Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees acts on behalf of the congregation as the overall governing body of the church. The board is responsible for providing strategic leadership in the achievement of the church’s mission. Board members are elected to staggered  three-year terms; three new board members are elected each year. The board meets monthly, on the third Wednesday of each month. Board meetings are generally open; members are welcome to attend and observe.

 

   Yassara Antar, President (2020-2024)

Yassara became a member of MLUC in 2015, having longed searched for a non-denominational community centered around    action.   She has been active with the IHN, TAG, SGM, Adult OWL, Ushering, Worship Visuals, and various other teams since joining.  Her bachelor’s degree is from Villanova University, her master’s degree is from University of Pennsylvania. She currently teaches all levels of Physics, and Prob/Stat. And has a STEM Ed. Endorsement from Immaculata University. When not doing church, Yassara loves learning, reading, arting, crafting, hiking, and volunteering. Some of her volunteerism includes the Brandywine Valley SPCA, tree planting with anyone anywhere, Missionary Sisters of Charity, Eldernet, and Subaru’s United By Blue water cleanup.

 

 

 

 

 

Barbara Colton, Vice President (2023-2026)

Barbara Colton and her husband, Mark Chandler, came to MLUC in 2008 looking for a faith foundation for her daughters, Kyra and Alyssa in a community that shares their values. Early on, Barbara was active on the Young Adult and Tochwogh Retreat committees. She went on to co-chair the UU Community Weekend (Camp Canadensis) with Philadelphia area UU churches to encourage more intergenerational community. Over the years, Barbara also served on a number of other committees, including the Worship Committee, the St. David’s Nursery School Committee, and the Auction Committee.  After COVID, she enjoyed welcoming members and visitors back to church at the welcome desk.  She has been a core member of the Afghan Family Sponsorship team and a member of the Nominating Committee. This past year, Barbara served as Chair of the Ministerial Search Committee that matched Rev. John Morehouse with MLUC.

 

Mark Hurle (2021-2024)

Mark and his wife Julia have been members at MLUC for 15 years. They live in Harleysville after a long residency in Radnor. Their two grown children, Joan and Jason, were active church participants throughout their youth in Faith Development and associated activities. Raised into the United Methodist Church, where his father is a longtime Board of Trustee member, Mark is happy to have found a church home that reflects his values and beliefs. Mark taught Faith Development classes, including Neighboring Faiths, and values how this experience encouraged him to further listen to and embrace different viewpoints. Mark was born in Massachusetts, received his bachelor’s degree from MIT, his PhD from Penn State and has worked for GlaxoSmithKline for over 30 years, leading teams of researchers in computational biology. Mark and his wife Julia enjoy traveling, hiking and kayaking. Mark is also a passionate baseball fan and music collector, and enjoys listening live to the wide variety of talented musicians at MLUC.

Joseph Lipton, Treasurer (2023-2024)

Joe and his wife Donna Monturo have been attending MLUC since April 2001. Their adult son Jacob was raised in the church. Long-time residents of Wayne, they relocated to Chester Springs in May 2022. Joe was brought up in the Jewish faith but as an adult sought a more inclusive faith community with an unlimited world view. Over the years Joe has served or participated in MLUC’s Father and Son Group, Men’s Group, Youth Adult Committee (YAC), Bookkeeper, Men’s Book Group, Men’s Breakfast Group, Annual Auction, Board Member and Finance Chair. He is a retired financial executive and is presently the Treasurer of MLUC as he’s been for most of the past ten years. He is also a former President of Interfaith Hospitality Network of the Main Line (IHN), now re-branded Family Promise, with whom he still volunteers and is a Financial Advisor.

 

 

 

Nancy McDowell (2023-2024)

Nancy and her husband Peter joined MLUC in 2002, after Nancy’s job transferred her back to her home town. Their initial goal was to expose their two young children, Tyler and Julia, to the values of a liberal church. It wasn’t long before they developed their own love for and commitment to MLUC. As the kids went through RE all the way up to being presidents of their respective YRUU youth groups, Nancy participated as teacher, RE Committee member, then member of the Board of Trustees—all while working full time running a private investment firm. Nancy continued her commitment to the church through a stint as Vice Chair of the Capital Campaign and chair of the QC2 Committee. After her retirement in 2021, she joined the Nominating Committee to help elect Church leaders and the current Search Committee. She looks forward to contributing again as a veteran Board member.

Marlies Singh (2021-2024)

Marlies was introduced to MLUC by a friend in 2004 and has been a member since 2014. She started out in the church school program where she taught for 3 years while working as the MLUC Accountant. Later she became a member of the Finance, Audit, and Legacy and Endowment Committees, finding it refreshing to see how our seven principles reshape everything, even rather dry financial matters. Marlies’ other activities at MLUC have included ushering, planting trees, helping with the auction, and volunteering as a Planned Parenthood escort through the Reproductive Justice task force. She has also been one of the members of the Used Bookstore team for the last few years. Her favorite aspect of church life is the Small Group Program. She loves to spend her spare time with her two daughters here in the area, with her family in Germany, and reading and birdwatching.

 

 

Barbara Welsh (2023-2025)

Barbara, her husband Dusty, and two sons Alex and Teddy began attending MLUC in 1976. Her first church involvement was co- teaching several church school classes. Other MLUC contributions have been with Sunday speakers, holiday workshops, close to 20 years as a personnel committee member and chair, many pledge campaigns, ushering, greeting, helping with numerous social events and serving on three search committees. Current committees are Partner Church Committee, which was inspired after a trip to visit our Várfalva, Transylvania, Romania, partners; Family Promise, MLUC choir, MLUC book group and Coming of Age mentor.
Barbara earned her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and a masters degree in information/library science at Drexel. Her career was as the placement director in the information college at Drexel. She also has responsibilities with the Radnor Township League of Women Voters.
Barbara and her husband Dusty hiked and sometimes backpacked in national parks from Alaska to Hawaii to Isle Royale to Everglades and most of the parks in between, as well as hiking in international locations.

 

 

Deirdre Gordon (2023-2026)

Deirdre came to MLUC in 2010 and has worked on the Green Stripers team (kitchen duties), the Offering Outreach team, the Auction Committee, the most recent Ministerial Search Committee, and the Transition Team for Rev. Morehouse. Deirdre earned her undergraduate degree at Susquehanna University and her Masters in Social Work at Bryn Mawr College, She spent her entire career at Children and Youth Services, the child protection agency for Delaware County, and was the agency’s Director for her final ten years there. She enjoys volunteering with Darby Creek Valley Association and Willistown Conservation Trust in their Community Science Monitoring Program, conducting water quality monitoring in the Darby Creek watershed, as well as participating in tree planting and watershed clean up events. Deirdre lives in Newtown Square with her husband, Lloyd Cole.

 

Carol Hillman (2023-2025)

Carol joined MLUC in 2002 with her husband JB and daughters Taylor and Vaughn.  Raised in another faith tradition, she was relieved to find an open and questioning faith community to call home.  Carol has participated in many areas of the church including church school, helping hands, Family Promise, the auction committee, the Capital Campaign, Finance committee, SGM, and the Holiday Workshop.  Carol has had many transformative experiences within this community and is looking forward to many more connections and spiritual growth opportunities.