AUUF Podcasts

Hayden Nevill is former president of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fairbanks as well as former president of the UUA Pacific Northwest District. A career veterinarian, Nevill also served as chair of the UUFF Ministerial Search Committee.

Jana Peirce is a public policy consultant who served as a member of the UUFF Ministerial Search Committee. She also served as chair of the Ministerial Visioning Process.

Rev. Shelley Page serves as the Interim Minister at the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. A graduate of Cornell University and Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, she also served congregations in Delaware, Michigan, and Utah. A Unitarian Universalist for over 35 years, her lay leadership roles include the founding mother of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canandaigua in New York. Her previous careers included marketing and communications management for business and not-for-profit organizations. The mother of two grown daughters, she originally hails from the Finger Lakes region of Western New York and has lived in states across the U.S.

dedication

Rev. Mary Katherine Morn is president and CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights around the world.  Her UUSC tenure began in June 2018. Previously Morn served as senior minister of the UU Congregation of Fairfax in Oakton, Va., and grew small, mid-size, and large congregations in Texas, Alabama, Washington, D.C., Georgia, and Virginia. She and her husband, John Rakestraw, the director of Boston College’s Center for Teaching Excellence, now live in the Boston area and have one adult son. 

Rachel Gore Freed is a human rights lawyer, community organizer, and social justice advocate and educator with a wealth of domestic and international experience. As UUSC’s Vice President and Chief Program Officer, Freed leads the organization’s creative and effective approaches to advance human rights. Previously serving as the Senior Program Leader for UUSC’s Rights at Risk Program, Freed has spearheaded, planned, and implemented UUSC’s work responding to humanitarian crises and advancing the rights of people who are most overlooked or discriminated against in crises such as forced migration, large-scale conflicts, genocide, and natural disasters. Freed holds a bachelor’s degree with a focus in international development from the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs and a doctor of law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School.

Andromeda Romano-Lax is the author of four novels, including her debut novel “The Spanish Bow,” published in 11 languages.  A long-time freelance writer in Anchorage, she’s the author of nearly a dozen travel and natural history guidebooks to Alaska’s public lands. Her most recent novel is Plum Rains, a hundred-year saga of forbidden love in Japan and Taiwan, from its legacy of colonial rule to a future world both distracted and uncertain.  One of the founding members of 49 Writers, Romano-Lax currently lives with her family on Vancouver Island.

The annual celebration and remembrance of the animals that so enrich our lives.

Kathleen Tarr is the author of We Are All Poets Here (2018), her memoir that examines the late-life journey to Alaska by the renown Trappist monk and spiritual leader Thomas Merton. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Tarr has lived in Alaska since 1978, working several years as an administrator of the University of Alaska Anchorage creative writing program. She earned her own MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh.  In 2016, Tarr was named a William Shannon Fellow of the International Thomas Merton Society.  And in 2017, Gov. Bill Walker appointed Tarr to the board of directors of the Alaska Humanities Forum.

Rev. Shelley Page serves as the Interim Minister at the Anchorage Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. A graduate of Cornell University and Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, she also served congregations in Delaware, Michigan, and Utah. A Unitarian Universalist for over 35 years, her lay leadership roles include the founding mother of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canandaigua in New York. Her previous careers included marketing and communications management for business and not-for-profit organizations. The mother of two grown daughters, she originally hails from the Finger Lakes region of Western New York and has lived in states across the U.S.

David Boseto is the Co-Director of Ecological Solutions Foundation in the Solomon Islands, working on long-term community-owned conservation. A freshwater fish specialist, his background includes a master's degree in marine biology from the University of South Pacific in Fiji, and a master's degree in environmental science from Texas A&M. He received global recognition as a Hotspot Hero by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund.

Nixon Buka Tooler serves as the Roviana Conservation Foundation Coordinator, building social and ecological resilience to climate change in Roviana in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

David Boseto is the Co-Director of Ecological Solutions Foundation in the Solomon Islands, working on long-term community-owned conservation. A freshwater fish specialist, his background includes a master's degree in marine biology from the University of South Pacific in Fiji, and a master's degree in environmental science from Texas A&M. He received global recognition as a Hotspot Hero by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund.

Nixon Buka Tooler serves as the Roviana Conservation Foundation Coordinator, building social and ecological resilience to climate change in Roviana in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.

Rev. Mary Katherine Morn is president and CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights around the world.  Her UUSC tenure began in June 2018. Previously Morn served as senior minister of the UU Congregation of Fairfax in Oakton, Va., and grew small, mid-size, and large congregations in Texas, Alabama, Washington, D.C., Georgia, and Virginia. She and her husband, John Rakestraw, the director of Boston College’s Center for Teaching Excellence, now live in the Boston area and have one adult son.

In a religious community, we hold that the promise of human progress rests in the promises we make to one another.  What are those promises? And how do Unitarian Universalists faithfully live into them?