The month of February brought staffing changes in Executive Leadership.
Ervin Stutzman announced a move to a slightly different arrangement for executive staff which will replace the Associate Director role with two positions:
- Director of Churchwide Operations and
- Director of Denominational Support Services
Stutzman has appointed Marty Lehman to serve as director of churchwide operations. In her new position, Lehman will have responsibility for communication, development, convention planning, and church relations. She will also continue to give leadership to Historical Committee, finance/administration and The Corinthian Plan. In the long term, finance and administration will move to the new support services position. Lehman will continue to have her office in Elkhart and Kathryn Rodgers will serve as executive assistant.
On February 1, Leanne Farmwald began quarter-time with Executive Leadership as director of the Executive Leadership communication team along with her role as director of marketing and communication for Mennonite Mission Network. Following the denominational ministry model, we are excited about this new opportunity to collaborate and share leadership. This is an interim arrangement and will be reviewed in the coming months.
On February 22 we welcomed Deidre (Summerton) Bias to the Executive Leadership staff. She joins the convention planning team in the role of convention communication coordinator.
Bias is responsible for writing all external print pieces related to convention promotion and marketing. She will also be working with the children and junior youth gatherings and taking on other logistical planning responsibilities as needed.
Bias is a Goshen/Elkhart native, a Goshen College graduate and attends College Mennonite Church. Most recently she worked for First Steps as the family outreach and public awareness coordinator. Her responsibilities included promoting the state-wide program which works with children, birth to three, who have special needs and their families. She loves to read and travel, and is always in the midst of planning the next adventure for her and her family. We are grateful for the energy and expertise that Bias brings to the convention planning team.