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Leanne works closely with her counterpart, the Rev. Mendelson
Dávila, a Pentecostal pastor from Nicaragua who serves
as program coordinator for Central America and Mexico. With him,
she facilitates a five-week orientation program for all the volunteers,
focusing on language instruction, community building, shared worship,
and biblical reflection. At the end of the ten-month term of service,
Leanne and Mendelson hold a retreat for all the program participants.
Leanne knows the Reconciliation and Mission program from the
inside, having served in Honduras as a volunteer in 1997-1998.
"That experience helped me recognize my calling to ministry,
and as a result, I entered the master of divinity program at McCormick
Seminary. It is a great privilege now to be able to return in
ministry to the program that was so instrumental in helping me
discern my call."
"I love helping Presbyterian churches connect to the global
mission of our church by hosting Reconciliation and Mission volunteers,"
Leanne says. "I get to accompany them through the process
of preparing for, living and working with and saying goodbye to
an international partner. It is often more challenging and more
enriching than anyone expected. Through this work, I am getting
to know something of the immense diversity of Presbyterian churches
and the many ways in which they seek to serve God’s mission."
During her seminary training, Leanne worked as a pastoral intern
at Community Presbyterian Church in Clarendon Hills, Illinois.
During the summer of 1999, she was a global intern for PC(USA),
serving with CEPAD in Managua, Nicaragua. From September 1997
and June 1998, Leanne was a volunteer in mission with the PC(USA)
Reconciliation and Mission Program, serving with the Christian
Commission for Development in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
She was dinner program coordinator at Calvary Women’s Shelter
through VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) in Washington,
D.C., from September 1996 to August 1997.
Leanne holds a bachelor’s degree in international economics
from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a concentration
in international finance and commerce.
She was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament on October
6, 2002, at First Presbtyerian Church in Birmingham, Alabama and
is a minister member of Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery. She
was previously a member of Western Presbyterian Church in Washington,
D.C., under care of National Capital Presbytery.
Birthday: July 23
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