Betty Dorr lives in Omaha, Nebraska and is a member of the First United Methodist Church. Betty testified at the trial of Jimmy Creech and has attended five other trials of pastors. She is the Annual Nebraska Conference Coordinator and a Steering Committee member of the Parents Reconciling Network. She served on the Planning Committee for Witness OurWelcome 2000. Betty is a past President of the Omaha Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays Chapter.

Lawrence Duncan is a staff member of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis and has held a variety of church leadership positions. He is currently involved in the Haiti Partnership Committee, GLBT Reconciling Committee, UMC Metropolitan Area of Minnesota Reconciling Committee, and several musical groups. Larry was elected twice as lay member to the Minnesota Annual Conference, and a lay delegate to General Conference in the ‘80s. His former work experience includes employment with Control Data Corp. CIS department, and Honeywell as supervisor in the computer operation data centers. Larry’s gifts to RMN are  his long standing involvement in and commitment to the reconciling movement, his leadership experiences in a variety of settings, and musical talent. Larry sings.

Rev. Duane Ewers is a member of West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Duane is retired clergy and is currently an adjunct professor of Christian Education. He served as a local church pastor in the Dakotas and then served on the Dakotas Area Program Staff. In 1988 Duane was hired as Assistant General Secretary for the General Board of Discipleship; in 1992 was Executive Editor of Church School Publications and in 2000 became Executive of the Office of Interpretation of The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Duane has attended General Conferences since 1984 in various capacities. He was the Executive Editor of the General Conference mandated study, “The Church Studies Homosexuality.” The gifts Duane will bring to RMN include his knowledge of the general church and his extensive writing experience. He and his wife have been active in the reconciling movement at West End UMC. 

Elizabeth Fimbres is a member of St. Francis in the Foothills in Tucson, Arizona. In her local church, Elizabeth chaired the Unlearning Racism Taskforce, was the founder of Reading Seed program, and chaired the Youth and Children’s Program. While not a lay member of her annual conference, she attended an annual conference to support reconciling issues. Elizabeth has a deep passion for the reconciling movement as a result of witnessing the impact of discrimination on the lives of several friends in the LGBT community. Elizabeth is an attorney and a recently retired Juvenile Court judge. She has long been committed to equality and justice. The gifts Elizabeth will bring to RMN are her analytical, organizational and communication skills as a lawyer and judge and her passion for the inclusion of all persons in the church and society.

Will Green is a native of Worcester, Massachusetts and a life long member of Wesley United Methodist Church. Currently he is the Director of Youth Ministries at the United Parish of Auburndale, considering pursuing an M.Div. and active in the life of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries, the New England Annual Conference's mission to the GLBT community. Will is also a graduate of the University of Chicago.

William Ed Green, a representative from MOSAIC,  is a junior at Hendrix College in Arkansas and serves as a student pastor at Overcup/Cleveland Charge. Will serves as President of the student body at Hendrix. He has served seven years as a lay member to Annual Conference. He has organized and developed the Arkansas Student Movement, which targets college students at campus ministries in the state. Will has also worked extensively with the conference to coordinate communication and resourcing among rural congregations in Arkansas. In addition, Will is working with district superintendents to create regional connection groups for declared and certified candidates for ordination. Will’s desire is to return the Church to a place where it can speak prophetically about justice issues like homophobia and racism and to help equip the movement on a grassroots level.

Esther Villarreal Houser is a member of Bering Memorial UMC in Houston, TX. She has served as a board member of the Texas Conference Board of Trustees, the United Methodist Foundation of the Texas Annual Conference, and was a founding board member of Bering Community Services Foundation. She has served her local church in many leadership capacities including Chair of the strategic vision “Grand Plan.” Professionally, she is 1st Vice President of Investments for Smith Barney, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Jacob Lau is a seminary student at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. Jacob spent four years actively participating in the UC Davis and UC Berkeley’s campus ministries as well as co-authoring all inclusive resolutions and serving as a voting delegate to the United Methodist Student Movement Student Forum. Jacob also volunteered in mission in Zimbabwe at Africa University, Fairfield Orphanage. He seeks to illuminate the interplay of race, ethnicity, nationality, physical ableness and class with sexual orientation and gender identity.

David Mauzy, is a grassroots guiding force creating inclusive communities person by person in Austin, Texas. David is involved in both secular and religious political systems, advocacy and education. He works for the Texas Legislature.

Rev. David Meredith is the pastor at Broad Street UMC in Columbus, Ohio. David has been involved in Affirmation, West Ohio HIV/AIDS Ministry, Urban Network, Unity Task Force, and has been a delegate to Jurisdictional Conference from ‘96 through ‘08. He has been an advocate/volunteer at every General Conference since 1984, a member of Open Table and MFSA. He has served as adjunct faculty at Methodist Theological School in Ohio and a trainer for Asset Based Community Ministry. David joins Diane Nunnelee as a  representative from Reconciling Clergy. David’s gift to RMN is his history of involvement and dedication to the reconciling movement.

Randall Miller is an activist, poet, and layperson from Bethany UMC in the San Francisco/Bay Area. Randall is a past co-spokesperson for National Affirmation. A long-time activist on behalf of inclusiveness, Randy was invited to address both the 1996 and 2000 UMC General Conferences regarding GLBT issues. Randall is a PhD candidate in Social Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union and serves as a program officer at the Haas, Jr. Fund primarily supporting the Equality and Justice grant making area.

Rev. Holland Morgan is an elder in the South Georgia Annual Conference, currently appointed to serve as Bereavement Counselor at Hospice Savannah, Inc. After serving as a pastor for over 20 years, Holland provided leadership in the organization of Savannah’s first AIDS Interfaith Network, was a part of the leadership team for the Revisioning Associates (Intentional Growth Center at Lake Junaluska, NC) and now serves on the board of StandOut Youth, a non-profit GLBTQ youth organization.

Rev. Joshua M. Noblitt is a clergy member of the Western North Carolina Annual Conference and is  Deacon in Residence at St. Mark UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. Joshua is a Mitigation Specialist at the Georgia Capital Defender and considers his occupation to be a Death Penalty Abolitionist. Joshua has been involved in MOSAIC and is now with Reconciling Ministries Clergy. He chaired the student organization, Sacred Worth, at Candler School of Theology and brought the Shower of Stoles project to campus for a worship service featuring the former Rev. Jimmy Creech.  He also served on the Emory University President’s Commission on LGBT Concerns. Joshua’s gifts to RMN are his leadership abilities and strong commitment to justice. 

Rev. M. Diane Nunnelee is pastor of Trinity UMC in Kansas City, Missouri. She is also a board member of Metro Organization for Racial Equity, The Family Center, and The Window (a domestic violence shelter). For the UMC, Diane has served as a delegate to both the General Conference and Jurisdictional Conferences and on the Episcopacy Committee and as the Liaison for South African volunteers in mission. Diane also served as director of volunteer services at Habitat for Humanity International headquarters.

Rev. John Oda serves as pastor of Pine UMC in San Francisco, CA where he developed “The Global Village” a project to right racism in the San Francisco High schools. Currently John is a board member of the San Francisco Interfaith council and of the Kokora Assisted Living Center. He is co-chair of Theological Forums of Northern California Japanese Churches, vice-chair of Soko Bukai and of the National Japanese American United Methodist Caucus. John is also president of the Japanese American Religious Federation of the Bay Area.

Elizabeth Okayama served as Associate General Secretary for Episcopal Services of the General Council on Finance and Administration from 1988 to 2005. She also served as the Human Resources Director from 1996 through 2005. Prior to working for the general church, she was the Coordinator of the Ecumenical Women's Center in Chicago. While at E.W.C, Liz worked on revisions of Because We Are One People, an inclusive language hymnal, as well as on racism in the women's community. A member of New Hope UMC in Chicago, Liz is currently Lay Leader/ Lay Member, chairs the Church Council, and serves as Music Director.

Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA, where she is also an adjunct professor of United Methodist Studies. Karen is an elder in the California-Nevada Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church and attends Epworth United Methodist Church. Coauthor of Talking about Homosexuality: A Congregational Resource, she is a frequent guest preacher and retreat leader on reconciling issues.

Rev. Troy Plummer has served as the executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network since November 2003. Prior to RMN, Troy served for 13 years on the pastoral staff of Bering Memorial United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. As a psychotherapist, he directed Bering’s on-site counseling center and support network for those affected by HIV/AIDS their families and friends. Just outside Bering’s sanctuary, he performed a “street wedding” for a lesbian couple celebrating 25 years together and facilitated Bering’s equal treatment of all couples policy.

Rev. Dr. Bruce Robbins is the Senior Minister at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, a Reconciling Congregation. Previously, he was the General Secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns of the UMC. There he attempted to develop dialogues hoping for full inclusion of LGBT persons. He also worked with the World Council of Churches and in 2003 he authored A World Parish? Hopes and Challenges of the UMC in a Global Setting.

Rev. Dr. Martha Scott is the pastor of Euclid Avenue UMC in Oak Park, Illinois. She served for seven years as the district superintendent for the Chicago Northwestern District and eight years as a teacher and administrator at the University of Chicago Divinity School and Garrett-Evangelical Theological seminary, and twelve years in pastoral work in an urban mission parish. Marti has received numerous awards for her work in the fields of social justice and racial violence and served as a research consultant with the General Board of Global Ministries.

Sally Sparks is a member of Dumbarton UMC in Washington, DC. An engineer by training, she has spent thelast 8 years of her career challenging disparate groups of people with their own agendas to work together. One project involved building information sharing capacity with 16 nations. Sally leads and excellent workshop on gender identity and transgender education.

Rev. Derrick Spiva is a clergy member of the Cal-Nevada Annual Conference and attends Bethany UMC in San Francisco. For the past twenty years, Derrick has been an entrepreneur developing and operating multi-million dollar projects in education and entertainment. His company produced all the media for the Convocation in 1998 and managed and directed the technical production for this year’s annual conference. Derrick is currently CEO of CEED Enterprises LLC, a “Community Entertainment and Educational Digital Company. Derrick has also served as a local pastor of two churches in Fresno from 2003 to 2006 and now lives in the San Francisco area. He is excited about getting involved in the international UMC social justice movement. Derrick’s gifts to RMN are his media and technical skills as well as his entrepreneurial mind.

Monica Swink, a member of Epworth United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, and her husband Harold committed early to reconciling ministry when they joined a seed group for a dying inner-city church. Joining new with existing members resulted in a grand experiment that worked and still reaches out to a racially diverse, economically changing and culturally rich neighborhood in Oklahoma City. Monica has her own CPA firm, working exclusively with nonprofit organizations in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, helping with financial management and consultation on a variety of nonprofit issues.

Joy Watts is an Adult Sunday School teacher at Uniontown United Methodist Church in Uniontown, Ohio, and a local and district UMW officer, and is a local lay speaker. Joy’s other involvements include workshop leader, former Jr. UMYF leader, MFSA, Canton District Peace Advocate, holding many UMW positions. She is an at-large member to Annual Conference and has participated in ministries fairs representing RMN and PRN and has helped with RMN worship and activities at Annual Conference. Joy volunteered with MFSA and RMN at the 2004 General Conference, and participates in PFLAG and Equality in Ohio. Her gift to RMN is that
she is an experienced spokesperson for change in the United Methodist Church. 

Ralph Williams is a lay member of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. He is the lay member to Annual Conference since 2000. Ralph was elected to Jurisdictional Conference in 2004 and again for 2008. He has attended all but one of the National Convocations and is involved with United Methodists of Color, has had affiliations with Affirmation, Shower of Stoles, and MFSA. He led Foundry in the process to become a Reconciling Congregation, founded the 200 member LGBT group at Foundry, and was a founding member of the Baltimore-Washington Area Reconciling United Methodists (BWARM). He is currently chair of the BWARM Advocacy Committee. Ralph’s gifts to RMN are his long years of dedication and commitment to the reconciling movement, his leadership skills and wisdom. Ralph is a retiree.   

Christina Wright lives in Cleveland, OH completing Clinical Pastoral Education as a part of her MDiv at Harvard Divinity School. She has served as chair of the national steering committee of the United Methodist Student Movement. She is also involved in the interfaith movement with the Interfaith Youth Core and if the co-chair of On Fire, a progressive group of young adults in The United Methodist Church.