Where did you grow up, and what brought you to Harrisonburg?

I grew up in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. and it was not my favorite place it live. Most of my family lived in Virginia, and I loved visiting them as many weekends as possible and for several weeks each summer. When I graduated from high school, I moved to Broadway, and still live in the same house.

How does your faith happen in your daily life?

Sometimes faith happens when you least expect it. You see it in nature, knowing God made the beautiful mountains for us to enjoy. You feel it in interactions with others, perhaps striking up a conversation with someone in the grocery store and you just know “they needed that” … or did you? And you hear faith coming through in that little voice in your head, “was that the most faithful thing to say or do?”

What is a fun fact about you that may surprise people?

All my family (grandparents, aunts/uncles, first cousins) live in Rockingham County or Harrisonburg. My parents were the only ones to leave the area because there were no good jobs here for them when they got married.

What’s the most inspiring part of your job?

Getting to serve the wonderful people of Muhlenberg — sometimes in hard times, other times when building ministries of the church. I love serving the Muhlenberg community as well as working with our gifted and talented staff and lay leaders to see ideas discussed behind the scenes come to life in a way that is meaningful to people’s faith.

Ask me about:

Muhlenberg. After serving here since 2002, I can answer many questions about the church, including current and past leadership, events, procedures, and general operations of the church. If I don’t know the answer, I can almost always either find it or know who to ask to get the answer for you.

My favorite word in the English language is:

“Hope”

If I could invent a holiday, it would definitely involve:

Fall leaves — I think we should have an extended weekend around the time fall leaves are at their peak!

If we held a talent show, I’d wow everyone with:

my ability to run a calculator! In a past job with a construction company, I had to add up meticulous time cards entries to process payroll (1.25 hours for concrete forming, 4.5 hours for pouring concrete, 2.25 hours for door hardware = for one 8-hour day). Unknown to me, a supervisor stood at my door watching me add up timecard after timecard. He stopped me and said, “you are going WAY too fast - there is NO WAY you are entering actual numbers!” I tore off the calculator tape and handed him the stack of time cards I had just added. He was amazed, and said, “that is quite a talent!”