Leadership

The Rev. Peggy Lo was recently called to serve as rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas. Prior to this call, she was the Assistant Priest at St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church and Day School in Chicago.

Prior to attending seminary, she had a career in nonprofit administration and then in translation services. For six years, Peggy worked for the Public Interest Network as a campus organizer, central recruitment administrator, budget administrator, and online organizer taking her to Amherst, Boston, and Denver. She worked for the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation as a translator, lecture editor, and workshop designer.

During seminary at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Peggy’s field placements took her to New York City, first with the Episcopal churches in Harlem through the Church of the Heavenly Rest and the Congregation of Saint Savior at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. More recently, she has served on the Episcopal Parish Network’s Annual Conference Planning Committee.

Peggy graduated from Stanford University with an AB in Psychology and minor in Asian American Studies. Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, is her sending parish.

The Rev. Michael Sullivan became Kanuga’s 10th president in November 2016. His
time has been marked by new business strategies and fundraising to strengthen the
institution for its next 100 years while also celebrating the unique spiritual qualities that make Kanuga sacred to so many. He has also led the institution through two potentially devastating events, the pandemic and most recently Hurricane Hellene.

A native of Seneca, South Carolina, Michael holds a Master of Divinity from The
University of the South–Sewanee, Tennessee; a Juris Doctor cum laude, from the
University of South Carolina–Columbia; and a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude,
Wofford College–Spartanburg, South Carolina (Phi Beta Kappa).

Michael is the author of two books and numerous articles. Windows into the Soul and Windows into the Light, both published by Morehouse, a division of Church Publishing, explore the place of art in spirituality. He has served on numerous boards, most recently the Flat Rock Playhouse, the state theater of North Carolina; Regent, University of the South (Sewanee); and is most proud of his work with EPN as board member and president.

In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, fitness, fishing, hiking, and writing.

Currently a Senior Consultant and Principal at Marts&Lundy, a strategic fundraising consulting firm, Richard Ammons has more than 30 years of experience as a higher education advancement professional.  Before joining Marts&Lundy, he was Associate Dean for the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Prior to his work at Duke, Richard served for seven years as vice president for development at Colby College, managing the College’s $370 million comprehensive campaign. Richard also held leadership posts at Macalester College, Morehouse College and the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University.

Richard is currently a member of the board of trustees of the University of the South (Sewanee); a member of the vestry and past senior warden at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Durham; and a member of the board of MDC, Inc.  He is a former trustee of the General Theological Seminary. Richard has also served on the vestry and was a member of a Rector Search Committee at St. Luke’s, Atlanta.

Raised in Atlanta and New York City, Richard completed his undergraduate degree at Amherst College and earned an MBA at Stanford University.

Donna Ashley is currently the canon to the Episcopal Church bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, a member of the presiding bishop’s staff. In this full-time position, Canon Ashley works with the Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries. Among her duties are the direct administrative support of more than 100 Episcopal priests who serve as federal chaplains in the armed forces, veterans’ hospitals, and federal prisons. She assists the bishop suffragan in the recruitment, support, and care of these chaplains.

After receiving her BA in Economics and Management from Simmons College, Mrs. Ashley held positions in Marketing and Sales for Fidelity Investments and Columbia Asset Management before joining Trinity Church Boston as Director of Parish Giving. Following this experience working for the Church, she obtained her MA in Theology from The General Theological Seminary, and subsequently became their Director of Admissions. She then accepted a ministry as Interim Director of Congregational Resources and Training at the Diocese of Massachusetts. Mrs. Ashley returned to The General Seminary as Vice President of Advancement. She has also previously held positions on the Board of the Church Club of New York and on the EPN Annual Conference Planning Committee.

Fred Staley is the newly-appointed Executive Director of Operations for St. Stephen’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. He manages finances, facilities, administration, and human resources.

Prior to joining St. Stephen’s, he served in a similar role for the Episcopal Church Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida, since 2013. As associate for administration at Bethesda-by-the-Sea, Staley managed 20 full time and eight part-time staff, as well as volunteers. He has overseen maintenance of the physical plant as well as Bethesda-by-the Sea’s retail thrift store, one of the nation’s leaders with revenue more than $1 million annually.

His previous experience also includes serving as business manager for a Presbyterian church in Knoxville, Tennessee, administrative and financial management in secular settings, including his family’s business, Staley, Marble & Granite also in Knoxville. Staley graduated cum laude from King College in Bristol, Tennessee, and holds an MBA from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.

Staley is married to Debbie, an award-winning author. They have one married son, Ethan, and two precious dachshunds, Buster and Phillie.

The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead Carroll is the 1oth dean of St John’s Cathedral, where she oversees a vibrant urban congregation of about 1,500, along with a number of non-profits birthed by the Cathedral. Mother Kate has led the Cathedral congregation in developing ministries for the homeless, immigrants, and children as well as implementing a new vision for the redevelopment of the urban core in the Cathedral District. She also serves as vice president of the Episcopal School of Jacksonville, the Cathedral School Early Learning Center, Cathedral Arts Project, Cathedral Care nursing facility and Aging True Community Senior Services.

During her tenure as Dean, Kate has helped to launch the non-profit Cathedral District-Jax, which has recruited over 44 million in residential investment into the district surrounding the Cathedral in Jacksonville’s urban core.

A noted preacher, Kate is known for her speaking and scholarship throughout the Episcopal Church. She has presented at the National General Convention as well as numerous church conferences and workshops within the United States, and is the author of five seasonal meditation books, as well as a book and three-part video series about Mary Magdalene.

Kate is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College and a cum laude graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, where she earned her Master of Divinity. She and her husband, Dr. Chris Carroll, have three sons – Luke, Jake and Max.

Commitment to ‘Strengthening Leaders for a Changing Church through Connecting, Equipping, and Diversifying’:

“All over the world, the shape and structure of Christianity is changing. In North America, Sunday morning worship is shrinking and innovative ministries are on the rise. It is clear that technology is changing the way we write, speak, and think and that means we will be worshipping in new ways and praying in new ways. I believe that EPN is one of the incubators where great practitioners of the faith can gather and brainstorm. We need flexible, wise, creative leadership in order to take the Episcopal Church into the future.”

The Very Rev. Dominic Barrington was appointed as the Dean of York in the autumn of 2022. Dean Barrington began his ministry as curate in the Mortlake with East Sheen Team Ministry in the Diocese of Southwark. He served as a university chaplain at St. Chad’s, Durham, before becoming priest-in-charge, and subsequently, rector at St. Peter with St. Michael’s in Kettering in the Diocese of Peterborough.

He was installed as Dean of St. James Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois, in 2015, after 20 years of ordained ministry in the Church of England. During his theological studies, he spent a year as an exchange student at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, the Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, California, from which spring a deep-seated affection for The Episcopal Church.

Dean Barrington has previously worked with the Arts Council to create and fund new regional touring opportunities for the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, and other orchestras. He has worked for several years with some of Britain’s leading professional choirs and vocal groups.

He is well known in both England and the United States for his knowledge and experience of the Holy Land, where he leads pilgrimages structured to provide income and employment for the Christian communities of Palestine and Israel.

He is married to Alison, a music therapist, who has worked in both clinical and academic contexts. They have two sons, Benedict and Linus.

George has served on the Outreach Commission, the Property Committee, the Nursery School Task Force and board. He helped produce “Joseph”, chaired the Organ Committee and the Capital Projects Committee, was a driving force in the last Capital Campaign, and a member of the Vestry Class of 2016 before becoming Junior and then Senior Warden. George’s career spans from consulting for the banking industry to producing film and television both in New York and Los Angeles. George and his wife, Dorothy, know and love Christ Church.

Elizabeth Boe is the Mission Personnel Officer in The Episcopal Church’s Global Partnership Office. In this role, she manages the Young Adult Service Corp (YASC) and Episcopal Volunteers in Mission (EVIM) — the Church’s two missionary-sending programs. Elizabeth joined the Presiding Bishop’s staff in 2011 after serving two years in Tanzania with YASC.

She is a parishioner and vestry member at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City. Elizabeth previously served on EPN’s Annual Conference Planning Committee for three years and was co-chair for two years.

Outside church, she enjoys history, language study, and hanging out with her sister, Nina, and Mr. P., the slightly cantankerous 10-year-old cat they adopted in 2020.

Doyt L. Conn, Jr. began as the 10th Rector of Epiphany Parish in November 2008. “My calling,” Doyt says, “is primarily to gather people and expose them to the transforming power of an awesome, loving, inclusive God. Christianity is a lifestyle, it a practice, it is an spiritual exercise. Epiphany Parish is a gym for the human spirit where we work out through worship, prayer, fasting, tithing, sabbath, pilgrimage and living in the rhythms of the Christian calendar to become our most God-given authentic self, with the hope of being love spreading difference makers in the world.”

Over the past ten years, Epiphany Parish has grown 350%. Doyt is fond of saying evolution happens where land and water meet, and that certainly describes Seattle. Epiphany, under his leadership, is certainly changing to meet the changing spiritual landscape of 21st Century America. Teaching is Doyt’s passion, and he focuses much of this on Jesus, and teaching people to live their lives as Jesus would if he had the context of their body, and mind, and life… right now, in this city, at this time.

Doyt came to Epiphany from All Saints’ Beverly Hills, where he served as Associate Rector with primary responsibility for Pastoral Care. Doyt graduated with his Masters of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2003. He discerned his vocation as a priest in the Diocese of Ohio, where he was sponsored for ordination by St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights.

After receiving his Bachelors of Science from the School of Speech at Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois in 1989, Doyt worked as a project director for the international relief organization AmeriCares. In 1992, he joined the Hawk Group of Companies in Cleveland, Ohio where he worked as a Director of Corporate Strategy and as a member of the mergers and acquisition team. In 1997, Doyt received his Masters of Business Administration from Case Western Reserve University. While in Cleveland, Doyt also worked as a General Manager for Cleveland Steel Container.

Doyt and his wife Kristin met while at Northwestern in 1985. They were married in Cleveland in 1994. Kristin is a family physician and practices medicine with Kaiser Permanente in Seattle. Doyt and Kristin have two children, Margaret (1999) and Desmond (2004), and he lives next door to his older sister Valerie. Doyt enjoys running with his dog Minnie, playing tennis, taking walks with Kristin, and traveling.

Dr. Ffolkes-Bryant has been an educator for over 40 years with the New York City Department of Education, starting as a teacher and is currently an Assistant Superintendent of District 75. She was the founding Principal of P.S. 315, School of the Performing Arts in 1998.

Under Dr. Ffolkes-Bryant’s leadership, P.S. 315 has been honored with numerous awards from both community and professional organizations including WNBC’s “What’s Good About New York”, the New York State Alliance for Arts Education, the Brooklyn Borough, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, among many others. She and P.S. 315 have been recognized for community collaborations, steadily rising test scores, and reducing failure rates through education and the arts.

In 2008, Dr. Ffolkes-Bryant received the Congressional Award for Educator of the Year.

Dr. Ffolkes-Bryant joined Trinity Church in 1997. She has participated as a lay reader, congregational council member, and youth group advisor. She also was a member of the New York Episcopal Diocese’s “Children’s First” Committee.

She was educated in New York City’s public schools graduating from the Music and Arts High School. Dr. Ffolkes-Bryant received a bachelor’s degree from Aldelphi University, a master’s degree from Teacher’s College/Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from St. John’s University.

The Rev. Caitlyn Keith has been the associate rector for four years at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields in Columbia, SC, a growing parish in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina. Prior to ordination, she served for nearly 10 years in parishes doing formation and development work, and is an alumna of the Episcopal Service Corps. She grew up on the High Plains of Colorado but came East to attend the College of William and Mary where she earned her undergraduate degree in religious studies. Caitlyn was formed for priesthood at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale where she met Scott, her theater-maker husband. If you are looking for Caitlyn on a Sunday afternoon, you’ll find her soaking in the Carolina sunshine on the porch with cold soda and their two Wheaten Terriers, Bentley and Hopps.

The Rev. Elizabeth Marie Melchionna (pronounced mel-shio-na) has been the rector of The Chapel of the Cross since 2016.

After working in outdoor education and leadership development, Elizabeth Marie began her ordained ministry as a Luce Scholar teaching at Payap University and facilitating interfaith dialogue at the Institute for Religion, Culture and Peace, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Always serving with an attentiveness to leading healthy change, Elizabeth Marie has worked as a parish priest at St. Mary’s Arlington, VA and as the Davidson College Episcopal Campus Minister and Associate Rector of St. Alban’s in Davidson, NC.  She also has served as the Canon for Discipleship and Parish Life at St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, CO.

Elizabeth Marie holds degrees from Davidson College (magna cum laude) and Yale University’s Divinity School (summa cum laude). Additionally, she holds graduate certificates in Anglican Studies (Berkeley Divinity School at Yale), Liturgy (Yale Institute of Sacred Music), and Conflict Transformation (Eastern Mennonite University).

She has studied and worked around the world including Madagascar, England, New Zealand, and Thailand. Elizabeth Marie and her husband parent three kids ranging in age from diapers to driver’s license.

The Rev. Shana McCauley is the Canon for Spiritual Formation at Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. She leads the welcome and pastoral care ministries, as well as supports stewardship and anti-racism initiatives. Previously, Shana was the vicar of St. Edward’s in Silverton, a small (and mighty!) mission in rural Oregon for 11 years.

In 2016, she closed and relaunched St. Edward’s helping the congregation to be flexible and to transition to its next chapter. From 2018 to 2020, St. Edward’s worked with the community to change zoning laws and to build four cottages to help unhoused women transition into stable housing. Shana was the Associate for Youth at St. Timothy’s in Danville, California, prior to leading St. Edward’s.

Shana is Korean and Caucasian growing up in Anchorage, Alaska. She is married with three sons who range in age from four to twelve. She received her Master of Divinity from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Washington. In her spare time, she enjoys fiber arts and reading young adult fiction.

The Rev. William S. Stanley has been vicar of St. Stephen’s since February 2020. In that role Will leads the program and ministry staff of this resource parish and shares in the pastoral, teaching, and preaching work of its clergy team. A native of Washington, D.C., he is a graduate of the Landon School, the University of the South, Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He was ordained deacon and priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta and served Holy Innocents’ Church as curate for two years. He was then called west to Southern California where he served two different Episcopal parishes—St. Cross in Hermosa Beach and All Saints’ in Beverly Hills—focusing on pastoral care, outreach, and work with youth and young adults. Will lives in the Carytown neighborhood of Richmond and outside of work he enjoys exercise, time on the golf course, and exploring Richmond’s excellent food and beverage scene.

The Reverend William (Will) S. Stanley

The Rev. Canon Steven Lee is the Vicar of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, where he provides senior executive leadership for one of the largest institutions in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. In his role, he is responsible for the oversight and financial management of the Liturgy, Pastoral Care, and Columbarium departments, supervises the Canon for Community Engagement, and pastorally supports the worshiping community.

He also serves as the board chair of the New York Episcopal Federal Credit Union, a federally chartered institution that promotes financial literacy and offers vital financial services to marginalized communities within the Diocese of New York. Steven is also the co-founder of EAST: Episcopal Asian Supper Table, a thriving ministry now in its eighth year, which fosters community among Asian-Americans in the Diocese of New York.

Before entering the priesthood, Steven worked in finance as a derivatives trader for a Swiss Bank and later served as the executive director of a faith-based immigration ministry. He holds a degree in Classics from Yale, where he received the Buchanan Winthrop Prize for Greek Translation, and earned his Master of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary. During his theological training, he completed field placements with incarcerated men at Sing-Sing and Fishkill Correctional Facilities.

He is married to Emma, who works at the Museum of Modern Art, and together they are raising their four children—three boys and one girl.

The Rev. Canon Steven Lee

The Very Rev. Owen C. Thompson grew up in the Episcopal Church. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2003 at Christ Church Cathedral and spent 22 years in parish ministry in the Diocese of Long Island, New York, In 2021, he was called to serve in the Diocese of Southern Ohio, as the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Downtown Cincinnati.

Dean Thompson attributes much of his passion for ministry and his understanding of the role of the Church in the world to his time as a seminarian-intern at Trinity Wall Street during the terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2002, where he pastored to first responders and volunteers at ground zero at St. Paul’s Chapel.

He received his Master of Divinity degree from The General Theological Seminary, New York, NY, holds a Masters in Educational Communications and Technology from New York University’s School of Education, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Minor in Performing Arts from Hobart College, Geneva, NY.

Dean Thompson is the son of the late Rt. Reverend Herbert Thompson Jr., Bishop of Southern Ohio (ret.), whose ministry motto, “To reconcile. To heal. To Liberate. To Serve,” he has adopted as his own, and the late Russelle Cross Thompson, a former professional operatic soprano and an amazing mother. Dean Thompson is married to his wife of 23 years, Jonna Morales-Thompson, who is a Holistic Nutritionist; together, they have two sons, Ridley (16) and Carter (13), and two rescue dogs, Gabby and Leia. He is the middle child. His older brother, Herbert Thompson III, is a Captain in the United States Navy, and his younger sister, Kyrie Thompson, is a Registered Nurse at the Veteran’s Hospital in New City, NY.

In addition to his life and work in the Church, Dean Owen is also a community activist who is dedicated to works/causes that focus on reconciliation, peace, justice, equality, equity, food insecurity, homelessness, undoing racism, gun violence prevention, and creation care. When enjoying time off, he enjoys reading, riding, playing the djembe drum, hiking, “Netflixing,” and spending time with his family.

The Very Rev. Owen C. Thompson

Erin has been a member at St. James Cathedral Chicago for nearly 30 years, serving in many lay leadership positions over those decades.  Most recently, she was a co-leader of the search committee for the Dean of the Cathedral and served as the junior and then the senior warden for the Cathedral’s Chapter/vestry.  After her vestry service ended, she stepped into the roll of volunteer legal Chancellor for the Cathedral. Erin has also long been an active lay leader of the Cathedral’s feeding ministry. The Cathedral has provided a rich community for not only Erin but her entire family with both of her children growing up in the Cathedral’s incredible choristers program and her husband holding many lay leadership positions at the Cathedral himself, from leading the ushers to serving on Chapter. 

Erin is a Midwesterner, growing up in Ohio and Michigan and coming to Chicago after graduating from Cornell in 1996 to attend Loyola University Chicago law school.  After law school she spent 23 years as a litigator at Baker McKenzie, leaving two years ago to join Venable LLP’s new Chicago office.  Throughout her career, Erin has handled complex litigation in federal and state courts and in arbitrations throughout the country, focusing her practice on product liability and related commercial litigation and product safety regulatory work.  At Venable, she helps lead the consumer product industry group and is a trusted advisor to her clients. Erin also helps lead Venable’s national pro bono practice, handling her own pro bono cases in the areas of elder law and special education, and assists the independent Venable Foundation make grants to Chicago-based nonprofits.

A former college basketball player and marathoner, Erin still enjoys the occasional basketball game and long distance run, but now spends most of her time skiing or walking her two Boston Terriers along Lake Michigan. Her family enjoys traveling and exploring our national parks.

Ms. Erin McCloskey Maus

The Rev. Canon C. John Thompson-Quartey (JTQ) is the Director of the Episcopal Anglican Studies Program and Professor in the Practice of Church Leadership at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Prior to this assignment, he served for nine years as Canon for Ministry Development and Congregational Vitality in the diocese of Atlanta. He was the rector of St. Mary’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey from 2008 until 2014. Prior to that, he was Chaplain for Pastoral Care and Director of the Community Outreach Program at St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH from 1999 to 2005. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University, NJ and a Master of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary, NY. He is married to Jerlyn (Jeri), and they have three adult daughters.

The Rev. Canon C. John Thompson-Quartey