Staff

Our Minister
Our Minister is David Parks-Ramage. He has been with First Church for 7 years and in the ministry for 30. He is married to Christy Parks-Ramage and has two grown children, Jonathan and Becky. David was educated at Centre College of Kentucky and at the Divinity School at Yale University.
David is a Spiritual Director who has studied with Henri Nouwen at Yale and with Jerry May, Tilden Edwards and Rosemary Doughtery at the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Currently he studies koans at the Pacific Zen Institute with John Tarrant. He is interested in prayer, meditation and the transformation possible as one opens to Spirit.

David leads interfaith groups exploring the use of traditional and Christian koans for the transformation of consciousness. David also leads Christian/Zen retreats. He is particularly interested in the use of Jesus’ parables, his sayings and doings as koans.

David keeps a blog on the Christian use of scripture as koan at http://jesuspointstothemoon.blogspot.com/

Administrative Assistant

Carmen Rapp has been Administrative Assistant at First Church for 25 years. She has two adult daughters, Nicki of Oakland and Johanna, who is married to Timothy Foster and lives in Santa Rosa. Carmen loves the people here at First Church and appreciates being part of the staff team. She is a member of First United Methodist Church.

Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministries

Susan Alice is our Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministries.

Director of Music Arts

Director of Music Leann Conley is active both as a singer and conductor and has several years of experience leading worship music. She studied conducting with Rodney Eichenberger, Steven Zopfi, Richard Nance and Edith Copley, and recently earned a master’s degree in choral conducting from Northern Arizona University. While at NAU, she led the sixty-five-voice University Singers and assistant-conducted the Shrine of the Ages Choir. Also a sought-after soprano soloist, Leann’s recent operatic roles include La Femme in Poulenc’s one-woman tragedy, La voix humaine, La Princesse in L’Enfant et les sortileges, Rose inStreet Scene, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and concert appearances as a soloist with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, Coeur D’Alene Symphony and Tacoma Youth Chorus. Leann is a seasoned member of the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus and regularly performs with a variety of professional chamber choirs, including the Tucson Chamber Artists, Sedona Academy of Chamber Singers and the Festivalensemble Stuttgart of the Internationale Bachakademie. In addition to her role as Director of Music, Leann teaches at the Grammy-award-winning Pacific Boychoir Academy in Oakland and maintains private voice studios in Santa Rosa and Berkeley. She holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Pacific Lutheran University..

Sexton

Jack Farmer is our Sexton