Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees of Unity Church-Unitarian represents the congregation in shaping the vision and long-term goals of the church. We ensure the church is externally effective and internally efficient, and we create policy and direction for the Executive Team and church staff.

For matters concerning church policy, long-term vision, and goals, contact the board by email to board@unityunitarian.org. We want to hear from you! For concerns or ideas on matters related to church programming, contact the Executive Team.

The Board of Trustees meets in the Anderson Library each month. Currently, the Board meets monthly on the second Saturday, from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., for the full calendar year. Minutes of each board meeting are posted below.

The annual congregational meeting is held in November.

Meet the Trustees

Mary Baremore has been attending Unity Church since 2001, where she and her spouse, Bobbi Cordano, raised their two children, now 24 and 19 years old. Since then, she’s been involved in many ways at Unity and finds joy being part of a community that encourages spiritual deepening and growth. Some of the milestones that still ring in her memory are being married by our senior ministers in Iowa in 2009 with eight other couples, being invited to join and sing with the Unity Singers, and traveling to Transylvania in 2013. She is grateful for the opportunity to serve the congregation as a member of the Board of Trustees. She is a newly-retired American Sign Language Interpreter and is still involved in the Deaf community locally and in Washington, DC.

Debbie Cushman has been a member at Unity Church since 2013. Her career in human resources and administration has included the public sector, for profit and nonprofit organizations. She is also a musician, playing in several folk and country collaborations as well as solo. Debbie is grateful for having found the warm connections of community and a spiritual home at Unity. She lives in St. Paul with her family — Scott, Lila, and three pets who often show up on Zoom calls. She spends as much time as she can kayaking the Minneapolis lakes.

Clover Earl and her husband Tom became members at Unity in January, 2016, three months after crossing the church’s threshold. They both found something here that neither knew they were looking for. Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Clover headed to the west coast for twenty-five years and returned home in the spring of 2015. Family, friends, and community beats weather any day of the week! She is passionate about working with like-minded people who share her commitment to co-creating beloved community. She finds joy in biking, learning, hosting dinner parties with Tom, mother nature, photography and travel. She is grateful for the opportunity to serve this community as a member of the Board.

Kevin Ely has been attending Unity Church since 2008. Over those many years he has been involved with Interweave, Rainbow Chalice Alliance, the Bookstall, and the wonderful Pie Day baking group. Originally, Kevin was very impressed and drawn to Unity’s social outreach mission, and the church’s willingness to work with community members to make our shared community a better place. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys reading poetry, nonfiction history, gardening in the yard, hiking, cross country skiing, and spending time keeping the cats out of trouble.

Kevin Harris has been attending Unity Church for over 25 years. He is a retired engineer who raised a family of three in St. Paul with his wife Kate. The youngest, Samuel, attends St. Olaf where he is majoring in piano performance. His daughter, Kendra, is in her final year of OB-GYN residency at Mayo. His oldest, Ryan, is a retired NFL player, sportscaster, and radio commentator for Notre Dame football. Kevin loves science fiction, football, astronomy, woodworking, and teaching his three grandchildren William, Betty, and Benjamin about the power of curiosity and the wonders of science.

Mary Hernández is a proud St. Paul resident and West-Sider. She and her husband, Layo, found Unity Church in 2008 when they were searching for a liberal faith community in which to raise their children, Marco, Luis, and Rocio. From the beginning, their family has felt at home here. In Mary's professional life, she is a Public Health Nurse, working primarily in maternal-child health. During the COVID-19 pandemic she has been very involved with the community vaccination efforts. Mary is grateful and humbled for the opportunity to serve on the Unity Church Board of Trustees.

Jess Landgraf's move to St. Paul from rural Iowa/Oregon in fall 2015 was a shock moderated by following her wife to Unity Church the next winter. Now, with their collie dog, backyard hens, and neighborhood community built through gardening and daily walks about, Jess feel more at home here.

Louise Livesay-Al has been a member of Unity Church for around 25 years, raising her children, Sam and Lily, here and attending Unity with her husband, Marc Al. She previously served on the Board almost 20 years ago and is happy to serve a consecutive term for the next three years. There is important work to do over this next term and she hopes that her leadership continuity will be helpful in this time of ongoing transition. She has been involved in many aspects of Unity Church around children, singing, women, giving, hospitality, and programming. She has also been a Compensation Consultant for the UUA, helping churches in ministerial transition put together thoughtful compensation packages. Professionally, Louise is a compassionate problem-solver as a collaborative family law attorney and lives in Vadnais Heights. Unity has been a critical part of Louise navigating life transitions and milestones.

LauraSue Schlatter and her husband Ron first joined Unity Church in 1997, about two years after starting to attend services with their then-young children, E and Eli. At the time, LauraSue was a lawyer, working for the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, committed to practicing in the public sector. LauraSue’s passion for Unity and Unitarian Universalism led her to take a 6-1/2 year detour from her legal career to serve as Unity’s full time Membership Coordinator from 2000-2006. She returned to practicing law in 2007, having decided to make her religious life an avocation rather than a vocation. She is a partially-retired state Administrative Law Judge, fully retiring in December 2022. LauraSue focuses her spare time on her neighborhood Racial Affinity Group, reading, theater (she has a background in playwriting), friends, the family felines (Scout and Marie), and of course, Ron and their family.

Documents

Please email unity@unityunitarian.org if you are looking for a document not listed here.

Annual Meeting Documents
2022 Annual Report
2022 Annual Meeting Information Packet
2021 Annual Report
2021 Annual Meeting Information Packet
2020 Annual Report
2020 Annual Meeting Information Packet
2019 Annual Report
2019 Annual Meeting Information Packet
2018 Annual Report
2018 Annual Meeting Information Packet
2017 Annual Report
2017 Annual Meeting Information Packet
2016 Annual Report
2016 Annual Meeting Information Packet