The United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries An Inclusion Ministry of the United Church of Christ UCC DM Board of Directors PEGGY WOLFE DUNN chairs the UCC DM and is its representative to the Local Church Ministries Board. She is fully committed to working with others to have A2A roll off UCC tongues as easily and strongly as other familiar acronyms. Dr. Dunn lives and works in Maine, where her work is spread between serving the Gardiner Congregational UCC and directing the Maine Conference UCC Academy of Congregational Life and Leadership. She has three children, five grandchildren and one great grandchild. Among her loves and interests are gardening and photography, sometimes travel. She has learned some ins and outs of living with disabilities through her son’s experiences. LYNDA BIGLER notes that “accessible to all” should include the pulpit as well as the congregation itself. Visually impaired since birth, Lynda takes particular interest in accessability in educational settings. Her concerns: The un-preparedness of the UCC seminaries to accommodate students with disabilities and the lack of church resources to help ministers with disabilities serve their congregations. Lynda is pastor of the Congregational UCC in Humboldt, Iowa. She received a B.A. from Brown University in 1974 and a M. Div. from Yale Divinity School in 2007. Among her numerous community activities are BHA Education Consultants and the Disability Services Advisory Council of Multnomah County (Oregon), Interfaith Disability Network of Oregon and Interfaith Council of Greater Portland. Lydna represents the UCC DM on the Office of General Ministry. RYAN MATHEWS Originally from the Akron, Ohio area and a member of First Grace UCC, Ryan moved to St. Louis in August, 2008 to study at Eden Theological Seminary to pursue an M. Div. degree. After graduating from The University of Akron with a Bachelor’s of Music Education degree, he began to acknowledge a call to ministry that he had set aside in the past. Upon graduation, Ryan hopes to serve as an ordained pastor in a UCC congregation. When not in class or involved in ministry activities, Ryan enjoys playing his trumpet and reading about his two loves, music and theology. CRAIG MODAHL is Executive Director of Balance, Inc., a nonprofit organization serving individuals with developmental disabilities in a variety of community based settings. He and his wife started the organization in 1991. In addition to their two daughters, the Modahls have provided a home in Port Washington, Wisconsin, for two men with developmental disabilities for the last two decades. Craig has a MSW from the University of Wisconsin and a M. Div. from Chicago Theological Seminary. At CTS, Craig wrote and taught a course, Theology, Ministry and Developmental Disability. He was ordained as a Specialized Minister at his home church, First Congregational UCC in Port Washington. ALAN ROOF serves as full-time, staff chaplain at the Shepherd Center, a nationally ranked catastrophic care facility in Atlanta (www.shepherd.org). His passion for disability ministries has grown during his time at Shepherd Center. He has become a particularly passionate advocate for persons adjusting to life after a traumatic brain injury. JEANNE TYLER has served on several national boards and presently represents UCC DM on the Wider Church Ministry. She is Vice- Chair of the UCC DM Board.   Class of 2013   ANN ITO represents UCCDM concerns on our Executive Committee. Ann is blind and is becoming increasingly hard of hearing. She has been a care giver to family members with cancer, depression, dementia and post-stroke disabilities. She is a member of the Nu'uanu Congregational Church in Honolulu. Blessed by the cultural richness and natural splendor of her home state of Hawaii, Ann is privileged for more than four decades to have served college students with disabilities toward equity of opportunity. She has advocated for equal access for persons with a wide range of disabilities in public transportation, communication, rehabilitation, library services, employment, higher education, etc. Her approach has been one of conversion by education rather than coercion, believing that ignorance rather than malcontent is behind acts of exclusion and discrimination. NORMA MENGEL is presently the Disabilities Ministry representative the General Synod's Nominating Committee. UCC DM history - (Past DM chair, treasurer, secretary). UCC Mental Illness Network-Treasurer; Authored General Synod Resolution on Brain Disorders, 1999. Disabilities - Have clinical depression; husband has narcolepsy; family members with brother (suicide), nephew, uncle with serious bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses. Teacher for NAMI's Family-to-Family Program; Helped to start the UCC Parish Nurse Network. Professionally-Retired - Previously-Pastor, Maytown UCC, PA; Program Associate, UCC Council for Health and Human Service Ministries; Executive Director, State of Virginia HomeCare Association; President/CEO, Visiting Nurse Association, York County, PA; Director of Home Health Services, Community Health and Counseling Center, Bangor, Maine; Missionary, Taegu, South Korea. Education -S, Nursing from Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio; MPH, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; M.Div., Lancaster Theological Seminary (UCC). CRAIG RENNEBOHM serves the UCC DM board as a representative from the Mental Illness Network of the UCC. Craig writes: I serve as a Mental Health Chaplain in Seattle, working with persons on the street who are homeless and face mental illness. I'm a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary, with a D. Min. in pastoral care from Pacific School of Religion. I've served as a minister to the community at Christ Church United in Lowell and as pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church in Seattle, with a deep interest in urban ministry and how our congregations can be inclusive of our most fragile and vulnerable of our neighbors. I take inspiration from Jesus' ministry with our sisters and brothers on the margins and in such parables as the Samaritan and the Great Feast. I have shared my faith in Souls in the Hands of a Tender God. Class of 2011 DALLAS (DEE) BRAUNINGER serves on the executive committee of the UCC DM as board secretary. Dee understands the art of choosing hope. Blindness, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis have taught her that the goal is not the impossibility of overcoming a challenge but to live fully within it, adjusting and adapting as one goes along. Dr. Brauninger has served churches in Colorado and, as co-pastor with her husband, in Nebraska. She is the author of Talking to your Child about Change and numerous inclusive worship resource books and articles. She has served as editor of the former UCC DM newsletter and presently is web editor of the UCC DM web site, http://www.uccdm.org. DAVID CLARK is a life long UCCer who has always found a home in the church. After growing up a member of Orange Congregational Church in Connecticut, where both his parents and grandparents were married. David was a member of First Congregational Church of Berkeley while attending the University of California at Berkeley. He is now active in Old South Church. David lives with his wife in the Copley Square area of Boston. David manages the UCC DM web site.    is in her fourth year of service as a board member. HEATHER LUHRS serves as UCC DM board treasurer. She served as first editor of the UCC DM newsletter.       GAY McCORMICK Gay writes: I live in Alpharetta, GA and belong to Church of the Savior UCC in Roswell, GA. We are a small struggling congregation of members who love the church and want it to be viable. Thanks to the support of the Cornerstone Fund, it has made us able to pay on our mortgage despite our financial difficulties. GA is in the Southeast Conference and I have lived here six years

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ALAN JOHNSON is a Friend of UCC DM Board as chair of the Mental Illness Network. Alan is from Boulder, Colorado. He has family members with mental illnesses. He is a retired UCC minister who does freelance ministry and chaplaincy now. In 1968, he joined UCC. From 1979 to 1995, he served on the Board for Homeland Ministry. Information about the Board of Directors of the UCC DM The Board consists of at least seven members drawn from the diversity of the United Church of Christ --gender, ministers/lay persons, age group, geography, ethnic background --, the majority of whom are persons with disabilities, members of families of persons with disabilities, or experts on disabilities. A representative of the Mental Illness Network (MIN) sits on the Board. Representatives from the Board sit at the table of each Ministry of the United Church of Christ: Local Church Ministries, Wider Church Ministries, Justice and Witness Ministries, Office of General Ministries, the UCC Executive Council and on the General Synod Nominating Committee. The Board meets regularly by conference phone call and gathers in person for at least one meeting a year. Persons interested in being part of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministries or serving on the board are invited to contact: Michelle Hintz Parish Life and Leadership Ministry 216-736-3845 hintzm@ucc.org