My family began attending The Falls Church Episcopal in 2015, shortly after we moved from Brooklyn to McLean. I was raised in the Catholic Church in Rochester, New York, in an energetic parish filled with young kids, and I wanted my children (Annie, age 7, and Lucy, almost 4) to have a similarly positive church experience. My husband, Evan, and I immediately found what we were looking for in The Falls Church Episcopal. We felt welcomed by the warmth and love that this community exudes; we enjoy the way children are encouraged to make the church their own; and we are consistently fed by the thoughtful and challenging sermons given by all of the clergy who have served in our time here. We particularly appreciate the church’s “all crew, no passengers” mentality. I serve on the Racial Justice Committee and facilitated a Sacred Ground discussion group last year, and I serve on the Children’s Ministry Committee and have been a Formation teacher for the second-grade cohort for the past 3 years. Outside of church, I am a senior legal fellow at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law Center, where I was until recently the Managing Director, and I currently provide part-time pro bono support to the Institute’s public-interest litigation and policy work. I hope to bring the same commitment to social justice to the vestry as I have to my professional life, and I would delight in the opportunity to continue to build the strong, family-supportive community that makes The Falls Church Episcopal so special.

I grew up in Ghana, West Africa and worshipped with my family as an Anglican for all of my early life into my twenties when I left for England. After 7 years in England, I followed my wife to the U.S. when she was offered a position with a DC - based government contractor.

I began actively attending The Falls Church Episcopal in January 2017. I was seeking a reconnection with the Anglican community. After my first service in the contemporary church, I knew The Falls Church Episcopal was it. It has been quite a ride for me since then, serving as Lay Reader, Chorister, Seminarian Lay Committee Member, and now Usher, but I have enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to being of even more service to TFCE. I am honored to have been nominated for a position on the vestry committee and humbly submit my candidacy.

By day, I am a Senior Business Manager with Clark Construction Group. Prior to Clark, I was in financial services – as a relationship manager in commercial banking, as a financial advisor with Edward Jones and also in insurance as an independent agency principal.

I have been active in my local Falls Church City community, where I live with my family. I was a founding Board Member of the Falls Church Education Foundation when it was established in 2003. I served as Chair of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years and remain on the board. I was elected to the Falls Church City’s School Board in November 2013. My tenure on the School Board culminated in the referendum that approved the construction of the new Meridian High School which opened in late 2021. I also serve on the board of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, a non-profit established to preserve the early civil rights history of Falls Church and its vicinity.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Ghana, a Masters in Planning Studies from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the George Washington University School of Business.

I’m thrilled to be nominated for service on The Falls Church Episcopal Vestry. My family and I joined after stumbling upon it in the winter of 2015. We had just moved back to Northern Virginia after almost a decade, and were looking for a church to call home. When I coincidentally learned that my former childhood rector at St. James Episcopal in Leesburg [John Ohmer] was the [then] rector, I figured that was as clear a sign as I was going to get!

Mathilda (age 9), Jack (age 7) and I (turning 30 for the umpteenth time this year) can now be found at church most every Sunday; you can find me scooting across the parking lot with Bakeshop espresso in hand wrangling kids and choir robes as I rehearse before singing with Gideon’s Trumpet at 9:00 am. I serve on the Outreach Committee as well, and have been a part of the Bailey’s Crossroads Shelter meal we prepare monthly ever since its inception. I have watched that grow from a group of small, core volunteers to a full on “assembly line” effort, complete with elements of home and on-site prep, expertly adapted for COVID! Pre-COVID, I lead Cherub’s Chapel; if you had a 2-4 year old, chances are I have read, sang and/or colored with them at least one Sunday morning! In 2021, I started assisting John Wunderlich in leading the senior high youth group, and will also take an active role in facilitating confirmation classes for our youth beginning this spring. In short, if it involves singing and/or youth formation and education, I have been helping with a joyful heart and a fervent desire for more than two hands since 2016!

My journey at the Falls Church has been one of immense growth and transformation, coupled with gratitude for the love and support that we have here as a faith community for each other. As a single parent, I know firsthand what it is like to struggle to “fit in” with other parents and families: be they at school, extracurricular activities with the kids, or church. I know that at TFC-E, we live our vision of being an “…enduring beacon of faith, hope, and love to all.” By joining the vestry, I hope to be able to assist our community in growing outward; helping to welcome all in our community who are searching for a deeper and more meaningful connection with the Lord.

Professionally, I am a nurse practitioner, and have practiced obstetrics and gynecology since 2011. While I am currently in private group practice in Alexandria, my first career as an NP was in refugee and immigrant healthcare, providing OB-GYN care for women who had recently arrived in Virginia. As such, my passion and commitment to these communities was born, and I hope to be able to use this experience and these gifts to further the wonderful work we do at TFCE. Prior to shifting to clinical practice, I was a professor of nursing at VCU, where my research efforts focused on maternal/child health and childbirth outcomes in women and families of low socioeconomic status.

I’m humbled by the faith and confidence placed in me by accepting this nomination, and hope to accomplish wonderful things alongside you in our next few years!

My fiancé Bob Shepler and I began attending TFCE together in 2018, early in our relationship. Bob convinced me – a cradle Catholic living in DC who wasn’t seeking a new church home, and particularly not one in the suburbs – to come take a look. We decided that TFCE would be a good place for us to stay after learning more about the Episcopal Church’s values and how those are specifically manifested within this community. (I also got over my snobbery about Northern Virginia and recently made the move across the river). I have been blessed to be involved in several facets of the TFCE community, including serving on the livestream team, participating in a foyer group, helping coordinate activities for the 20s/30s group, and the Shrine Mont retreat weekend. One of the most important ministries I’ve been involved with is the Invite-Welcome-Connect Committee. On IWC, I’ve specifically been involved with finding new ways to invite people to our community and campus, using many of the same skills I’ve honed in my professional life as a journalist. TFCE has a lot to offer the greater Falls Church community at this moment when the ongoing pandemic has frayed social ties and fraught political environments have made us less trusting of our neighbors. My interest in serving on vestry stems from a desire to help TFCE grow its presence, both by reaching people searching for a faith community and by connecting with individuals who share our values for social and racial justice. There's an abundance of people out there who don't know they need this place until they experience it. I know, because I was one of those people.

My husband, Ben, and our two daughters, Harriet and Georgia (both 5), started coming to the Falls Church in August 2018, the first Sunday after we moved to Virginia from Texas. The church quickly became a big part of our beltway existence, and has been a great gift to our family and spiritual life ever since. I taught three and four year old children’s formation before the pandemic, yoga on zoom for parishioners in the spring and summer of 2020, and have been organizing Young Family Fellowship since we started coming back in person in the fall of 2021. Professionally, I spent the last decade working on a PhD in Political Theory from the University of Texas at Austin, which I finished in November 2021. Now I am teaching yoga, working for a magazine, The New Atlantis, and thinking carefully about what I want to do next. I am deeply honored to have been nominated to serve on the vestry at the Falls Church Episcopal, where I can use some of my newly freed-up time and energy in good work and as part of a very special Church community.

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Paul Rosbolt, Senior Warden

We have been keeping track of how the Omicron Variant is trending. Safety has always been our priority; because of that, we have made the decision to cancel in-person formation for the month of January with hopes that we will return in February. This means there will be no Youth Forum, no Youth Group, and no Confirmation Class.

We will send youth forum activities for your youth to use in order to provide formation opportunities through this time. Here is this week's Youth Forum Activity.

The New Year brought with it new challenges with COVID-19. The nature of the new variant, and the number of cases has made it clear that the wisest decision we can make for Children’s Formation is to suspend in-person programming for the month of January. Therefore, there will be no in-person Children's Formation or Nursery in the month of January. We will continue to monitor the situation as things change and hope to be back in person in February.

We understand that this decision will feel both right and disappointing for many. We are here for you! Please join us by praying for Children's Ministry as we move into this next phase!

Know we will still have opportunities to connect with each other, and God. Check them out below!

All slots in our Sign-Up Genius are filled, but Dave Raglin is looking for additional volunteers for this Sunday. Contact him at darags@ymail.com