Appointed by the Board of Trustees

Rev. Theresa Ninán Soto is the lead minister of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland in California. They have served on the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee of the UUA. Pastor Ninán wrote Spilling the Light: Meditations on Hope and Resilience in 2019. They are married to the Rev. Sean Parker Dennison. Pastor Ninán enjoys Detroit pizza and playing with Pico the rescue pup.

Appointed by the Board of Trustees Until a Special Election at General Assembly 2022

Jaimie (It'll be Rev. Jaimie Dingus starting on May 15th) has served as the settled minister of the UU Church in Huntsville Alabama since August 2020. Before that, she completed her Master's of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and worked for several UU Churches in the Boston area. She is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist from Virginia, and is grateful to be serving on the Presidential Search Committee to help shape the future of our denomination. In her spare time, you can find her exploring Huntsville with her best dog friend, Clementine!

Denise has been a member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, Virginia since 2002. She has served in a variety of positions at First UU, and currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors. She has also served in multiple volunteer positions with the UUA, including time on the Board of Trustees. Denise joined this faith movement with an eye towards governance and social justice, with a focus on anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, and is married with two grown daughters and five grandchildren, who she spoils shamelessly!

Cathy Seggel has been serving the First Unitarian Church of Providence as its religious educator for over 25 years. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a BS in Nursing, she worked as an RN and taught Pediatric Nursing at Rhode Island College. She earned a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 2007. She was President of the Liberal Religious Educators Association from 2014-2017. She teaches UU Faith Development at Harvard Divinity School. Cathy lives in Providence with her husband, Norm. They have three children and four grandchildren.

James is a member of the Church of the Larger Fellowship and the First Unitarian Church of Dallas, where his three sons were blessed by the wonderful religious education (RE) program. At his church in Dallas, James served as RE teacher, Treasurer, Vice President, President, Chair of facilities construction team, and as a GA delegate (2006-2012). He served on the UUA Board of Trustees (2013-2016), and currently serves on the Presidential Search Committee, because, as with all of his church and UUA service, he was asked and responded to the call.

Marva has been a Universalist Unitarian for over 30 years. She has been a member of First Church of Pittsburgh, Second Unitarian Church of Chicago, and is currently a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County. Marva has volunteered with several congregational committees, including the Nominating Committee, Committee on Ministries, Membership Committee, and various fundraising activities. In addition, she has served as a chair of a church board and on the UUA Committee on Socially Responsible Investing.

Board Liaison to the Committee

Rev. Sam Trumbore was elected to the Board in June of 2021. Previously, he served on the UUA Electronic Communications Committee (1994-1998) and the Open UUA Committee (2011-2015). He serves as minister of the First UU Society of Albany, NY (1999-present). He grew up UU in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark, DE. He moved to California to work in Silicon Valley and finish his Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Degree at UC Berkeley. While there, he was a member of the Palo Alto and Oakland UU Churches. The call to ministry came and he left his computer engineering career to enter Starr King School for the Ministry. He served in ministerial capacities at Rochester Unitarian (NY) as an Intern (1988-1989), Niagara Falls doing pulpit supply(1990-1993), and was ordained there in 1992. His first settled ministry was in Port Charlotte, Florida (1993-99).

Rev. Trumbore also serves on the board of the UU Buddhist Fellowship and is a devoted practitioner of Insight Meditation (Theravadan 1984-present). He has been active in congregation-based community organizing (ARISE) and UU State Action Networks during his time in Albany. His most recent work was helping the NY UU Justice State Action Network get started in 2020.

Philomena Moriarty and Sam have been married since 1990, and together they have an adult son, Andrew.

All members of the Presidential Search Committee may be reached at pres_search@uua.org.