Featured UMC Alumni/ae
The Rev. Dr. Romeo L. del Rosario
The Rev. Dr. Romeo L. del Rosario (Romy) is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, serving as Country Director of the United Methodist Mission in Cambodia. As Country Director, he administers mission programs with a team of workers that includes Cambodians and nine missionaries from different parts of the world.
The Cambodia Mission is part of the emerging Methodist Church of Cambodia. Since 1998 the Methodist Church in Singapore, the Korean Methodist Church, the United Methodist Church in France, Switzerland and the United States, and the World Federation of Chinese Methodist Churches have been cooperating and coordinating their mission efforts toward one autonomous Methodist Church in Cambodia by 2016. Romy teaches at the Cambodian Methodist Bible School and chairs the theological education committee, which supervises the school and oversees the continuing theological training of pastors and church workers.
Born in Manila, Philippines, Romy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Philippine Christian College (now Philippine Christian University); a Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Georgia; and a Ph.D. in theological and religious studies, with a major in ecumenics and mission, from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Rev. Nizzi Santos Digan
The John Wesley’s quote, “The world is my parish” is very evident in port ministry. Ships from around the world come to the Port of Boston with crew speaking different languages and coming from different cultures. I do not have to travel far to be in ministry. Aboard the ship, I welcome the strangers as our brothers and sisters in the name of Christ and I am blessed doing this ministry for nine years, not expecting anything in return and not knowing when I will see most of them again.”
Rev. Nizzi Santos Digan is a fourth generation Methodist from Manila, Philippines whose father and grandfather were United Methodist pastors. She graduated cum laude with a BSE degree from the University of Santo Tomas. After teaching in a Boston Christian school for five years, she entered the BU School of Theology and graduated with a Master of Divinity in 2002. Nizzi was the first Filipino to be ordained an Elder in the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church and the first Chairperson of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Clergywomen Association (2008). Nizzi has been a port chaplain at the Port of Boston since 2003. She serves as Senior Pastor of the Good Shepherd UMC in Malden, Massachusetts.
Bishop Sally Dyck
“Wherever I am in ministry, I envision a community of people studying scripture, exercising the disciplines of our faith, and discovering the joy of sharing faith with others through word and deed,” says Bishop Sally Dyck, spiritual leader of the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. “As a result, my vision is that the United Methodist Church and its membership will become a spiritually vital and energized body of believers who make a difference in every community as well as the world.”
Bishop Dyck, ordained as a United Methodist clergywoman in 1981, was consecrated a bishop in 2004 and assigned to lead the Minnesota Area of the Church beginning in September of that year. Her leadership priorities are based on the Great Commandment and the Great Commission: to guide people to love God with their whole selves and daily practice spiritual disciplines and to share God’s love with those who do not know God. She has devised a “spiritual pyramid,” based on the FDA food pyramid, which illustrates the spiritual practices that build healthy people of faith. Believing that God wants people to experience wholeness in all parts of their lives, she also encourages the faithful to take up disciplines of nutrition and exercise that support physical health.
She received theological training from Boston University School of Theology (M. Div., 1978), University of Geneva/World Council of Churches (graduate certificate, 1978), and United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio (D. Min., Black Church Studies, 1989). Her upbringing in a Mennonite home instilled in her the understanding that personal piety is inextricably woven to peace and justice advocacy.
Rev. LaTrelle Miller Easterling
Rev. LaTrelle Miller Easterling is the first woman pastor of Union United Methodist Church in Boston, MA, a first in the church’s 190-year history.
Rev. Easterling was born into a United Methodist family; her mother served as a Certified Local Pastor for several years. She joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1991, where she received her call into ordained ministry. She was ordained a deacon in 1995 and an elder in 1997. During this time, she served on numerous Boards and Commissions within the AME Church.
Rev. Easterling attended Boston University School of Theology, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2004 with her Master of Divinity. In 2004, she transferred into the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church.
She currently serves as a member of the District Committee of the Metro Boston Hope District, the Board of Ordained Ministry of the New England Conference, the Anna Howard Shaw Board at Boston University School of Theology, and the Multi-Ethnic Center of the Northeast Jurisdiction. Rev. Easterling is passionate about social justice and attempts to open the scriptures in a way that will encourage others to become passionate as well. She is married to the Rev. Marion Easterling, Jr., the pastor of Old West Church, United Methodist, in Boston, MA. They are the proud parents of two teen boys.
The Rev. Dr. HiRho Park
Rev. Dr. Park is the Director of Clergy Lifelong Learning with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. She gives leadership to the continuing education and spiritual formation of pastoral leaders for continuing leadership development. She also provides support and resources for United Methodist women, racial, and ethnic pastors in areas of scholarship and professional development. She coordinates the Women of Color Scholarship program with the Office of Loans and Scholarships, and the Georgia Harkness Scholarship program; and she works with a Division team to give direction to the development of the Orders for ministry.
Bishop Deborah Lieder Kiesey
Bishop Deb is Bishop of the Dakotas Conference and the President of the General Board of Church and Society. She attended Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, where she graduated with honors in 1973 with a double major in Religion and Piano Performance. She was named Outstanding Alumna of the Year for Morningside College in 2004. Bishop Deb first felt a calling to the ordained ministry while a student at Boston University School of Theology and earned her Master’s of Divinity degree there in 1976. Bishop Kiesey has also served on Boards of Trustees for multiple UMC colleges.
Bishop Deb was ordained Deacon in 1974 and Elder in 1977. She served the following Iowa churches: Richland / Ollie,Washington, Mt. Pleasant, and Iowa City. In 2001 she was appointed to the Waterloo District and served there until her election to the episcopacy in 2004.
Bishop Deb has been a delegate to General Conference since 1988, and was the first elected clergy from the Iowa Conference in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.