate Vice President of Advancement at the University of St. Thomas, overseeing campaign management, annual giving, donor relations, communications, special events, and advancement services. Prior to St. Thomas, Ryan was Director of Marketing and Public Relations at the Walker Art Center, and before that he held leadership roles at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a number of Twin Cities nonprofits. He holds an MBA with an emphasis in marketing and nonprofit management from the University of Minnesota and a BA in Music from St. Olaf College. Ryan has sung with many of the leading vocal ensembles of the Twin Cities including the Rose Ensemble and the Dale Warland Singers and for 15 years was a member of the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers. Ryan lives in Saint Paul with his wife, Jenny, and their two children, Tilda and Margot.
Rick Seime
Linda and I were attracted to Plymouth by its mission, progressive theology, and intentional inclusiveness. We moved to the Twin Cities from Rochester where we lived for 20 years. We joined the congregation in February 2019. Previous church leadership and service roles include Church Council at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Morgantown, WV; Moderator, Board of Deacons at First Presbyterian Church, Morgantown, WV; and Personnel Committee at Zumbro Lutheran Congregation, Rochester, MN. During my psychology career, I have served in leadership roles in national and state organizations, on specialty and regulatory boards, and in departmental administrative leadership positions at WVU Health Science Center, Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, and the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology. I welcome the opportunity to serve Plymouth Congregational and its staff as a member of the Board of Finance and Administration.
Nominated for Second Term
Mike McGettigan, Chair Nominee
Cathy Crane, Partial Term (ending 2022)
Board of Fine Arts
Don Makenzie
I was born in Chicago to lifelong Presbyterians. My mother was a pianist and English teacher and my dad a college dean and later president. I played the timpani in high school and college and played guitar and bass in several folk and country bands. My band, Life’s Other Side, played at the Midnight Jamboree at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville.
I went to Macalester College, and my wife, Judy, and I met there, got married the day after we graduated, and drove from London to Sidon, Lebanon, where we taught in a private school. When the Six Day War began on June 5, 1967, we were evacuated and I began my studies at Princeton Seminary. I also received a PhD from New York University in Religious Education and Art. I have served churches in Princeton, NJ, Hanover, NH, and Seattle, WA, before returning to Minnesota in 2013. We joined Plymouth in 2014.
My interfaith work with Rabbi Ted Falcon and Imam Jamal Rahman began 20 years ago in Seattle and continues today.
We have two daughters adopted from Korea; both are married and live in California.
Joan Parsons
Maria Gisselquist
Cyn Bloom, Nominated for Second Term
Board of Outreach
Sara Bergan
As a new member of Plymouth, I remember walking through picket lines to learn more about Plymouth’s impressive commitment to Lydia Apartments and ending homelessness. More recently and pre-pandemic, my husband, Scott, and I looked forward to our Wednesday night traditions with the kids (Henry, Charlie, and Eddie) of dinner, choir, and 100 Hands at Plymouth. There we could all work on crafts or service projects together, casually chat with other members of the church and community, and learn about Groveland Food Shelf and so many of the other outreach and service efforts Plymouth members have started or championed. I have also had the chance to serve as a Church School teacher and benefit from the amazing work Nina, Seth, Dylan, and so many others do for the church’s children every day. During the day I currently play a renewable energy attorney and in the past ran a non-profit focused on climate and energy policy. I am very encouraged by the work of the Climate & Environmental Justice group and the launching of the new Green Fund. I have so much to more to learn and am honored to be considered for a position on the Board of Outreach.
Gingie Ward
I am a longtime member of Plymouth: My family raised us here, and my mom, Jinny Humphrey, attended until months before her death. I am lucky to have my brother, John Humphrey; his wife, Carole; my niece, Nina Jonson; and her husband, Jasper all supporting Plymouth, too.
I am serving on the board of Groveland Emergency Food Shelf and work as a volunteer there. I also am on the organizing team for Align (formerly DCEH). My husband, Mike, and I do a bike clinic at Third Sunday meals, so I am involved with Plymouths neighbors and happy to be asked to serve again on the Board of Outreach.
Chloe Boos
Mary Jordan, Chair Nominee
Board of Spiritual Formation
Rebecca Smith
I have spent the past 18 years helping smart people write award-winning books. The books I have written, edited, ghostwritten, or co-written have been non-fiction books on leadership, cultural transformation, group dynamics, Human Dynamics®, teamwork, operational improvement, relational competence, spiritual awakening, and how to use predictive analytics to improve outcomes.
In part because I’ve worked with such a diverse array of subject matter experts, I have a deep understanding of how to help people and organizations consider new ways of seeing, thinking, being, and doing. Professionally, I am best known for pulling the absolute best content out of the experts I worked with and often offering, from my own repository of knowledge and wisdom, what the experts sometimes cannot find in themselves.
I have been attending Plymouth since August 2018 and became a member in 2019. I have written two Flame articles on behalf of the Racial Justice Initiative, and I served on the Leadership Implementation Committee after the vote was taken regarding the embroideries. After a long talk with the leader of the Board of Spiritual Formation, I want very much to serve as a member of the board.
Corbin Dillon, Nominated for a Second Term
Johanna Schussler, Chair Nominee, Nominated for a Second Term
Stacy Yoakiem
Board of Worship
Andrea Bubula, Nominated for Second Term
Originally from Illinois, my husband, Mark, and I moved to Minneapolis in 1995. For eight years I was Gallery Manager at Groveland Gallery. Now I work as Office Manager for a brilliant advertising agency called Friends & Neighbors, started by my brilliant husband and his also-brilliant business partner in 2012.
In 2001, some friends told us about the preaching, thinking, and progressive Christianity to be found at Plymouth. Now, twenty years later, both our children have been baptized and confirmed at Plymouth, and, as they move on and prepare find their own way in the world, I’m here to stay. Serving on the Board of Worship keeps me here. So do the volunteers and guests at Third Sunday Meal and Groveland Food Shelf. I cherish our clergy and devoted staff and my experiences on the Board of Membership, teaching Church School, delivering Meals on Wheels, working on Habitat houses, planning an early version of the early service, and tutoring at Whittier. All these opportunities to serve, connect, and worship have been a gift to me. Thank you for considering me for a second term on Plymouth’s Board of Worship.
Maureen Tanis, Chair Nominee, Nominated for Second Term
I have a lifelong relationship with Plymouth: I was baptized, confirmed, and married here. I lived with my own family in St. Peter for many years (I was a Presbyterian while there) and would visit Plymouth from time to time with my parents, Bud and Fern Friskey. When I became an empty nester and my parents needed support to stay connected to Plymouth, I started attending with them on a regular basis, and I have stayed. My husband and I relocated to Eden Prairie a few years ago, and I am a Therapist with Park Nicollet Child and Family Behavioral Health.
I am drawn to Plymouth’s accepting culture and commitment to racial and social justice. I have served on the Board of Worship for the past 3 years and am honored to be nominated to serve as Chairperson. I look forward to ongoing participation in this capacity because I believe that our worship experiences are central to our life and existence as a congregation.