Contact Linnea at  director@uuwellspring.org.

Carolyn Bjerke serves as the Director of Music at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura, CA. Carolyn is passionate about growing and supporting spiritual community, especially through music. A singer and teacher, she has taught coached singers of nearly every age and ability. The connection to joy and spirit that music brings is universal, which makes her work rich and rewarding. Carolyn is a UU Certified Music Leader.

Rev. Tina Simson believes that people are whole and worthy of grace no matter life’s circumstance, and that given the opportunity to listen deeply to their inner spark, they will find their way home to their true selves.

She is Minister Emerita of First Unitarian Church in Rochester, NY where she served for nine years as Minister of Spiritual Development and Pastoral Care, and currently sees clients for Spiritual Direction. She is one of the originators and authors of UU Wellspring and has facilitated many levels of the program. She has facilitated retreats and mentored congregations across the country as they initiated UU Wellspring. From 2011-2014. she served and the national UU Wellspring Coordinator, originator of the UU Wellspring Blog and member of the advisory team.

Tina is an Interfaith Minister educated and ordained through One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York and holds a certificate in Spiritual Counseling. Tina is an Associate Member of the UUMA.

Rev. Sara Goodman is the minister of UU Community Church in Glen Ellen, VA. She has also served as nn Assistant Minister at White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church in Minnesota, and a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. Sara loves creativity and movement, and she loves to laugh and to cry with people. She loves feeling useful and whole, and looking out her windows and seeing green things. Sara is a raised UU, transplant from California, mom of Jamie and Emily, married to Shawn, and is so much more than the sum of her parts.

David Banks attends the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland. He has participated in and facilitated Wellspring Sources. David enjoys discussing spiritual concepts as well as learning how to apply these ideas in everyday life. He is passionate about engaging communities of color having worked as a social worker and nurse among African American and Latin American/LatinX communities nationwide. He is a professor teaching health and behavioral sciences courses online at the University of Maryland and Catholic University; moreover, is excited to lead online UU Wellspring groups.

Aaron Tyo is a Youth Advisor at Albany Unitarain Universalist. He is also our primary facilitator for our online Young Adult programs. Aaron’s family includes his spouse and three amazing children.
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Beth Irikura is a Credentialed Religious Educator serving River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, MD as the Director of Religious Education. She has a certificate in Lay Ministry with emphasis in Youth Ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary.  Beth and her family attend the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville, where she was a lead advisor for their youth program for three years. Beth serves as a Credentialing Mentor and a Good Officer for LREDA (Liberal Religious Educators Association.) She is thrilled to be leading in person and online Wellspring groups in addition to serving on the Wellspring board.

Rev. Viola Abbitt is currently serving as the minister of the Coastal Virginia Unitarian Universalists in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Before that, she was the half-time minister for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie (NY) and the First Unitarian Society of Westchester (Hastings-on-Hudson, NY). Prior to that she served as the ministerial intern at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Greater Springfield in Massachusetts.  She has also worked in various positions as a member of the laity, as well as paid staff, at UU congregations in the Capital District Area of New York. Viola has helped in work aimed at identifying the social locations of authors of materials used in the Wellspring Sources curriculum, and she was a contributor to the Promise and the Practice liturgical materials.  As a member of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady, she first participated in Wellspring Sources in 2013-2014, and then went on to be a co-facilitator for Deep Questions in 2014-2015 and Spiritual Practices in 2016-2017.  She values the richness that UU Wellspring has brought to her life, whether it has been as a participant or a facilitator, and she has seen how it has worked in the lives of others. 

Rev. Kimberley Debus works as a community minister in the Capital Region, inspiring congregations to more artful and art-filled worship, congregational life, and public witness. In addition to her community ministry, she is an adjunct consultant with the Central East Region. She has previously served the First Universalist Church of Southold on Long Island and One Island Family UU Congregation in Key West, and is a member of our congregation in Saratoga Springs. Kimberley first participated in UU Wellspring in 2010-2011 as part of a joint venture of the Albany, NY area cluster. As she notes whenever asked – and sometimes without being asked – UU Wellspring made space for her ministerial discernment and transition from lay leader to seminarian and now to minister.

Rev. Libby Moore, a lifelong UU, participated in the very first Wellspring program with Jen Crow. Since then she has continued her connection with Wellspring as both facilitator and curriculum developer. Under the profound influence of her Wellspring experience, she took the leap of attending One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and is now an ordained interfaith minister. She completed training to be a spiritual director in 2014 and feels blessed to have found this vocation at this stage in her life. She honors many diverse paths toward spiritual enlightenment and has found Wellspring a source of deep inspiration on her own path.

Rev. Deborah Raible is a community minister in private practice as a pastoral counselor in Seattle. She is a lifelong UU, following three previous generations of Unitarians in her family, and the third generation to go into the Unitarian (and now) Universalist ministry. Deborah is also a lifelong member of University Unitarian Church, Seattle, which ordained her in 1996 and called her as a Minister Affiliated in 1997.

Rosemary Bishop is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady (UUSS) and served as their UU Wellspring Congregational Coordinator for seven years. Currently, she participates in the UU Wellspring Strategic Task Force at UUSS. She’s also served on the Adult Faith Development Ministry Team, helped to create an introductory UU course, and co-facilitated Covenant Circles. To the UU Wellspring Board, Rosemary brings years of experience in instructional design, workshop facilitation, and strategic marketing, in her former role as senior trainer at Hallmark Cards, and founder of her own performance consulting company.  In her current position as marketing manager for an art fundraising company, Rosemary leads new business development. Spiritually, Rosemary has experienced a variety of faith traditions on her path home to Unitarian Universalism. Moved by her UU Wellspring experience, she has a passion for creating pathways for others to step into their own spiritual journeys.

Rev. Kelly Dignan is a Unitarian Universalist community minister, serving as a spiritual director, teacher and justice chaplain. She lives in Denver, Colorado and is involved in multi-faith immigration, LGBTQ, racial, and climate justice efforts there. Thanks to video technology, her spiritual directees can be found all over the country. She teaches UU History as an adjunct instructor at Iliff School of Theology. Before shifting her focus to the community, Kelly served three Colorado congregations (First Universalist Church of Denver managing a project to reach the Spiritual But Not Religious; UU Church of Greeley; and UU Church of Boulder). She was the Lead Minister in Boulder as they voted to become a Sanctuary Congregation and host an immigrant family for more than three years now. Kelly has witnessed how Wellspring positively impacts its participants and their congregations, and she is excited to be serving on its Board. 

Dave Munro is an interfaith/interspiritual minister, ordained in June 2017 by One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City. Dave was also recently certified as a spiritual director. Dave is an interfaith hospital chaplain and he regularly serves as a chaplain at Albany NY Medical Center. He is also trained as a Hospice volunteer.

Dave, a retired attorney who still does quite a bit of pro bono work for low-income clients, has served Unitarian Universalism in many roles, including president of his home congregation of Albany NY and president of the St. Lawrence District. Additionally, Dave served on the national UU Wellspring Advisory Team from 2012-16, and he has facilitated all five of the
UU Wellspring programs. He strongly believes that participation in
UU Wellspring provides the spiritual grounding that is needed for
UU leaders.

Rev. Sara Smalley has worked both as a professional educator and as a lay leader in multiple UU congregations in the Twin Cities. As a longtime member of First Universalist of Minneapolis, she was invited by Rev. Jen Crow to participate in the pilot year of UU Wellspring in that congregation. For her, the experience of UU Wellspring brought clarity to her call to ministry, and thus she is currently a seminarian at Meadville Lombard Theological School. Sara was the primary writer for the 2015 curriculum revision of the first year of UU Wellspring. She has a passion for exploring how Unitarian Universalism is best taught and most fully lived.

She is Minister Emerita of First Unitarian Church in Rochester, NY where she served for nine years as Minister of Spiritual Development and Pastoral Care, and currently sees clients for Spiritual Direction. She is one of the originators and authors of UU Wellspring and has facilitated many levels of the program. She has facilitated retreats and mentored congregations across the country as they initiated UU Wellspring. From 2011-2014. she served and the national UU Wellspring Coordinator, originator of the UU Wellspring Blog and member of the advisory team.

Rev. Joy Collins is one of the founding members of UU Wellspring™ in Rochester, NY. She is passionate about UUs claiming their deeply spiritual selves with an open heart, mind and soul. Besides facilitating UU Wellspring groups, she has designed Wellspring curriculum and has presented on UU Wellspring at General Assembly. A 20-year UU, Joy is a community interfaith minister. Besides UU Wellspring, her main ministry is one-on-one spiritual counseling (www.revjoycollins.com). In addition, Joy is a business consultant to corporations, specializing in leadership, curriculum design, communication skills, diversity, and team dynamics (www.northcoastassociates.com).

Julica Hermann de la Fuente is a UU anti-racism educator and healer. She currently serves as the Director of Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Ministries at the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis. Born and raised in Mexico City, she first became committed to social justice education when she came to the United States for college. Since then, she has been engaged in anti-racism and anti-oppression work in a variety of capacities over the past two and a half decades. Julica is especially keen on supporting Unitarian Universalists in their multicultural competency development, and in helping congregations become more actively anti-racist in their organizational practices. In addition to a Lay Community Ministry degree from Meadville Lombard Theological School, she also holds an MSW and is certified as a master life coach. Julica strongly believes that sustainable social change comes from working at the intersection of joy and justice, and that attending to our spiritual paths and theological frameworks (as we do with Wellspring) strengthens our capacity and resilience to build the Beloved Community. When not on shift for the resistance, you will find Julica playing with frosting or fabric, trying to persuade her two daughters to wear costumes for Halloween, and reading speculative fiction that captures a vision of a just and equitable universe.

Rev. Sean Neil-Barron was born in Calgary, Alberta, on Treaty 7 land, an area wose settlement by Europeans was made possible because of a covenant between the Crown and five Native nations – a covenant that was subsequently dishonored. As a result, Sean’s UU faith seeks to rebuild right relationship between all peoples. Sean graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 2015. That fall he and a partner piloted in Boston the first UU Wellspring program that was open to people from many congregations. Sean’s ministry is focused on spiritual formation, which for him is the journey of the self into wholeness: into self-awareness and acceptance, service, wonder, perceiving connectedness. He believes strongly in UU Wellspring’s intentional focus on key practices that aid all UUs on their own unique journeys.