Board members work throughout the year to formulate policy, keep in contact with our retired ministers and partners, plan advocacy projects, and assist in developing activities for the membership. Please feel free to contact any Board member with questions or ideas. Your input, enthusiasm, and creativity are the energy sources of our UURMaPA community. (Terms of office extend through June of the indicated year.)
Leadership Position Job Descriptions can be found here.
2023 Amendments to UURMaPA’s Purpose can be found here.
Board of Directors
The Rev. Dr. Susan Veronica Rak, President (2025)
Asbury Park, NJ
president@uurmapa.org
Susan Veronica Rak has been a UU since the early 1970s and a minister since 1996. She recently completed two interim ministries at Warrington PA (2016-18) and First Unitarian, Philadelphia (2014-16). Before that, she was settled in East Brunswick NJ, (2005-14). She also served Flushing, Queens NY, Greater Bridgeport CT, Levittown PA, Community Church NY, and was Program Consultant for the Joseph Priestley District. Susan served on the UUMA Board from 2011 to 2014. She and her spouse, Dr. Mary Chinery, reside in Asbury Park NJ.
The Rev. Ned Wight, Vice-President (2025)
Roslyn, NY
vice-president@uurmapa.org
Ned was born in Baltimore, MD, on Mozart’s Birthday in 1947, but grew up in Battle Creek, MI, and Gresham, OR, where he was affiliated with Congregational and Methodist churches. After working in data processing and public relations, he earned an M Div from Harvard Divinity School. He served congregations in Belmont (MA) and La Mesa (CA) and was a district trustee on the UUA Board for five years. In 2006 he became Executive Director of the UU Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, and starting in 2016, he was Interim Senior Minister at the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, from which he retired in August 2019. He currently serves as chair of the board of the UU Service Committee and as a member of the advisory board of the UUA’s Beacon Press. He lives in the caretaker’s apartment at Cedarmere, William Cullen Bryant’s historic home in Roslyn, New York.
Gloria Perez, Secretary (2024)
Rockton, IL
secretary@uurmapa.org
Almost 20 years ago, on our first date, after talking about our spiritual lives, Gloria’s minister-not-yet wife (Marlene Walker) told me I was a Unitarian Universalist. Since then she has learned much and has embraced UUism. Singing in choirs — in several UU congregations, at General Assemblies and at UUMA Center Institutes — is the highlight of her UU life. Music has been foundational in her growing involvement with the world. She felt called to become a spiritual director while singing during an Institute worship service. Gloria has experience as a co-convener for a women’s spirituality group, board member of a center against sexual assault, staff member at a LGBT center through AmeriCorp, and board member of a PFLAG chapter. She is a retired massage therapist.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Speck, Treasurer (2024)
Wilmington, DE
treasurer@uurmapa.org
Richard was District Executive for the UUA’s Joseph Priestley District (JPD) from 2000 until retiring in 2014, and was named Minister Emeritus in 2019. Previously, he served the UU Fellowship of Vero Beach, FL. He graduated from Meadville/ Lombard with a D.Min. in 1990.He is active in social justice programs (Black Lives Matter and Coalition to Dismantle the New Jim Crow
in Delaware). He has served as Treasurer of the UUMA twice. His career before the ministry was as a respiratory therapist. He lives in Wilmington, DE, with his spouse, Janet Tillman, and two cats. Richard enjoys making music, flying his airplane, and creating stained glass art.
The Rev. Fritz Hudson, Connections Coordinator (2025)
Charlottesville VA
connections@uurmapa.org
Fritz’s UU ministry began in 1976, with graduation from Harvard Divinity. He served as developmental minister in North Carolina & Pennsylvania, settled minister in Iowa, Arizona & Nebraska, and interim minister in Connecticut & Minnesota. Ginny Gross was his most-supportive partner in that service for 30 years, but they were able to share just one glorious year of retirement before her sudden death.
Their children (Eric & Sally)’s lives first brought Fritz on East Coast visits, but then introduced him to one Donna Shaunesey of Charlottesville VA (Sally’s home). His permanent move to C’ville soon followed to seal their partnership.
In C’ville’s UU Congregation, Fritz has become a choir tenor, a coming-of-age mentor, and the primary liaison to the area’s Clergy Collective. His weekday life is largely invested in attorney/mediator service in C’ville’s criminal, domestic relations and juvenile justice system, and to supporting Donna’s regional climate activism. Around the edges, they find ample time for paddleboarding, kayaking, hiking & biking.
The Rev. Wayne Arnason, Member-at-Large for UUMA/UUA Relations (2025)
Charlottesville, VA
goodoffices@uurmapa.org
Wayne is a lifelong UU with a 46-year career of service in UU congregations and institutions. He served in two long-term parish ministries, one with his spouse, the Rev. Kathleen Rolenz, in Rocky River, OH (2000–16), and earlier in Charlottesville, VA (1984– 2000), where they have now made their permanent home. Wayne retired from full-time ministry in 2016, and then continued to do interim ministry and to serve on the board of Meadville Lombard Theological School. He enjoys being a new grandfather, a house-husband, and supporting Kathleen in her interim ministry career. He has served as chair of the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee, Secretary of the UUA Board of Trustees, and President of the UUMA. He and Kathleen co-authored Worship That Works (2008). And with the Rev. Sam Trumbore, he published a collection of essays on Buddhist Voices in Unitarian Universalism (2013).
Joy Atkinson, Connections Asst. (2024)
Berkeley, CA
connections@uurmapa.org
The Rev. Joy Atkinson was ordained in 1974 after a year-long consulting ministry at the Humboldt UU Fellowship in Northern California. She went on to serve for 24 years as parish minister in Duluth MN, Davis CA and San Mateo CA.
Upon leaving a 14-year ministry in San Mateo in 2002, she was named their Minister Emerita. Not ready to retire at the time, she moved into interim ministry, and served 10 congregations in California and one in Arizona as interim senior minister over the next 16 years.
She retired in 2018. In retirement she has pursued writing, choral singing and amateur astronomy.
The Rev. Ann Schranz, Elderberries Editor (2024)
Sturgeon Bay, WI
elderberries@uurmapa.org
Ann grew up in southeast Wisconsin and majored in journalism at the University of WI, Madison. She lived and worked in warm climates (California and Florida) before retiring and returning to Wisconsin in 2017. Ann now lives in Sturgeon Bay on the Door County peninsula.
Ministry was Ann’s third career, after insurance and environmental contaminant remediation. After graduating from Starr King School in 2001, she served as interim minister at the UU Fellowship of Santa Cruz County in Aptos, CA, for two years. She was called as settled minister by Monte Vista UU Congregation in Montclair, CA, where she served for nine years. She has been UURMaPA’s Central Midwest Area Connections Coordinator and is a pledging friend of the lay-led UU Fellowship of Door County, WI. Ann is an avid birder and enjoys photography and spending time in nature. She became interested in emergency preparedness while living in California earthquake country, which led to her becoming an amateur radio operator (KK6KTX).
The Rev. Barbro Hansson, Member-at-Large for Conferences (2025)
Peterborough, NH
conferences@uurmapa.org
Since her retirement in 2014, Barbro has found new purpose through her involvement in planning UURMaPA fall conferences. She also discovered the art of needle felting and during the COVID pandemic, knitting became her spiritual practice.
Barbro is a naturalized US citizen whose Swedish heritage is at her core. On vacation in 1973, Barbro met her first husband, who was stationed with the US Army in Greece. He introduced her to Unitarian Universalism and Barbro attended her first UU gathering in Berchtesgaden, Germany, in January, 1974. A month later, she arrived on US soil. While acclimating to a new culture, Barbro worked as a layout artist at the Swedish-American newspaper in Brooklyn NY. Her daughter, Karin, was born in 1976 and when she was two, the family moved to Virginia and began attending the Waynesboro UU Fellowship.
In 1982, Barbro decided to pursue a college degree and two years after graduation from Mary Baldwin College (Staunton VA), she was hired as Director of Alumnae Projects there with the primary responsibility of planning events, like class reunions and homecoming as well as the College’s Sesquicentennial celebration.
During the 1980s, Barbro became active within UUism, both locally and regionally. In 1987, she was elected to the Board of the then Thomas Jefferson District. Her call to ministry came amidst racial tension at the 1993 GA in Charlotte NC. When her term as TJ District president expired in 1994, she enrolled at Meadville Lombard Theological School.
After serving as Extension Minister in Plattsburgh NY, where she met Tom, her second husband, Barbro accepted a call to All Souls Church in Brattleboro VT, a congregation recently traumatized by a fatal shooting. Her ministry there focused on healing, re-establishing trust and mending the fabric of community.
After 12 rewarding years at All Souls, Barbro retired to spend more time with family. Tom & Barbro have three adult children and two grand-children and split their time between Peterborough NH and Staunton VA.
OTHER OFFICIALS
Nominating Committee
nominations@uurmapa.org
The Rev. Beth Miller (2024), chair
Sarasota, FL
Barry Finkelstein (2024)
Alexandria, VA
The Rev. Dr. Sue Redfern-Campbell (2025), scribe
Albuquerque, NM
Kathleen Hunter (2025)
New London, NH
The Rev. Ginger Luke (2025)
Bethesda, MD
Webmaster
The Rev. Jaco ten Hove
Bellingham, WA
webmaster@uurmapa.org
Membership Coordinator
The Rev. Patt Herdklotz
Ashland, OR
membership@uurmapa.org
Historian
The Rev. Susan LaMar
Uxbridge, MA
historian@uurmapa.org
Registered Agent
The Rev. Lilia Cuervo
Medford, MA
agent@uurmapa.org