I was ordained as a deacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas in January 2011. Prior to ordination I had been a state government employee, an EfM mentor, active member of Grace Cathedral in Topeka and a graduate of the Kansas School for Ministry, now the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry.

Following my ordination, I moved from Topeka to Newton and served at St. John’s in Wichita for three years then part-time at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wichita and Episcopal Social Services-Breakthrough Club as volunteer coordinator and chaplain. I am now pleased to be a deacon at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Newton and have been recertified to mentor the church’s Education for Ministry program.

I began my career as a medical technologist at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita and completed it as a “mid-level bureaucrat” in state government. I served on a former governor’s Legislative Task force on Access to Healthcare for the Medically Indigent and Homeless and on the Statewide Health Coordinating Council. I hold a Master of Science in Health Administration. Prior to my retirement from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka, I was a health planner, health educator, rural physician recruiter and hospital marketing director at Halstead and Hutchinson hospitals.

I currently work with Caring Place, a mental health recovery peer-run organization in Newton, and am president of NAMI Mid-Kansas, the local affiliate of NAMI-Kansas (National Alliance for Mental Illness). I teach a12-week NAMI Family-to-Family class offered twice each year and lead the local NAMI Family Support Group that meets monthly.

Among the highlights of my ministry, I travelled to Kenya five times as part of the Kansas to Kenya (K2K) ministry. I was originally part of the community team and later served as chaplain to the medical team. While in Kenya, I helped prepare for the dedication and opening of the Osborne Memorial Library built and furnishes by K2K on the grounds of All Saints Anglican Church of Kenya in Maai Mahiu. Our diocese partners with the Diocese of Nakuru.

I am a Newton Railroader by birth, graduate of Valley Center High School and Wichita State University, mother of three and grandmother of seven. I married my high school sweetheart in 1964 and divorced in 1978. My daughter Stephanie and husband Michael and family live in Newton, son Brian and his wife Mary in Emporia, and son Jeff and daughters are in Dodge City.

In my spare time, I love to read, crochet rag rugs, paint rocks and scatter dinosaurs in my flower beds.