About Me
Wow! You're still reading and want to know more? Great! Here you can find a little bit about:
My Story
The oldest of three children, I was born into a military family and grew up in Fairfax County, VA, in the Washington, DC metro area.
From the time I was a young girl, I believed that various factors such as my red hair, my position as an oldest child, and even my zodiac sign of Aries predisposed me to being a strong-willed person. I tried to live up to that image and did a pretty good job, with both positive and negative side effects.
The positive side effects were that I survived a difficult adolescence, during which time my family of origin was struggling with addiction and mental health issues. In the process, I developed leadership capabilities and an aptitude for organization. Particularly during high school, I learned to reach out for help when I needed it.
Some of the characteristics I developed to get through, however, were ones that would inhibit my later maturation. I had trust and control issues, as well as difficulty allowing myself to be vulnerable. I have spent much of my adulthood developing and practicing new, healthy behaviors. I have a deep well of compassion for individuals and families who struggle with similar problems.
I managed to make it through high school and enrolled at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. I majored in Computer Science because I was good at it and that was what I was expected to do. While in college, I met and fell in love with this quirky, smart guy who hung around in similar crowds. We were married soon after college - I was only 22!
After graduating from college, John and I moved back up to Northern Virginia. Our participation in CUUPS (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) brought us to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston, VA. Being part of a liberal religious community where the journey matters more than the destination kept us at church much longer than we were involved in CUUPS!
When I finally answered “Yes!” to the call to ministry, I went to seminary part-time so that I could continue to work as a web developer/database administrator. But John and I were starting to get antsy. In late 1999, we decided we needed a change of scenery from Northern Virginia, and so we moved to Minneapolis, MN. I transferred to United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and we settled in to have a family. Our first child was born in 2001 and our second in 2003.
After 7 years part-time, I finally graduated from seminary in 2004 – I was on what is affectionately known as “the turtle track” but it worked great for me as I was able to continue along my path to ministry while also spending a lot of quality time with my young children and not take on any debt. In 2006, we moved to Iowa for my internship at the UU Fellowship of Ames, IA. At the end of an amazing year, we moved back up to the Twin Cities area, where I did a CPE Residency and was consulting minister for the UU Fellowship in Northfield, MN.
In 2009, I was called to the First Unitarian Church in Louisville, KY. An urban congregation embracing their location and their mission, I loved my 7 years with First Unitarian and the congregation will always hold a special place in my heart. It was in Louisville that I also discovered roller derby, skating under the name "Liv Fearless" with Derby City Roller Girls - an identity that represents my most grounded, confident self.
There have been two times in my life when I have felt myself to be "in the groove" in regards to my career/vocation. The first was when I was a consultant back in NoVA working with different organizations to help them accomplish a goal (I was the lead for the team that wrote the very first Social Security Administration website). The second time was in parish ministry, working with First Unitarian Church to help them live into their ministry.
But my sense of call began to shift in late 2015 – I kept looking at congregations as systems, not just at the congregation I was serving. And I kept running into areas where congregations were struggling – areas that nonprofits had been dealing with for years. I wanted to learn more, so I enrolled in a Masters program and in 2016 left First Unitarian to serve the Southern Region of the UUA. As congregational life staff, I was able to utilize my education, my experience in ministry, my analytical mind, and my systems thinking approach in new and exciting ways to benefit our UU institutions. I am particularly proud of my work starting a national Disaster Relief fund, recruiting/training/supervising an amazing group of lay and professional adjunct staff, and reviving and expanding the breakthrough congregation program.
After three years of extensive travel, I was ready to work closer to home. During the pandemic, I juggled two part-time positions - Executive Director of a local nonprofit and Justice Coordinator for a Kentucky church starting a State Action Network. I learned a lot. But I missed ministry.
There is just nothing like being with an intergenerational group of people who come together to muddle our way through life, searching for what has worth and meaning, endeavoring to live into our values. I missed being with people at the peaks and valleys of their lives, creating something together that is bigger than any one of us. I had long felt an affinity towards interim ministry, and in 2021 it was time to answer "Yes!" to that call.
My first interim was at historic Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Oak Park, Illinois - the congregation designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I fell in love with Chicagoland! I also discovered urban inline skating - outside, fast, a fantastic way to see a city. I've since skated in Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, New York, Buenos Aires, Miami, and I look forward to many more cities.
During those two years (2021-2023), John and I realized that we wanted different things and needed to grow as individuals outside of marriage. We had gotten married so young. Soon after I arrived in Indianapolis for my current interim at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis, we separated and subsequently divorced. He remains one of my best friends, and I'm proud of how we continue to navigate this really fraught ground together.
These past few years have also clarified what I want for this next chapter. I love ministry. I also love writing - my forthcoming book Hard Hits and Other Life Lessons from Roller Derby explores courage, community, and resilience (more on that in the Writing section below). And I want to travel before my children potentially have kids of their own.
I've also been learning Spanish - language immersion took me to Buenos Aires, Argentina and then Cuernavaca, Mexico, where I stayed with host families and studied not just language but history, culture, and what it means to be a guest in places shaped by colonization and resistance. These trips expanded my sense of the world in ways I'm still processing - they taught me about mezcla (the both/and complexity of identity), about listening rather than centering myself, about the weight and privilege of being a white US American abroad, and about my own heritage and immigration stories I'd never explored. They reminded me that the world is so much bigger and more complex than even what I've been exposed to - and I've been exposed to a lot.
Those experiences helped spark the idea of van life: write, minister, travel. I'm currently building out a Toyota Sienna (hybrid) named Mystique - she's my own bear cave, my home on wheels that will let me bring ministry where it's needed while continuing to learn, listen, and stay curious about the world beyond my usual contexts. My mom has always accused me of trying to have my cake and eat it too - but I've decided that's not a bad thing. It's me reaching for what I want.
II've also realized something important about the ministry I'm seeking. Both of my recent interim ministries involved mid-size and large congregations navigating complex transitions - the kind of intensive, reflective work that interim ministry requires. I'm good at that work, but I'm ready for something different: partnering with a smaller congregation that's actively hungry for creative, collaborative ministry and ready to build something new together.
My Theology
Raised in various Protestant traditions, I rebelled from the idea of a pointy-finger-God-in-the-sky who could make one football win over the other because He liked their prayers better. I had a limited understanding of the divine, at best.
I came to Unitarian Universalism as a Pagan, practicing the Wheel of the Year. As I grew into my faith as a Unitarian Universalist, I found that I added layers and nuance to my own personal theology. One of my favorite things about our faith is how it not only allows, but encourages our theology to grow and change as we do, and mine surely has.
Today, I describe myself as an Agnostic, Mystic Humanist. I have no idea about the Mysteries and Wonders of the Universe but they tickle me, and astound me, on a regular basis. And I believe it is our responsibility, as human beings, to care for one another and our planet.
At the heart of most of my sermons is the theme of Loving the Hell Out of the World. Loving the hell out of the world means being in relationship with the world. It means constantly expanding who “we” are. It means challenging ourselves to not turn away from the pain within ourselves and within others. Loving the hell out of the world means loving each other out of hell. It means listening to one another, learning from one another, helping each other. It does not mean we will always agree – we won’t – but it means we will stay in conversation. Loving the hell out of the world means overcoming fear, bitterness, and hatred, with abounding and embodied love.
If you’d like to read more about my theology, I invite you to read my Love the Hell Out of the World sermon, which won the 2014 Universalist Heritage award. Additionally, you may be interested in a paper I wrote in 2012, Astrobiology as Contemporary Theology, which became the foundational chapter published in the textbook Theology & Science: From Genesis to Astrobiology.
My Writing
I love to write. I didn't really realize it until I was about a year into my work at the UUA. I knew I missed leading worship, but it felt so good (at first) to be done with the sermon writing! And then, slowly. I came to the awareness that writing is how I make sense of the world. It is how I understand and process it. And without the weekly practice of writing sermons, of reflecting intentionally on things I care about, things that are happening, things that matter, I felt unmoored.
Even outside of sermon writing, I am drawn to write, to reflect, to dig in and understand and make sense of something. I have kept a somewhat regular journal practice since I was hospitalized for depression in high school and one of the suggestions was to take up a feelings journal. But now I write about far more than just feelings.
You've seen a bunch of examples of my writing already. You can read more at my archived blog Speaking Of... And my facebook page has my reflections from language immersion trips to Buenos Aires and Mexico, where I explore what it meant to me to travel as a white US American, the mezcla of Mexican identity, Armenian immigration to Argentina, and how these experiences continue to shape my ministry and my understanding of power, colonization, and what it means to be a guest. Sadly, I've had to lock down my facebook page for security purposes, but feel free to send me a friend request!
In 2026, I am also rolling out a new, exciting project. I have completed the manuscript of Hard Hits and Other Life Lessons from Roller Derby, which I will first be serializing on Substack (along with vanlife content and who knows what else strikes my fancy to write about!) and then publishing in the fall of 2026.
