Wednesday, March 6 – 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 7 – 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Episcopal Parish Network’s (EPN) pre-conference sessions are designed for colleagues and peers working within specific roles to share, learn, and inspire each other to strengthen their ministries.

Pre-Conference Sessions are led by clergy, lay leaders, consultants, and experts engaged in the ministry of the church in communities, parishes, cathedrals, and dioceses across the country.

Session One: Wednesday, March 6 at 2:00 p.m.

The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, Th.D. is the eighth dean and president of Seminary of Southwest after serving on the faculty as the Ernest J. Villavaso, Jr. Professor of New Testament, and as academic dean.

The focus of Dean Kittredge’s leadership is the formation of Christian leaders in community for the vitality of the church and to advance God’s mission of reconciliation. She believes critical engagement with scripture, tradition, and context, energized by imagination, and grounded in prayer is the center of formation for mission.

Dean Kittredge earned multiple advanced degrees from Harvard Divinity School. Prior to joining the seminary faculty in 1999, Dean Kittredge taught at Harvard University and the College of the Holy Cross. She serves as assisting priest at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepard in Austin.

She is married and has three grown children.

The Very Rev. Lisa Hackney-James joined the staff of St. James Cathedral, Chicago as Sub-Dean in October 2015, and was elected Provost in October 2022.

Following a first career as a professional harpist, Lisa was ordained at St. James Cathedral in 2003 and returned to the Diocese of Chicago in 2014 after nearly a decade of ministry in Cleveland Heights, an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. There, she served on the staffs of two Episcopal congregations, and as a founding member of the executive team of Greater Cleveland Congregations, an Industrial Areas Foundation affiliate made up of 50+ interfaith congregations, schools, and unions whose work included advocacy in public education, health care access, and criminal sanctions reform. [With her two Episcopal parishes and the local public school between them, she pioneered a collaborative partnership supporting academic excellence among students and bridge-building among their families.]

As Provost of a vibrant downtown Cathedral in a global city, Lisa’s passion for the Gospel, and her love for God’s diverse people find a home in an historic and growing community focused on compassionate engagement across lines of difference, and encountering the Divine in the beauty of holiness.

The Very Rev. Dr. David Monteith was installed in December 2022 as the 40^th Dean of Canterbury (post Reformation) leading a staff of 250 and over 500 volunteers; leading the mother church of the Anglican Communion. He chairs the College of Deans for the Church of England.

Prior to this, David was Dean of Leicester in East Midlands where he was responsible for the re-interment of King Richard III after he was found in a “car park” and the redevelopment  of the cathedral in one of Britain’s most diverse cities.

His interests focus on faith in the public realm, change, culture, and the arts. David grew up in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland and shares his life in a Civil Partnership with David Hamilton and their dog.

The Rev. Dr. Luigi Gioia is the Theologian in Residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Research Associate at the Von Hiigel Institute at the University of Cambridge (UK). His is the author of Say It to God. In Search of Prayer. The Archbishop of Canterbury Lent Book 2028 (Bloomsbury 2017), and The Wisdom of St. Benedict. Monastic Spirituality and The Life of The Church (Canterbury Press 2021; Winner of the first prize in the spirituality category from the Catholic Media Association Award in 2021). His books have been translated in six languages.

The Rev. Canon Carl F. Turner became the rector of Saint Thomas Church in July 2014. Prior to coming to Saint Thomas, he was the Canon Precentor of Exeter Cathedral for 13 years. He led the Department of Liturgy and Music working with the 850-year-old Cathedral School.

As a seminarian, he spent two years in the United States before serving two curacies in Essex at Leigh-on-Sea and Brentwood. He also became rector of the Parish of the Divine Compassion, a large urban parish in Plaistow and Canning Town in the East End of London. All his parishes have been Anglo-Catholic in tradition with a strong love of music and Liturgy as well as a strong commitment to the communities they serve.

He was born in Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. Carl is married to Alison, and they have three adopted children who are now young adults.

A national leader in the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Winnie Varghese is known for her inspired writing, teaching, and preaching. Winnie has been a leading voice on issues including mass incarceration; systemic racism; gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ issues; and immigration, among others. She is the 23rd rector of St. Luke’s, Atlanta. Prior to St. Luke’s, Winnie served at Trinity Church Wall Street, St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York City, and St. Alban’s, Los Angeles. Winnie has also served as the Episcopal Chaplain at both Columbia University and the University of California Los Angeles.

Session Two: Wednesday, March 6 at 2:00 p.m.

The Rev. Nathan Kirkpatrick is the principal consultant at Saison Consulting. He has worked with a number of nonprofit institutions, principally faith-based, designing and facilitating their planning processes. His clients include The Episcopal Parish Network (EPN), Church of the Heavenly Rest (New York City), Epiphany Episcopal Church (Seattle), St. Philip’s Episcopal Church (Durham), Trinity Episcopal Church (Indianapolis), University United Methodist Church (Chapel Hill), and Washington National Cathedral.

Nathan serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, the Episcopal Preaching Foundation, and the Texas Methodist Foundation. He was previously the Director of Alban at Duke University (formerly the Alban Institute), a globally recognized congregational consulting company.

Bill Reynolds began his 20-year career in Brand Management after graduating with his MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University. He worked at Nestle, L’Oreal, and Unilever with profit and loss responsibility for divisions with $300 million in sales. Critical success factors in building brand sales and profits in highly competitive markets require superior consumer insight, defining brand assets to “own” them, extend them into new markets, and leverage them in advertising and promotion.

Bill spent 17 years at Georgetown University as the Associate Vice President for the Annual Fund & Alumni Relations as well as the Executive Director of the Alumni Association. He is the Co-Founder and partner at HRG consulting and serves on several not-for-profit boards. Bill is married with two children, two grandchildren, and a Norwich Terrier. He loves a good story.

Session Three: Thursday, March 7 – 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.

Dr. Rob Garris is the Executive Director of the Trinity Leadership Fellows program and Managing Director of the Leadership Development initiative on the philanthropies team at Trinity Church Wall Street. These programs support the creation of educational programming that develops the  leadership capacities of people of faith, empowering them to better serve their congregations and communities. 

Rob has built innovative international education and research  programs at universities and foundations for more than 20 years, working for Schwarzman Scholars in China, the Rockefeller Foundation, Columbia University, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Rob received his Ph.D. in European history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he specialized in immigration and urban policy.

Rev. Lisa Greenwood is the president and chief executive officer of Texas Methodist Foundation (TMF). She joined the staff of TMF in 2012 serving as vice president for learning and innovation before taking her current roles in 2022.

For over 30 years, Lisa has been a change-maker within ministry and faith communities, empowering leaders through learning and innovation and promoting congregational growth. She regularly speaks and facilitates national conversations creating cultures of purpose, generosity, and courage in the church.

Lisa is an ordained elder in the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, where she has served several congregations including Highland Park United Methodist Church and First United Methodist Church in Commerce, among others. She earned a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School.

The Rev. Yuriria (Yuri) Rodríguez-Laureani serves as a curate at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in the Diocese of Indianapolis. She was recently ordained to the priesthood after completing the Master’s in Divinity program at the School of Theology, Sewanee: The University of the South. She is a native Costa Rican singer, artist, and educator specializing in Latin American music and culture. For more than 20 years, Yuri has performed in and conducted works of sacred and Latin American music in the United States. Through music, she has developed programs and curricula to accompany diverse communities in their journeys of faith, affirm their sense of identity, and celebrate God already present in the experience of others.

Katy Shedlock is the lay pastoral leader of the West Central Abbey, a church plant in the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane that celebrated five years of weekly Sunday workshop on December 3, 2023. Additionally, she is an MFA candidate in Poetry at Eastern Washington University and a community organizer with the Spokane Alliance supporting the housing research action team. Katy holds an MDiv from Iliff School of Theology and is a candidate for ordination to the priesthood in the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane.

Rev. Michael Gienger is a community organizer and changemaker known for his tenacious solidarity with the poor. Michael is an ordained elder in the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He received his undergraduate degree in Religion, concentrating in Christian Ethics, from Baylor University, and his Master of Divinity from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. Michael has been serving as co-pastor of Central United Methodist Church in Galveston, Texas since 2014. Central is a hybrid church plant/revitalization that is making space for hopeful skeptics and the spiritually homeless through a generous orthodoxy and focus on justice ministries. Michael is also the co-founder of Galveston Housing Plus, an organization that innovates new approaches to address homelessness across the city.
Michael Gienger is a 2023 recipient of the Locke Innovative Leader Award from Wesleyan Impact Partners, an award that lifts up the work of spiritual entrepreneurs who envision new ways to serve their mission field and inspire others to join them in growing the impact of the church and nourishing their communities.

De’Amon Harges is a “Roving Listener,” a role defined by his posture of curiosity and his passion for discovering the gifts and talents of the people in his community. He is also the founder of The Learning Tree, a non-profit that uses an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach with city governments and organizations to improve the quality of lives of people, communities, schools and businesses.
His approach has greatly influenced how congregations, non-profits, and local governments view their work. Instead of seeing people and communities as lacking in resources, De’Amon sees their wealth of “intangible currencies” such as imagination, relationships, and stories as the way to bring people together in a fellowship of “mutual delight.” Sometimes referred to as a “Social Banker”, De’Amon believes that when you invest in the intangible currencies in your neighborhood, you will find the riches of love, hope, and joy in abundance.
De’Amon Harges is a 2021 recipient of the Locke Innovative Leader Award from Wesleyan Impact Partners, an award that lifts up the work of spiritual entrepreneurs who envision new ways to serve their mission field and inspire others to join them in growing the impact of the church and nourishing their communities.