Executive Director, Forward Movement and Priest Associate, Christ Church, Glendale, OH
The Rev. Scott Gunn is executive director of Forward Movement, a discipleship ministry of the Episcopal Church. He travels widely as preacher, speaker, and retreat leader. On Sundays when he is not traveling, he serves as priest associate at Christ Church in Glendale, Ohio. Author of several books, his most recent is Easter Triumph, Easter Joy: Meditations for the Fifty Days of Eastertide.
Prior to serving at Forward Movement, Rev. Gunn was a parish priest in the Diocese of Rhode Island. Before that, he had a career in information technology. He was educated at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Brown University, and Luther College. He lives in Cincinnati with his spouse, the Rev. Sherilyn Pearce.
The Rev. Scott Gunn
Executive Director, Forward Movement and Priest Associate, Christ Church
Glendale, Ohio
Senior Warden, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Charlotte, NC
Pamela A. Hunter is a member of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, (St. Michael’s), Charlotte, North Carolina. She became a member of St. Michael’s in the mid 1980’s and currently serves as Senior Warden.
Professionally, Ms. Hunter, is an attorney in Charlotte.
She is a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and North Carolina Central University School of Law.
Ms. Hunter is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated
Pamela A. Hunter
Senior Warden
St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church
Charlotte, NC
Civil Rights Lawyer and Scholar
Sherrilyn Ifill is a civil rights lawyer and scholar. From 2013-2022, she served as the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. Since then Ifill has served as a Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, a Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and as the Klinsky Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Ifill is currently the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights at Howard Law School where she is also the founding director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. Ifill was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine.
Sherrilyn Ifill
Civil Rights Lawyer and Scholar
Photo: TinaLeuFotos
Author and Community Organizer, Charlotte, NC
Rev. Greg Jarrell is an author and community organizer in Charlotte, NC. His recent book Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods, examines the influence of white churches and Christians in planning, executing, and profiting from the federal Urban Renewal projects of the 1950s and 60s, in Charlotte and beyond. Greg is Senior Campaign Organizer for The Redress Movement, a national nonprofit organizing local communities for housing justice. Greg is based in west Charlotte’s Enderly Park neighborhood, where he has lived and worked on equitable housing issues since 2005. He is one of the co-founders of QC Family Tree, a cultural organizing group in his neighborhood, and a founding organizer of Charlotte’s West Side Community Land Trust. He and his spouse Helms are both ordained ministers, and are parents to two teens.
Rev. Greg Jarrell
Author and Community Organizer
Charlotte, NC
Associate Professor of Migration Studies and Congregational Life at Hartford International University
Allison L. Norton is the Associate Professor of Migration Studies and Congregational Life at Hartford International University, where she is co-directs the Hartford Institute for Religion Research and directs the Pastoral Innovation Network of New England. She is most interested in applied research that makes a tangible difference for religious communities and congregations. She is currently co-authoring a book titled Migrant God, Migrant Faith (IVP Academic) and serving as Co-Investigator on the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations study. Outside of academia, she express her creativity as an artist specializing in ceramics and fiber arts.
Allison L. Norton
Associate Professor of Migration Studies and Congregational Life at Hartford International University
Rector, St. Cross Episcopal Church, Hermosa Beach, CA
The Rev. Dr. Rachel Anne Nyback has served at St. Cross Episcopal Church in Hermosa Beach, CA for twenty-one years, sixteen as rector. Rachel strives to help others grow in sharing Jesus’ message of becoming part of God’s beloved community. She loves all areas of ministry, but especially enjoys working with youth, pilgrimage and stewardship and development. The best is when those come together, such as fundraising for, then leading youth pilgrimages, where the youth deepen their faith in God, and grow in their Christian relationships with one another.
Rev. Rachel got her Doctorate in Ministry, focusing on mentoring clergy. She has a gift and a passion for working with clergy, especially those newly ordained, asking questions to help them reflect on their leadership and ministry choices. As part of her doctorate, she wrote a program to train other mentors to be reflective guides as they work with clergy. She has mentored in two of VTS’s programs: Launching into Ministry and Thriving in Ministry.
She has served in several leadership roles in her diocese including deputy to General Convention, the Standing Committee, Corporation of the Diocese and the Bishop Search Committee. Rev. Rachel has been part of a preaching peer review group for over twenty years. She serves as a police chaplain in Hermosa Beach.
She was raised in Southern California, attended school in Massachusetts, California and Virginia, and has lived in both France and Kuwait. She enjoys spending her free time with her husband reading, hiking, camping, cooking new recipes, routing for the Dodgers and supporting Smith College.
The Rev. Dr. Rachel Anne Nyback
Rector, St. Cross Episcopal Church
Hermosa Beach, CA
XII Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman was ordained and consecrated as the XII Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in Duke Chapel on the campus of Duke University in Durham on July 15, 2017. He was elected on March 4, 2017.
Prior to his election, Bishop Rodman served as the Special Projects Officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, a role he took on after spending five years as the diocesan project manager for campaign initiatives, where he engaged congregations, clergy and laity, in collaborative local and global mission through the Together Now campaign, helping to raise $20 million to fund these initiatives. Prior to that, he spent 16 years as the rector of St. Michael’s in Milton, Massachusetts, during which the parish established a seven-year plan that included a capital campaign for a major renovation of the church school building.
Since his ordination as bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, Bishop Rodman was called to serve The Episcopal Church as the co-convener of the Presiding Officers’ Working Group on Truth-Telling, Reckoning and Healing following the 79th General Convention, and he currently services on the Standing Commission for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relations. Within the diocese, he has engaged clergy and lay leaders across congregations on a number of initiatives, including the diocesan mission strategy, advocacy and public witness, reparations and restitution, and the sharing of proceeds from the sale of the former Diocesan House building to support congregations in their own ministry in the communities they serve.
Ordained in 1988, Bishop Rodman is a graduate of Bates College and Virginia Theological Seminary. He and his wife of 40 years, Deborah, live in Raleigh. They are the parents of two adult daughters. In his free time, Bishop Rodman enjoys basketball, golf, kayaking, crosswords and creative writing.
The Rt. Rev. Samuel Rodman
XII Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC
Jonathan Rauch is one of the country’s most versatile and original writers on government, public policy, and gay marriage, among other subjects. A senior fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington and contributing writer of The Atlantic, he is the author of eight books and many articles and has received the magazine industry’s two leading prizes — the National Magazine Award (the industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) and the National Headliner Award. Major topics of his writing and speeches include:
- How to fight back against trolling, disinformation, canceling, and other cutting-edge propaganda tactics that seek to unmoor our country from reality—the subject of his 2021 book The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth
- Freedom of speech and why it’s especially important to LGBT people and other minorities, the subject of his classic book Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought
- Why midlife malaise hits so many people — and chimps! — and how we can all do more to help, the subject of his 2018 book The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50
- Why America’s politics and government are in such trouble, the subject of his bestselling Atlantic cover article “How American Politics Went Insane” and his seminal book Government’s End: Why Washington Stopped Working
- Gay and lesbian rights, the struggle for marriage equality, and the growing debate about religious liberty, the subject of many articles and his 2004 book Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America
Jonathan is also the author of a memoir, Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul, and books on Japan and financial-system reform. He has written many articles, on everything from government and public policy to introversion to animal rights, for publications including The Atlantic, National Journal, The New Republic, The Economist, Reason, Harper’s, Fortune, Reader’s Digest, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times newspaper and magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Slate, Salon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Public Interest, The Advocate, The Daily, and others. He has appeared as a guest on many radio and television shows, including NBC’s Meet the Press and NPR’s NewsHour.
Jon takes pride in being a thoughtful, dynamic, and well prepared speaker, focused on giving sponsors outstanding value for money and communicating important and often counterintuitive ideas to his audiences in a direct, personal way. His keynote speech for the American Academy of Home Care Physicians was rated as “phenomenal” by the sponsor.
Jonathan Rauch
Senior Fellow
Brookings Institution
Washington, DC
Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church
The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe was elected presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church in June 2024 and took office on Nov. 1 for a nine-year term. In this role, he serves as the church’s chief pastor and CEO. Known for his expertise in organizational learning and adaptive change, Rowe is committed to strengthening support for local ministry and mission.
He was ordained bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania in 2007 after serving as rector of St. John’s in Franklin, Pennsylvania, for seven years. From 2014 to 2018, he served as bishop provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, and from 2019 to 2024, he led a partnership between the Episcopal Dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York.
Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, into a family of steel and mill workers, Rowe was raised in the United Methodist Church and graduated from Grove City College in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in history. During Rowe’s college years, the Rev. Barbara Akin, chair of the history department at Grove City, gave him a Book of Common Prayer and invited him to the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Grove City, where he was confirmed and discerned a call to the priesthood.
He enrolled at Virginia Theological Seminary after graduating from college, and after earning his Master of Divinity there in 2000, returned to Northwestern Pennsylvania to serve as rector of St. John’s, Franklin. During his seven years as rector, the congregation more than doubled in size.
Rowe was 32 in May 2007 when he was elected bishop of Northwestern Pennsylvania on the first ballot. For almost 12 years, he was the youngest bishop in The Episcopal Church. In 2014, he earned a doctorate in organizational learning and leadership at Gannon University.
Before his election as presiding bishop, Rowe served as a leader of many civic and churchwide organizations and governance bodies, and as parliamentarian for the House of Bishops. In 2018, he became the first bishop to serve on the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church, a position he held until 2022. That year, he was awarded the House of Deputies medal for his service.
Rowe is married to Carly Rowe, a Christian educator, and they live with their daughter, Lauren, in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The Most Rev. Sean Rowe
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Indiana University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN
Brian Steensland is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Indiana University Indianapolis. His research interests include religion, culture, politics, and civic life in contemporary American society. He is the author or editor of award-winning books and articles, including, most recently, Situating Spirituality: Context, Practice, and Power (Oxford, 2022). Steensland’s current research focuses on religious pluralism and religious commitment. Supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., he is partnering with the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis on a five-year project about religious parenting. He has held a variety of leadership positions on campus and in the profession, including serving as Director of IU’s Consortium for the Study of Religion, Ethics, and Society. He earned his PhD from Princeton University in 2002.
Brian Steensland
Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Indiana University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN
Ph.D., Associate Professor of Leadership and Administration at Stanford University
The Rev. Steven Tomlinson, Ph.D., associate professor of leadership and administration, holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University. He coaches and consults with Wall Street, Fortune 500 and high-tech start-up executives and managers on leadership and communication strategy. He taught economics and finance at The University of Texas at Austin for 17 years, where he designed and directed the MBA professional development program. He is also an accomplished playwright and performer. His award-winning solo shows have been produced in Austin and off-Broadway.
The Rev. Steven Tomlinson
Ph.D., Associate Professor of Leadership and Administration at Stanford University
Canon Missioner for Black Ministries, Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
The Rev. Kathleen Walker joined the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina in February 2020 to focus on the continuity and vitality of the dozen Black congregations. The history of the African American tradition in North Carolina is rich and profound. It is important to weave their diversity into a closer bond of inclusion with other parishes and the diocese. The goal is to ensure all predominantly Black congregations have the best opportunity to make the fullest use of the resources of their parishes, partnerships, and the diocese. Currently there are 11 active African American congregations in the diocese and one historical church that is in process of redevelopment. Canon Walker is passionate about the sustaining and supporting Black communities in the context of the Episcopal church.
Canon Walker graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2018. She is currently president of the Alumni Association Executive Committee. She has dedicated many years to the cause of social and racial justice. Rev. Walker is committed to fulfilling the diocese’s priority of becoming beloved community as we work through racial reckoning, justice and healing. She is also president of the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians.
Rev. Canon Kathy Walker
Canon Missioner for Black Ministries
Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina
