Staff

Jennifer is a native of South Carolina and an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church. She loves South Carolina, but has managed to spend all but ten years of her adult life in North Carolina. Those ten years were spent pastoring United Methodist churches across the Upstate. She attended Duke University several times and in the process earned a BA, double majoring in English and Religion, a Master of Divinity, a PhD in religion, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies. Prior to coming to the Council, she spent 16 years as the United Methodist Chaplain at Duke University, where she also taught undergraduate and divinity school classes, served on committees and task forces, and attended lots of basketball games. She writes frequently for various publications when time permits and preaches regularly in congregations across North Carolina. Jennifer has two adult children, Nathan, who is a software developer in Durham, and Hannah, who is a digital marketing analyst in Charlotte. Jennifer is the overjoyed grandparent of Benjamin and Theodore.

Sharon was raised in NYC in the South Bronx. She has 20 years of office management experience, mostly in the legal field. She is excited to be working for the NC Council of Churches as their Office Manager. She has lived in all over including New York, West Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. Sharon and her husband, Timothy, moved to NC in 1990 after getting married. She has two adult son’s, Travaris and Bernard and a small Pomeranian. In her free time she likes to cook, entertain, and read.

Sean was raised in Austin, Texas where he attended the University of Texas. After earning a BBA with an emphasis in Accounting and Master in Professional Accounting, he attended George W. Truett Theological Seminary where he met his wife, Jamie, and they both earned a Master of Divinity. Prior to coming to the Council, Sean spent twenty years in congregational ministry, most recently as Senior Pastor of a Baptist church in Raleigh, and two years in financial administration for a number of churches in the Triangle. When he is not cheering for his Texas Longhorns, Sean enjoys community theater, playing golf, watching sports, and spending time with his wife and their three children: Avery, Hannah, and Max.

Susannah Tuttle joined the staff in August 2011. She received a Masters of Divinity degree with an emphasis on ecological ethics from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. In 2004 Susannah was hired as UNC Chapel Hill’s first Sustainability Research Associate and went on to co-initiate Trace Collaborative, LLC a consulting firm specializing in the implementation of sustainability within the design and construction industry. Susannah is a founding member of the Southeast Faith Leaders Network (SFLN) and is an active member of the US Climate Action Network. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Southeast Climate & Energy Network (SCEN) and serves as the director of international community outreach for the US Climate Fair Share collaborative. Susannah’s motto is “Rowdy Bliss” and when she’s not traveling and exploring new places you can find her hosting gatherings and relaxing at the end of a gravel road where she lives with her husband, Frank – who is a builder, gardener, and musician – and Leroy, their beloved dog.

John Dempsey Parker has over 25 years of experience in North Carolina in asset-based community development, culturally appropriate and trauma-informed community organizing, community development finance, nonprofit management, small business, and entrepreneurship systems development. Since 2016, John has worked primarily with faith communities, congregational leadership (clergy and lay), and social justice partners through roles with the Faith & Community Initiative at NCSU’s Institute for Emerging Issues and the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. Throughout his career he’s focused on nurturing collaborative community engagement and leadership development around community organizing, advocacy, and ministry. John’s career includes directing a community development collaborative, community development finance, business and organizational development, teaching cultural and applied anthropology and nonprofit management, ethnographic research, and a variety of consulting work with small businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations. He serves on the boards of Repairers of the Breach and Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries plus he’s an advisory board member of the NC Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission Process with the Beloved Community Center. Originally from Moore County, North Carolina, John received a BA at Wake Forest University in anthropology, international relations, and politics, a MA in applied anthropology from the University of Memphis, a certificate in nonprofit management from Duke University, and a M.Div. from Duke Divinity School. When not working, John enjoys long walks in the woods, and hiking in the mountains, and at the beach. He loves nurturing spaciousness to write haiku poems, staying in touch with what’s going on in the world, merry-making and knocking around with his kids (two teenagers and a young adult!), plus deep hanging out with family and friends, especially with his partner, cultural anthropologist, Helen Regis.

Rachel was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. She is an Appalachian State University alumni with a passion for systemic transformation and equity for all North Carolina residents. Rachel joined the Council in 2018 as Immigration Program Coordinator, and her role has since transformed into Communications Director. She enjoys contributing her knowledge and expertise to help promote positive social change through communications and marketing. In her free time, Rachel loves spending time outside with her wife and two labs, playing rugby, and dancing.

A native of South Carolina, Arlecia has previously called North Carolina home and started her professional career off in the state as a journalist in Eden. She was a journalism educator in Charlotte and later served as a minister in Durham while attending Duke Divinity School, where she earned her Master of Divinity. She is an ordained Baptist minister and formerly served as a senior pastor in the United Church of Christ. She has earned a Health Minister Certificate from Wesley Theological Seminary. Before joining the Council in August 2022, she taught at Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C., and directed a project to provide professional development to clergy and lay leaders pivoting during COVID-19. Her interest in health and wellness developed as a newspaper reporter covering health issues and new legislation such as HIPAA. Her convictions are rooted in experiences ranging from seeing members of her family and community plagued by the many comorbidities amplified during the pandemic. She is invested in how systemic issues such as gentrification and food and housing insecurity impact health and wholeness and prevent BIPOC people and those in rural communities from thriving. Arlecia is based in Fayetteville, and she enjoys educating people on her Gullah Geechee culture and publishing books and digital content that she hopes will lead to emotional healing and spiritual renewal.

Carrilea is from Sylva in the mountains of western North Carolina. She attended Brevard College where she played soccer and earned a BA in Health Science Studies. She earned her Master of Divinity and a certificate in Religion and Health from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Carrilea is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and has served in a local congregation for several years. Her passion for faith, health, and justice led her to join the Council as the West Regional Associate Director for PHW. She currently lives in Statesville with her husband, Andrew, and their two daughters, Saige and Maya. Carrilea loves the outdoors, adventures/traveling, and good conversations.

Donna was born in Miami, FLA, but has resided in Wilkes County, NC, since she was four years old. Donna comes to us from the world of public health. She has spent over a decade on substance use coalition, prevention, recovery, and harm reduction work in public health and non-profit settings. Donna served as Social Action Coordinator for the Appalachian District United Methodist Women from 2017-2021, and has served in a lay servant role for the United Methodist Church since 2015. Donna is also co-founder of Wilkes Rescue Group, a non-profit 501(c)(3) dog rescue in Wilkes County that was founded in 2018. Donna is an Appalachian State University alumni and loves to cheer on her Mountaineers during football season. Donna spends her spare time working with Wilkes Rescue Group, as well as spending quality time with good friends, and her husband and four rescue dogs.

Meredith is a North Carolina triangle native who graduated with her BSW in Social work and a minor in Spanish from Appalachian State University. After traveling to and living in diverse communities both domestically and abroad, Meredith moved from the west side of Chicago in 2018 to Durham, NC, where she pursued a dual Master in Divinity and Master of Social work degree from Duke Divinity School and UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work. She graduated in 2021 from Divinity School with a Certificate in Prison Studies and Social Work School with her MSW concentration in Communities and Organizations. Meredith is particularly passionate about the intersection of faith and justice and is always dreaming about how the Church can be a more creative, innovative, and radically inclusive space that strives to seek justice and shalom in the world, particularly at the margins. She cares deeply about community, both creating community and being part of one. Before stepping into her role as the Program Engagement Coordinator of the Partners of Health and Wholeness Initiative through the Council, Meredith has most recently served as a hospital chaplain at Wakemed Hospital in Raleigh. Outside of her work with the NC Council of Churches, you will most likely find Meredith with her hands dirty in soil at the local urban farm, painting, dancing, exploring nature with her dog best friend Yogi, scheming her next portion of the Camino de Santiago to walk (or other travel adventure), or finding the best local ice cream spot. Meredith is in the final stages of becoming an ordained pastor through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Sandra is born and raised in Gastonia, North Carolina. She called the Blue Ridge Mountains her home whilst attending Appalachian State University, where her passion and drive for the equitable wellbeing of immigration-affected populations, communities, families and individuals was nurtured through her majoring in Social Work with a minor in Spanish, being the first in her family to pursue Higher Education as well. Sandra is a first-generation U.S born citizen, her family being from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. Spanish is her first language, English their second and Portuguese her third, which she is still learning! Through their lived experiences as an immigration-affected family member, the undocumented experience is one that has shaped Sandra to be a helping professional even before she knew what it meant, the familiar first-generation experiences of speaking for your parents at medical offices, social service departments, law enforcement as well as witnessing how these communities, especially in the Southeast U.S. live in a state of anxiety, no person should experience, Sandra dreams of working towards a sustainable and just Immigration Reform Policy as well as the abolition/reform of institutions such as ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement). In her free time, Sandra loves to read, authors such as bell hooks, James Baldwin, and Clarice Lispector are some of their favorites, as well as listening to music and collecting CDs, weightlifting and playing with her 2 Shih Tzu-Mix dogs (Lola & Leah) and her cat (Apollo).