Alums Archives - United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

June 25, 2026

Activism Alums immigration justice Liberation Theology

Alum Rev. Todd Lippert (’03): Living a Public Ministry

As Rev. Todd Lippert was growing up, his life was dominated by two constants: music and church. Both of his parents were music teachers. His dad was the high school choir director, and his mom was the elementary school music teacher. Though his family had been Baptist for generations, they ended up attending a United Church of Christ (UCC) church where his mom was hired to play the organ. It was also much closer to home than the nearest Baptist church. “I always took Christian faith very seriously,” Todd asserts. “The church was a sacred and holy place to me.” In seventh grade, Todd remembers talking to his father. “I was at the bottom of the stairs talking to my dad at the top of the stairs. And that was when I said for the first time, ‘I wonder if I might want to be a pastor someday.’” But, Todd adds, “the idea was really terrifying to me,” so he put it out of his mind. At the University of Iowa, he pursued a music degree. During a philosophy class toward the end of college, a professed atheist professor began asking some of the same questions about faith that Todd was confronting. “I was wrestling with whether I was a Christian or not.” Deciding on Seminary The turning point came one Sunday morning after graduation when Todd and his wife were at church. At the time, he was selling Yellow Pages ads and contemplating an MBA. “I hated it,” Todd confesses. “I was miserable.” Watching the preacher at First United Methodist Church in Iowa City, he thought, “Maybe I could do that, and maybe I need to pay attention to this call to ministry that keeps bubbling up.” United was the first UCC seminary that came up on the computer, and when Todd visited, “it felt like home for me as soon as I arrived.” Since his wife was doing graduate work at the University of Minnesota, they moved to the Twin Cities. “At United,” Todd recalls, “I had the space to figure out how Christianity was meaningful and how this faith fit together for me.” Professors who welcomed and encouraged his questions were key to his faith formation, and the “liberation theology that moved through the curriculum, with its focus on justice, was extremely appealing to me.” Todd was also inspired by his classmates. “I saw the student body deeply engaged in the political and social questions of the day.” At United from 2000 to 2003, Todd experienced the Bush v. Gore lawsuit, 9/11 terror attacks, Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone’s tragic death, and the Iraq war launch as he was earning his MDiv. Public Theology Justice-seeking activism, Todd asserts, “really cemented my understanding that the body of Christ is about bringing the realm of God into being wherever it is. And that was something that would have to make my life better and make my community better.” Since graduating, Todd has worked as a UCC pastor, a Minnesota state legislator (2018–2022), a community organizer with ISAIAH, and a community minister with Creekside Church. The clergy organizing work during Operation Metro Surge was especially impactful and reconnected him with United. Todd went through “nonviolent direct action training with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock, one of the authors I read.” He also worked with Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler, his former Hebrew scripture professor. United, notes Todd, equipped him “to be able to understand what is going on in our world, and in our communities, and I had the tools to get better and better at that, reading the present through a biblical and theological lens.” He is extraordinarily proud of the way the church showed up in Minnesota and grateful for United. “I really want,” Todd concludes, “the love-your-neighbor values of the church to be a force in our public life, not an afterthought. I want it to be a force in our political life.”

December 17, 2025

Alums Community Entrepreneur

Lauren Busey (’07) Ministers to a New Beloved Community at Pickledilly Skokie

Lauren Busey (’07) grew up in the Lutheran church, earned an undergraduate degree from Luther College, and thought she would probably attend a Lutheran seminary. Then, at a Luther College women’s retreat, Rev. Dr. Christie Cozad Nueger (’80)— Professor Emerita of Pastoral Counseling and Pastoral Theology (1992–2005)—was the featured speaker and knew Lauren’s campus pastor. “So,” Lauren remembers, “we just kind of got to talking, and within a couple of weeks, I was enrolled at United.” United “was a good fit,” Lauren asserts. She found a welcoming community of fellow students and treasured professors. Those who had the greatest impact include Rev. Dr. Jann Cather Weaver (Associate Professor Emerita of Worship, and Theology and the Arts, 2001–2012), Dr. Marilyn Salmon† (Professor Emerita of New Testament Theology, 1989–2014), and Dr. Carolyn Pressler (Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation, 1990–2020). After seminary, Lauren accepted a call back home in Evanston, Illinois, at the church where she grew up, Trinity Lutheran Church. Despite being a bit apprehensive about serving as the director of Faith Formation at her home church, Lauren found that the parishioners were warmly welcoming and supportive. She’s been there ever since and notes that the flexibility of the position allowed for a positive work-life balance. Lauren and her wife are raising two children. Just this year, however, Lauren, along with her wife and two business partners, embarked on a new venture—and in February 2025, the four co-owners opened a new state-of-the-art pickleball court in Skokie, Illinois. Dubbed Pickledilly Skokie, the new indoor space features 11.5 courts under high ceilings, lockers, a lounge area, and a pro shop. Plus, the venue is in the same complex as Sketchbook Brewing Company and has abundant free parking. So what happened? “I think my wife would say that I’ve always been the big idea person,” Lauren explains. Usually, she continues, Amy “nods and smiles and keeps on going,” but this time she agreed with the idea. Both Lauren and Amy are avid pickleball players, and Lauren says she found that the activity was much more of a “community-based sport.” Community was the key. As Lauren stated in a July 18, 2025, interview for Ryan Glatzhofer’s The Locals: Stories of Courageous Entrepreneurs, “One of the things that has always been a passion of mine is bringing people together.” Going a step further, she said more recently, “One of our pillars is that this is a safe space, and we are welcoming here.” How did United prepare Lauren for entrepreneurship? “United was really helpful to me in expanding my worldview and my understanding of diversity and not assuming you know where people are coming from.” As for the connection to ministry, Lauren asserts, “We’re still grounded in the same way of taking care of people, and loving people, and meeting them where they are.” __________________________ † of blessed memory

October 15, 2025

Alums Community Relationships ministry pastoral care

Rev. Dr. Stephen C. Hsieh (’70) Honored as United’s 2025 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is proud to announce that Rev. Dr. Stephen C. Hsieh (’70) is the seminary’s 2025 Distinguished Alum. A gifted and experienced multilingual pastor, staunch justice advocate, and dedicated intergenerational mentor and consensus builder, Hsieh is now a retired pastor and teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA and in Taiwan). When Hsieh started at United in 1968, he had just emigrated from Taiwan. Nominator Valerie Chu recounts how Hsieh worked in the cafeteria at United to defray the cost of seminary and learned to make traditional Midwestern fare, like tuna noodle casserole. After his fiancée joined Hsieh in Minnesota, Rev. Dr. Ruben H. Huenemann (President Emeritus 1960–1990) married the couple in United’s chapel in 1969. Upon graduation, Hsieh served a church in Iowa where, Chu asserts, “his very presence as a short, bespectacled Asian man among the hardy Midwestern farmers represented an early public witness about the gospel’s power to bridge differences and nurture diverse communities of faith.” From Iowa, he moved to California, where he founded a Taiwanese-language congregation in San Jose. Fluent in Chinese Mandarin, English, and Taiwanese, Hsieh was more than a minister to Taiwanese immigrants in California. As Chu explains, he was also “a friend and guide to help these new Americans navigate landlord disputes, court hearings, immigration forms, and employment applications.” Over time, Hsieh became a member, and eventually Chairperson, of the National Taiwanese Presbyterian Council of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a position through which he served as a liaison between Taiwanese Presbyterians and PCUSA. Rev. Dr. Chelsea Chui, who met Hsieh through the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan General Assembly (PCT), notes that “Hsieh helped introduce and strengthen relationships between the PCUSA and the PCT, particularly in Christian education ministries.” In the 1990s, Hsieh, representing the San Jose Presbytery and Pacific Synod, became a member of PCUSA’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy. Once he became chair, Chu reports, Hsieh led with “grace, gentleness, and humility,” even when discussions became heated. In one significant case, Chu notes, “Hsieh represented the Presbyterian Church (USA) to apologize to, and ask forgiveness from, Native American Tribes for the church’s inaction during the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation.” While on the committee, Hsieh—as a respected leader within the PCUSA with important experience and language skills—also had an opportunity to lead a team of clergy and laity to Nanjing, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in 1997. According to Chu, the team met with “the [chair] of the official government supervisory organization over Protestantism in the People’s Republic of China, to urge China to assure freedom of worship for all believers.” As Chu concludes, “The Rev. Dr. Stephen C. Hsieh has spent decades fulfilling [United’s] call for its students to change the world as innovative and compassionate leaders. He has embodied Christ’s heart for peace and justice to unite people across cultures, generations, and political divides.” Join us in celebrating and congratulating Rev. Dr. Stephen Hsieh!

October 15, 2025

Alums Ecology Ethics leadership UUA

Rev. Stacy Craig (’20) Honored as United’s 2025 Spirit of United Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is delighted to announce that Rev. Stacy Craig (’20) has been selected as the 2025 recipient of our Spirit of United Award. Established in 2023, the Spirit of United award celebrates recent alums who have done “exceptional work that reflects the mission of United in the church, in faith communities, or in society.” Craig—an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister—has also lived into the vocation of an eco-chaplain, dedicating herself to remaining present within the interconnected web of life, as myriad lifeforms struggle to adapt to the changing climate. As nominator Rev. Dr. Kimi Floyd Reish (’19, ’24) explains, In her congregational work in Wisconsin and California, [Craig] has guided communities to see climate change not only as a scientific or political crisis but as a moral and spiritual one. She preaches and teaches about repair, resistance, and resilience, inviting people into practices that restore relationships with one another and with the living world. Her ministry brings forward a theology that insists faith must be present in the public square and that spiritual care must include the ecosystems in which we live. Northland College (Ashland, Wisconsin)—where Craig graduated cum laude in 2004 with a BA in Religion and Philosophy/Outdoor Education—was where her focus on eco-theology took root. Following graduation, she became an environmental education program coordinator at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, an outreach arm of Northland College. For another 10 years, Craig worked at Northland College, helping students discern career choices, supporting events, and teaching courses in the Religious Studies Department as an adjunct instructor. When Northland faced impending closure in the early 2020s, Floyd Reish notes, Craig “was a public voice of grief and resilience, reminding her community of the importance of institutions that have long carried the work of environmental education and justice on the shores of Lake Superior.” Through these actions, Floyd Reish adds, she “showed what it means to live out United’s mission of preparing leaders who change the world as faithful and ethical servants.” Rev. Greg Meland, United’s director of Spiritual and Vocational Formation from 2014 to 2019 and internship instructor of record, knew Craig from her time at Northland College and at United. When she was considering seminary, admissions asked Meland to talk to Craig. As he recalls, “She lived close to our lake place, and we had a long conversation sitting on our deck. When she left, I thought, ‘This is exactly the kind of person who should be in seminary preparing to pastor and lead.’” Clearly, he was right. As Floyd Reish concludes, “In less than five years since her graduation, [Craig’s] work has strengthened local congregations, deepened public conversations about environmental ethics, and provided a living example of what it means to be a United alum who leads with integrity and vision.” Join us in celebrating and congratulating Rev. Stacy Craig!

June 23, 2025

Alums Community Relationships VOICES

Mary Ann Murray (’76) Treasures the Relationships She Established at United

In 1969, when Mary Ann Murray (’76) enrolled at United, America was embroiled in the Vietnam War, and the seminary, which opposed the war, had spent its first seven years led by and attended by men. It was also a residential school, where faculty and students lived on campus and forged a collegial bond. Along with Rev. Marilyn Creel (’72), Mary Ann was one of the first two women to enroll in the Master of Divinity (MDiv) program. Unlike their colleagues, neither lived on campus. Mary Ann was married, with young children, and Marilyn was not allowed to live on campus as a single woman. Considering Seminary Though Mary Ann was raised in the American Baptist denomination, she first learned of United at a community church where the pastor also served as an adjunct faculty member at the seminary. At the time, Mary Ann was teaching at the church and felt a strong call to study theology. In March of 1969, she met with Dean Louis Gunnemann† “to discuss my options for studying theology.” United offered a certificate in Christian education and the MDiv, so Mary Ann resolved to begin the degree in the fall. “I couldn’t wait to begin my seminary career,” she remembers telling her pastor, and she wanted to read every book in the library. He loaned Mary Ann his copy of Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be, and said, “Theological education isn’t about reading books; it is about relationships.” United Highlights This spring marks the 50th anniversary of her graduation from United, and Mary Ann still remembers key elements of her experience. For example, she notes that faculty members did not have posted office hours. “A blessing I took for granted,” she reflects, “was the availability of faculty; I remember many robust conversations with professors over coffee in the refectory.” She also vividly remembers the first session in her Christian Ethics course. “We were asked to describe how we made an ethical decision. By the end of the term, we each had expanded that initial statement and honed our own ethics method.” In September of 1971, Mary Ann, Tracy Godfrey, and two students from Luther Northwestern Seminary entered the first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at what was then Hennepin County General Hospital (now HCMC). At the hospital, Mary Ann was the first woman in the chaplain’s CPE units. Dean Gunnemann’s words at Spring Convocation 1972 created one of her most moving memories. “The relationships in our lives that are truly redeeming,” Dean Gunnemann advised, “are grounded in gratitude.” Enduring Relationships “My commitment and loyalty to United are grounded in gratitude for the relationships from my time at United, which have bridged the years and enriched my life.” Mary Ann is pleased to support United’s mission to provide transformative theological education to equip students to make a difference in the world through their unique ministries. She makes this possible as a generous donor who is a member of the Barnabas, Bossard-Ward, and Joshua Societies. “Theological education,” Mary Ann observes, “is a lens through which we see the world and how to respond to it.” For her devotion to relationships at United and for sharing her story, we are deeply grateful to observe this 50th anniversary of Mary Ann’s graduation _______________ † Deceased

April 29, 2025

Alums Ecology Ethics

The Living Legacy of Dr. Judith Scoville

“We’ve got to get you a Presidential scholarship,” Dr. Mary Farrell Bednarowski urged the prospective student in an interview. “Does this mean I’ve been admitted?” the interviewee asked. This is how Dr. Judith Scoville (’90) received a gift that would shape her life and, through her reciprocated generosity, reverberate decades later in the lives of new generations of United students. It was, in her words, “the biggest academic honor I’d ever received.” Judith came to United after several years in an Education for Ministry program facilitated by an Episcopal seminary. The Education for Ministry program was predicated on asking, “What are we called to do? What is our ministry?” At the time, Judith was working for “not a very ethical company,” she quipped, but this experience sparked her interest in and passion for ethics. “I was in St. Luke’s Episcopal Church,” Judith recalls, “and for four years... it was a small group of us [that] met every week,” studying Scripture, theology, and church history. Nearing the end of the program, the associate minister remarked, “maybe I should go to United.” For Judith, “Coming to United was part of pursuing that question of ‘what is my ministry?’” After graduating from United in 1990, Judith began pursuing her PhD in ethics at the Graduate Theological Union. While there, she taught Christian ethics at United as an adjunct professor. A student, friend, and mentee of Dr. James B. Nelson, Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics (1963–1995), Judith discovered her ministry as an educator. “My students were so special,” she remarks. “I found at United that… if you ran a class so that you were providing students with an opportunity, …they will become a part of shaping the class and making it what it is.” She avers, “You don’t just pour information [into] United students.” Judith later became an associate professor and the Hulings Distinguished Chair in the Humanities for Northland College. She gave United’s first-ever Picard Lecture on Environmental Theology and Ethics, and her participation in the life of the seminary spans decades. From alum to professor to donor, her contributions to the United community are hard to overstate. Now in her mid-80s, Judith—as quick-witted and incisive as ever—is crafting a living legacy. Since the death of her husband, Dr. James (Jim) Scoville, Judith has committed to using her resources for good. Ever conscious of ethics, it became, in her mind, “a moral obligation” to give back. And so, Judith brought her scholarship experience full circle by recently making a significant gift to United’s endowed scholarship fund, securing access to the transformative power of theological education for future students. She is quick to note, “To me, it does not feel like generosity.… It’s what I want to do.” She feels “an ethical obligation” to use her money to build a better society, “richer in all the things that count.” “I don’t want the ability to go to United to be limited by the ability to pay,” she asserts. “I want everybody who… wants to be part of this community to be able to do that no matter what their finances are.” She knows it will “enrich United to have as broad a variety of students as possible,” and that if “we’re all white middle-class people, then it’s a very impoverished community.” Judith and Jim are also celebrated members of the Barnabas Society, which honors individuals who include United in their estate plans or make other qualifying gift arrangements. Asked why others should consider making a gift, she thoughtfully reflects, “It’s a very satisfying thing to give to United. It makes me feel like I’m doing something positive and constructive.” She continues, “I’m proud of the results that I see at United.… It makes me happy.” We give abundant thanks for the vibrant, living legacy of Judith Scoville.

April 23, 2025

Alums Open and Affirming Queer VOICES

Rev. A. Leon Tredwell, PhD (’06) Publishes Good News in His New Book

Rev. A. Leon Tredwell, PhD (’06) realized his spiritual calling at age 10. “I came up in the church,” he explains, at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia—a Black church wrestling with the “narrative of civility.” At the time, “we were down to one lady (Ms. Walker) who shouted” when she caught the spirit. One Sunday, Lee and his friends were in the back row when someone told the youngsters exactly when Ms. Walker would shout. When the prediction came true, the boys broke into suppressed laughter. That’s when Lee heard the Spirit speaking to him. “Why are you laughing at her?” Lee recalls the voice asking. It continued: “She’s only doing that because I’ve been good to her. And I’ve been good to you, too.” Since Lee’s family setting had changed from abject poverty to suburban middle class, he could only agree. The die was cast. Coming to United Though Lee fully recognized his call to ministry, he began his professional life as a grain trader for Cargill. After 10 years of moving with the company, Lee realized his purpose wasn’t being fulfilled. Through a connection with and encouragement from Rev. Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway, Lee decided to give United a try. Thinking back, Lee says that the first thing he appreciated about United was that “the environment and the content were inclusive, innovative, and it was a place of freedom.” Because he was wrestling with his sexuality, Lee especially needed that kind of open-arms welcome. He continues, “To see other queer people who were just brilliant and living out their brilliance in the fullness of who they were” was remarkably affirming. “Being queer in the Black church,” he observes, “was an anathema.” He remembers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler and Dean Richard Weis† with great affection. Both teachers, he asserts, “taught us to wrestle with the biblical text until it opened up and spoke.” They also introduced Lee to Black and postcolonial hermeneutics, and Rev. Dr. Weis led him to passages in Jeremiah 38 (Hebrew Bible) that sparked his interest in learning more about a Black character named Ebed-Melech. Spreading the Good Word These days, since earning his PhD in Theological and Religious Studies in 2017, and spending many years preaching and teaching, Lee is excited to be publishing a new book. Titled Black, Queer, and Blessed: My Story and the Biblical Story Churches Don’t Teach, the book is part memoir and part theological reflection on the Ebed-Melech revelation. Lee has launched a new website (blackqueerandblessed.com) to promote the book and serve as a touchstone for young people who are struggling with their faith and sexuality. He is also planning an upcoming tour, including podcast interviews and speaking engagements at universities and seminaries, to share the good news about “blessings and connectedness with God.” “The spirit of God and the energies that God has given us are toward purpose,” he asserts. Reflecting on his time at United, Lee feels gratitude for the openness and creativity he discovered. “I am extremely grateful for the experiences at United and the shaping of my life as a result of being there.” He continues, “Because I was there and they embraced me and encouraged me, they helped me to evolve…to be where I am today.” _______________ † Deceased

December 17, 2024

Alums VOICES

Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi (’19) Ministers through Counseling and Relationships

“Since I was a teenager,” Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi reflects, “I always…said I would love to be a youth pastor.” So it made sense that she earned an MDiv in pastoral care and counseling. While at United, Cyreta was excited to learn more about womanist and Black liberation theology from faculty who had learned from some of the pioneers in those fields. This connection, she asserts, “brought [theology] into a different light for me and brought it to life.” Since earning her MDiv, Cyreta has held several positions at Liberty Community Church in North Minneapolis and founded a consulting business. Currently, she serves as the program director at Liberty’s Northside Healing Space and as an associate pastor for youth development at Liberty. The Northside Healing Space program that Cyreta directs intends to reduce Minnesota’s disproportionately high rate of infant and maternal mortality within Black communities and its unhealthy relationship with health care. “We are caring and walking with families who are pregnant, in delivery, or postpartum,” she explains, and connecting families with “trusted providers”— doulas, midwives, other birth workers, lactation consultants, elders, and others—who use culturally sensitive “rituals and traditions that help wrap around the family.” Since 2016, when she founded I Am Youthwork, Cyreta has also been offering extra support to “those who work with children and youth,” including youth pastors. “Youthwork, she shares, “is how to walk with children and families on their spiritual journey in today’s context.” Recently, Cyreta re-enrolled at United to begin work on her DMin! Why come back? There are too few “women who represent what I look like, where I live, and the way my family looks” who are conducting meaningful research about her community, she admits. In addition, she couldn’t ignore all the nudges she received from United, Liberty, and God. With a laugh in her voice, Cyreta tells the story of all the ways she tried not to return to school. Still, she confesses, “God was like, ’Girl, shut up!’” And she is happy to be back. For Cyreta, returning to United feels both like a homecoming and the start of a new adventure. We are truly excited to see what she will do next to support the common good.

April 8, 2024

Alums

Clare Gromoll: United’s 2024 Spirit of United Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is delighted to honor Rev. Clare Gromoll (’14) as its second Spirit of United alum award recipient. Established last year, the Spirit of United award celebrates recent alums who have done “exceptional work that reflects the mission of United in the church, in faith communities, or in society.” Clare—an adventurous scholar, gifted pastor, and skilled and thoughtful consensus builder—has accomplished that and more since she earned her MDiv. “At first glance,“ notes Rev. Kimi Floyd Riesch (’19, ’24), “nominating a person who has centered their work in parish ministry might seem strange, but that is only if you do not know the full scope of what Clare does in her life.” Currently, Clare serves as the pastor at St. Croix United Church in Bayport, Minnesota—a congregation recently formed from the merger of two local churches. Several years ago, St. Peter’s UCC in Stillwater entered a phase of contemplating a possible closure. Church participation was declining, and an interim legacy pastor decided to reach out to local churches to discuss options. Clare, then pastor of People’s Congregational Church in Bayport, agreed to invite the people of People's to explore the possibility of a merger. During this difficult time of growth, grieving, and transition, Clare joined the first cohort for United’s Leadership Center for Social Justice continuing education program in 2022. Reflecting on that experience, Clare asserts, “My experience with LCSJ helped my roots sink into my way of leadership. I drew upon community organizing principles and strategies so I could equip our Pastoral Relations Committee to engage in one-on-one conversations with church members on the periphery.” Announced by the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ on November 1, 2023, the newly created St. Croix United Church is dually affiliated with the UCC and the NACCC (National Association of Congregational Christian Churches). In 2024, the new congregation is doing the creative work of strategic visioning. They are excited to discern who and how they want to be as a progressive Christian church in the St. Croix Valley. As members of the two predecessor churches became the 103 charter members of the new church, Clare encouraged them: “Let’s live into this reality together and trust that we will love again. When people feel commitment, they can be more brave and flexible than they imagined, building on the hopeful energy within their sense of commitment. I think that’s what is going to happen here.” This year, as in the past several, St. Croix United Church joined with other area congregations to worship together on Palm Sunday. “I give thanks,” Clare recently shared, “for how the deeply collegial energy of our St. Croix Valley Ministerial Association strengthens me for my work as pastor within St. Croix United Church.” Later this spring, Clare will conclude another professional training program, “Leadership in the Valley,” offered by the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce. Alongside 27 other community leaders, she participated in monthly learning days about aspects of the local area—from environment and agriculture; to business and economic development; to diversity, equity, and inclusion; to community and the arts. On behalf of the church, Clare is also a member of the Stillwater Noon Rotary Club. It is a long-standing connection. “I am forever grateful,” she explains, “for my year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in the Dominican Republic in 2000, where I became bilingual and bi-literate.” She adds, “I think deep mutual appreciation lies at the heart of my approach to ministry…United has played a significant role in nurturing my approach to ministry.” On a personal and professional level, another trait that sets Clare apart is her unfailing optimism and nurturing for others. As Kimi explains, “She has modeled how to live without fear for both of her sons, one with Lowe Syndrome and one without, and she continues to show how becoming a minister is not about a title, but about transformation.”