The Board of Trustees meets on the Third Thursday of the Month at 6:30pm. Check the church calendar. The meetings are open to members and friends of First UU Church New Orleans. Please contact the President or Board Secretary with agenda items one week in advance. Read the minutes of past Board Meetings or contact the Board.

Officers:
Claudia Barker, President
Emily Danielson, Vice President
Mary Erickson, Board Secretary
Kathy Hubbell, Treasurer

Board Members at Large:
Mary Jo Day
Alice Abel Kemp
Bill McDade

Ex-Officio Members:
Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger Consulting Minister
Barton Frost, Director of Religious Education

Jyaphia Christos-Rodgers, Nominating Team
Cathy Harbison, Nominating Team
Coleen Murphy, Nominating Team

Lay Leadership List (PDF)

Claudia Barker, President, Board of Trustees
A native New Orleanian, Claudia Barker has enjoyed serving the local non-profit community for the past 30 years. Currently Claudia is the Executive Director of the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans, a garden and culinary education initiative that benefits the 2,400 students of FirstLine Schools. She has also served as director of New Orleans Outreach, an education reform organization, and Young Aspirations/Young Artists (YA/YA), an arts and social service organization that trains urban youth to become professional artists. While there she authored YA/YA! Young New Orleans Artists and Their Storytelling Chairs (and How to YA/YA in Your Neighborhood), published by LSU Press in 1996. She and her husband Michael Tucker have been members of First Church since 1996 and the church is home to their daughters, Lucy, 16 and Camille, 18.

Mary Erickson is a native New Orleanian who resides in River Ridge with her husband Lief and two rescued cats. She holds degrees from the University of New Orleans and Loyola University School of Law and is currently working in the film industry. A relative newcomer to UU, she began attending First Church in 2011 and became a member in January 2012. Her interests include cooking, baking, sewing, target shooting and motorcycling.

Mary Jo Day has attended First Church since 1991 and been a member since 1994. She is a native of Missouri, having raised three children in Arkansas, and living in New Orleans since 1991. She is a retired Registered Nurse and administrator, having worked at DePaul Psychiatric Hospital here in New Orleans for 11 years. Since retiring, she became a licensed City Tour Guide and a licensed Real Estate Agent. She has served as President of the Board and been very active over the years in the Building and Grounds committee. Her main accomplishment for the church, as noted in her “Parson Clapp” award notes, is the restoration of the Gordon Window and the institution of the policy manual. Her interests include collecting and sewing for antique dolls and playing with her four grandchildren who unfortunately live too far away to spoil on a daily basis. AND she loves Mardi Gras!!!

Alice Abel Kemp is a retired Sociology professor from UNO. She’s been a member at FUUNO since the late 1990s, and active on several committees in recent years--Worship Team, Membership Team, and the Development and Fund-raising Team. As a new member of the Board of Trustees, she’s excited about the opportunity to share her love for this congregation and contribute to our ongoing success. Her husband, Wayne Moore, is on the Finance Team, and they live with a household of Alice’s adult children, their grandson, as well as four dogs and a noisy parrot.

Kathy Hubbell started attending First UU Church in 1985 with her son, Shannon. She has participated in almost every Team or Committee. Now that she has retired from a career in elementary education, she is delighted to take on new challenges as First Church Treasurer, Rental Manager. and keeper of the calendar. She acknowledges that John Buehrens ‘ beatitudes, #728 in the gray hymnal, reflects her commitment to liberal religion: “Blessed are those who know that the work of the church is the transformation of society, who have a vision of Beloved Community transcending the present and who do not shrink from controversy, sacrifice or change.”