Fresh faces among national staff represent UCC mission and vision

The new year has brought many changes to the United Church of Christ national offices. This year, the Rev. Shari Prestemon began her tenure as Acting Associate General Minister, while the National Setting continued to live into a “one-staff model” by unifying its ministries under a theme of “love.” 

Many others have joined the national staff in recent months, with a host of fresh faces representing the mission and vision of the denomination. Read about these new national staffers below. 

Donna Bollinger 
Minister for UN Advocacy

Bollinger brings more than two decades of global faith-based humanitarian and advocacy work in more than 42 countries to her role as Minister for UN Advocacy and the UCC Main Representative to the UN. Most recently, she served as the advocacy officer for the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Office to the United Nations in New York City, where she implemented programming addressing the challenges of gender equality and ending gender-based violence, indigenous issues, racial justice and economic development.  

A candidate for a Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University, Donna’s research addresses gender-based violence for women in conflict situations, with a focus on Nigerian kidnapping survivors. 

Danielle Hickman 
Minister for Volunteer Engagement 

Hickman recently joined the Global H.O.P.E. team as minister for volunteer engagement. She came to the UCC from Case Western Reserve University, where she created civic engagement opportunities for undergraduate, graduate students and staff. Hickman is also currently working as a chaplain for the Cleveland Clinic.  

She holds a Master of Divinity degree in chaplaincy from Ashland Theological Seminary. Hickman has lived out her vocation by accompanying people on the margins of society through ministries of compassion and justice in multi-cultural settings, and through her volunteerism. 

Katie Howe 
Minister for Disaster Response and Recovery 

Howe joined Global H.O.P.E. as minister for disaster response and recovery. Prior to joining the UCC, she worked as the HIV and STD prevention manager at the Rhode Island Department of Health. In this role, she engaged with community-based organizations that are committed to improving the lives of disproportionately impacted populations including people who are actively or previously using substances. Her time at the health department also included an active role in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Mpox outbreak.  

Howe is also a member-in-discernment through the Rhode Island Association while she finishes her online Master of Divinity degree at Chicago Theological Seminary. She sees this opportunity to join the national setting in this capacity as the perfect intersection of faith and public health work. 

Rev. Ellie Hutchison 
Minister for Congregational and Community Engagement 

The Rev. Ellie Hutchison started in December as minister for congregational and community engagement with the Faith INFO team. Hutchison is a member-in-discernment with the Church of the Beatitudes UCC in Phoenix and was recently ordained by The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries. They currently volunteer as a chaplain with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, St. Peter’s Episcopal Prison Ministry and the San Francisco Night Ministry.  

Hutchison brings a wealth of experience as an educator, community co-conspirator, poet and writer, and theologian. They have extensive experience working within ecumenical and interfaith circles, helping faith communities break down barriers while building bridges to healing. 

Betsey Saffar 
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Cornerstone Fund 

Betsey Saffar recently joined the Cornerstone Fund as its chief financial officer and vice president. She came to Cornerstone from Achievement Centers for Children (ACC), a Cleveland-based non-profit that provides an array of services to children and adults with disabilities. With a tenure dating back to 2010, Saffar held progressive leadership roles at ACC, culminating in her position as chief financial officer and executive vice president, where she excelled at fostering collaborative cultures and leading cross-functional teams to excellence.  

Her skillset encompasses directing finance, IT and billing, with seamless HR operations. Prior to joining ACC, Saffar’s career spanned non-profit and public accounting, including seven years with Ernst & Young in their Cleveland and Tel Aviv offices. She also enjoyed several entrepreneurial years running her own catering company. 

Rev. Courtney Stange-Tregear 
Chief Relationship Officer, Cornerstone Fund 

Last year, the Rev. Courtney Stange-Tregear joined the Cornerstone Fund as its chief relationship officer. In this newly created role, Stange-Tregear is responsible for leading a relational approach toward accomplishing current and future strategic goals by utilizing storytelling, partnership and community organizing methodologies to identify, pursue, maintain, mentor and expand relationships with the Cornerstone Fund’s internal and external collaborators. 

She most recently served as the Acting Conference Minister for the Pacific Northwest Conference. Prior to that, she was the conference’s minister for church vitality from 2016 to 2022. She has also served churches in California, Maryland and Massachusetts. 

Rev. Seth Wispelwey 
Minister for Economic Justice 

Educator, activist, organizer and pastor Rev. Seth Wispelwey began serving last year as minister for economic justice. For much of the past 20 years, he has worked for and led organizations in equipping and mobilizing people of faith and conscience to advocate for long-lasting justice for and alongside the poor, hungry, marginalized and oppressed. Wispelwey has crafted and stewarded successful economic justice campaigns at federal, state and corporate levels, working with a wide range of organizations and partners and a full spectrum of ecumenical and multi-faith bodies and people.  

In the past several years, his efforts were focused primarily in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, helping lead training, organizing and solidarity efforts against white supremacist and neo-fascist violence, white supremacy culture in churches, and for mutual aid and community safety. Wispelwey also has guided two congregations in southern Arizona through difficult transitions, intentional interim ministry work and revitalizing infrastructure and mission improvements. This on-the-ground parish work, while navigating the COVID pandemic and engaging with the urgent needs of asylum-seeking migrants, also brought special attention and creative solutions for how to better pursue economic justice within the UCC. 

New director of philanthropy 

After a national search, the Rev. Andy DeBraber accepted the call to serve as the UCC’s new director of philanthropy, following the retirement of the Rev. Kent Siladi at the end of last year. DeBraber has served on the national staff since 2017 as a generosity officer, raising nearly $5 million from a portfolio of major donors. His workshops on philanthropy, stewardship and giving have benefitted numerous UCC Conferences and churches. As adjunct faculty with the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving, a part of the Lilly School of Philanthropy, DeBraber teaches Cultivating Generous Congregations, a course offering best-practice research and application to UCC pastors and leaders across the country and online. 

Prior to coming to the UCC, DeBraber led a nonprofit ministry walking alongside people living with homelessness and extreme poverty. He was a local church pastor for 16 years, including at Douglas Congregational UCC in Douglas, Michigan, which was named the “Largest-giving Small Church” to the “God Is Still Speaking” campaign. He has also been a community organizer around public transportation and a newspaper reporter. 

And many more

Others staff who have recently come on board include the following:

• Esther Adu joined as program assistant for the Southern Asia and the Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations offices. She is an administrative professional with more than five years of work experience with private sector corporations both in the United States and in Nigeria, and is an agricultural economist by training. 
• Hill Brown joined the Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention Ministries as Southern ambassador, coordinating ongoing work in the Southern United States, especially among BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. Brown is a founding board member and former executive director of Steady Collective, a community-based harm reduction organization for people who use drugs in Asheville, North Carolina. 
• Donna Frischknecht Jackson joined the Love of Neighbor staff as communication specialist, bringing over 20 years of editorial experience to support the overall communication functions of all Love of Neighbor teams, contribute to global justice-related and advocacy pages on UCC and Global Ministries websites, and work cross-departmentally within the UCC national setting as a critical link to the Marketing and Communications (MarCom) team. 
• Sharon Ganelli joined Cornerstone Fund as executive assistant, bringing over a decade of experience supporting c-suite executives in both the healthcare and insurance industries. Recently with Medical Mutual of Ohio as senior executive assistant to the chief medical officer, she also worked at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center for close to a decade. 
• Jeanetta Johnson and Carlena Trice joined the Cornerstone Fund as loan underwriting specialists, assisting with loan underwriting tasks for lending clients as assigned and assisting the portfolio team with loan processing, loan closing and loan servicing operations as needed. 
• Aviana Marinella joined as program assistant for the MarCom team. She supports and coordinates special events and meetings; proofs and processes publications like the desk calendar, Sunday bulletins and stewardship theme materials; and supports the overall administrative needs for the team. 
• Sheletta Mobley joined Church Building & Loan Fund (CB&LF) as office administrator. She brings over 13 years of experience with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation where she worked as a coordinator, providing technical support, customer service, managed financial reports, including processing orders, billing and purchasing. 
• Rev. Vanessa Myers-Dudley is currently serving as temporary book strategist at The Pilgrim Press. Before this role, she has served as a part-time minister in UCC and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregations in Ohio and worked over five years as a bookseller.  
• Amanda Osman-Balzell joined the Love of Neighbor staff as executive assistant after working for a number of years as an administrative specialist/associate. She has earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice performance at Arizona State University after completing a master’s in voice performance at the San Fransisco Conservatory of Music. 
• Aidan Spencer brings a wealth of experience to her role as web and digital specialist on the MarCom team, having worked professionally as a communications specialist, web design content consultant and web content manager for various UCC organizations including the Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota Conferences and the Maine Conference. 
• Rev. Tyler Ung joined as assistant project administrator for the UCC’s Love of Children project. They will help to create a new model of ministry that allow congregations to work towards a new designation of ministry for children while equipping children’s leaders to nurture their youngest members. Ung has worked as a hospital chaplain, a staff member at Duke Divinity School, as well as serving as associate minister at Circular Congregational Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and is currently the minister with children and youth at Umstead Park UCC in Raleigh, North Carolina. 
• Rev. Michael Vollbrecht joined the Philanthropy team as generosity officer for the West Central region. He recently served as the director of communications for Communities In Schools of Mid-America and is the associate minister at Colonial Church in Prairie Village, Kansas, and previously worked with the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference as communications strategist. 
• Michael Zivanov joined the United Church Funds (UCF) as junior accountant. With prior experience working in the public and private accounting sector, Zivanov brings diverse and broad exposure of various fields and industries within the accounting world to UCF. 

Join the national staff 

The UCC is actively seeking to fill several open positions, including team leader for Global H.O.P.E.; generosity officer for the New England region; program assistant for the Child and Elder Sponsorship Program and United Nations; and regional mission interpreter for CB&LF.  

Learn more and find out how to apply here.

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