Members of the Board of Trustees  2005-2006
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church
Unitarian Univeralist

Elizabeth Breeden (Member at large)

Elizabeth Breeden is the mother of 5 children, all of whom have graduated from RE at TJMC-UU. She has taught all of the age groups in RE and is currently teaching the 2/3 year old class. She is on the Remembrance Garden Committee, UUppity Women, Closet Committee, Food Pantry and PACEM. She thought that her job as manager of Biscuit Run Studios was retired, but David, her husband, is now making ceramics at such a furious rate that she has been sucked back into the work. She is also President of ArtInPlace and on the board of On Our Own and the Mental Health Association

Shelly Canterbury (Treasurer)
Shelly is relatively new to the church but already very active in church leadership. In addition to serving as treasurer, she has agreed to co-lead the church canvass. She is involved in corporate finance and is an adjunct professor and also the mother of two grown children, Ryan Schaeffer and Leslie Fountain. She loves to read and hike but not at the same time and enjoys best of all hanging out with her family.

Ruth Douglas (Vice President for Administration)
Ruth is an avid hiker who loves to be in the temperate deciduous woods such as found in our Blue Ridge Mountains. She is interested in natural history and wildflower identification and enjoys making small house repairs. She is a retired faculty member and administrator at PVCC. In addition to serving as Vice President, she is a member of the Finance Committee and is a star guide for Children’s RE this year. She has also served numerous times over the years as a mentor for youth interested in joining the church. In other volunteer activities, she is a board member and coordinator of the invasive alien plant project for the Virginia Native Plant Society, is an English language tutor for a woman from the Mon people of Burma through the International Rescue Committee, and volunteers for the Nature Conservancy and the SPCA. She enjoys most being with her friends and family.

Brian Haluska (Member at large)
Brian has been attending TJMC since February, 2004, and has been a member since September of the same year. He was born and grew up in Chesapeake, Virginia and came to Charlottesville to attend the University of Virginia. He is now a Neighborhood Planner for the City of Charlottesville, and is active in the church’s Twenties and Thirties Group.

Nick Laiacona (Member at large)
Nick is a relative newcomer to the church. He has been attending service since 2002. He is active in the Soulful Sundown group in church and in the past has volunteered as a mentor for Computers4Kids. He has been a Charlottesville resident since 1994, working in the computer software industry. He currently works at U.VA. as a senior programmer in the Media Studies Department. Nick likes to hike and to scuba dive, but not at the same time.

Josie Loyd (President)

Has been a member of TJMC-UU since the early 80s and has served in various capacities including chair of the publicity committee, member of the RE committee, and teacher of many, many RE classes (including three separate youth groups). She is married to Doug Loyd and is the mother/stepmother of six women and the grandmother of eight (three boys and five girls), with number nine (a boy) due in November '05. She loves to garden and lives on 4 acres east of town with a cat, a dog, and two horses. She is assistant vp and director of communications for the engineering school at U.Va.

Johan Madson (Member at Large)
Johan is relatively new to TJMC and to UU. He joined the UU church in Nashville before moving to Charlottesville with his wife Lynda who is the academic dean for the branch campuses at UVA. They celebrated their 40^th anniversary last summer and have two grown children and two grandchildren. Johan is a retired university administrator and professor and teaches part time at UVA and coordinates a small masters program there. He is active on the Finance Committee and was part of the Program and Staffing Task Force and currently serves on the Governance Task Force.

David Stoner (Member at Large)
Dave has been attending TJMC-UU since the early ‘90’s, and a member since 1996. Dave has been increasingly active in TJMC in recent years, heading up the Backyard Garden project in 2002 and serving as chair of the Stewardship Committee for one year. Dave is married to Jennie Moody, and stays busy with four teenagers at home, Rebecca and Alyssa Stoner and John and Kyle Hawk, all of whom have grown up through the RE program here at TJMC-UU. Professionally, Dave serves as Director of Development at Greenlight Energy, a wind energy development company based here in Charlottesville. Dave loves the outdoors and gardening, though on any given day he’d rather be flyfishing…

Sally Taylor (Vice President for Programs)
Sally Taylor attended Sunday School at TJMC-UU as a child and has been an active member of the church since the late 70’s . She has served as secretary of the Board, and been a member of the Special Programs, Religious Education, Personnel, Nominating, Covenant Group, U House, Welcoming Congregation, Gay Straight Alliance, B & G, and History Committees and is one of the Uuppity Women. This year she is teaching in the STARS program and is a Challenge Mentor. She was a former president of Molly Michie Preschool and served as the church’s DRE from 1989-1992. She is a former teacher in local schools and presently is the nanny for 2 boys. She raised a UU daughter who is working in NYC. She enjoys reading, knitting (especially on Sunday mornings!) and gardening.

(Secretary)

Mary Beth Wiley (member at large)
Mary Beth began attending TJMC-UU in 1998 and joined in 2002. She represents TJMC-UU for the Interfaith Action for Homeless Children, a group that helps fund and provide special activities for the Salvation Army Preschool program.  She lives with her partner, Leslie McFaden, in Advance Mills, where she loves to garden and just be outdoors. She is an avid reader. Her daughter Sarah, 21, works and attends college in Seattle. Mary Beth is a part-time physical therapist and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.