Rev. Dr. U.C. Washington SENIOR PASTOR |
Rev. Dr. U.C. Washington graduated from John Brown University with a Bachelor of Science in Administration, graduated Phillips Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity and his Doctorate. He loves preaching the gospel, sharing Christ's love and justice, and building the body of Christ as a caring and giving community.
Rev. Washington has been married to his beautiful wife, Mona for 43 years. He enjoys sports, exercise, good movies, history, spending time with family, various music such as gospel, contemporary spirituals, Motown, blues and country. Rev. Washington and Mona have two adult sons, Garry and Michael, and a house full of grandchildren. |
Rev. Gail Brooks Associate pastor |
Rev. Gail Brooks has been a United Methodist Pastor for 20 years and an ordained Elder in the Arkansas Annual Conference since 2011. She graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary with a Master's of Divinity and received certification in Spiritual Direction from Perkins School of Theology.
Pastor Gail is passionate about sharing the good news that God loves us all, especially with the marginalized and those who feel as if God could not love them. She is also very concerned about the way in which racism and white supremacy permeate our culture and the Church and feels compelled to address the issues of racial inequality and racial reconciliation in her ministry. There are three things that Pastor Gail values about pastoral ministry in The United Methodist Church: 1) our Wesleyan Theology of Grace 2) our practice of offering Holy Communion to all 3) the connection we share as United Methodists and our shared ministries around the world. Pastor Gail is married to Tim Brooks, has one son, Josh (Courtney), step-daughter, Anna (Eric) and granddaughter, Scout. Pastor Gail's favorite getaway is silent retreats in interesting places to simply be and to rest. |
Tami A. Bean Business Administrator |
After being born in Southern California and first finding her Christian faith in the Nazarene Church, Tami moved to Arkansas and graduated from Fountain Lake High School and then Hendrix College with an undergraduate degree in Business and Economics. Tami then spent four years as a CPA auditing banks and non-profit organizations before attaining her Master's in Public Administration and Non-Profit Management from Virginia Commonwealth University. Tami's driving desire to help people has led to her volunteering at the CHI St. Vincent Foundation, her kid's schools, and serving the breakfasts to the homeless at Quapaw United Methodist Church. It was this combination of her faith, accounting and non-profit backgrounds, and her big heart that led to her immersing herself in the Business Administrator role at HVUMC.
When not at HVUMC, Tami is spending time with her husband of 22 years, Brian, and her 3 boys Anthony, Andrew, and Alec. Tami has been an active member of Pulaski Heights UMC since 1998 and likes to be outdoors, including gardening without a green thumb, having "still" moments on the porch in the morning, and any time she can get by creeks, rivers, sloughs, lakes, and especially the ocean. |
Kimberly Trice Administrative Assistant |
Kimberly is from Little Rock and attended McClellan High. She has been married to Clarence Trice since August 11, 2012. She and Clarence have been members of the church since 2012. She is the mother of three sons, Matthew (Jo), Mark (Katie), Luke (Hanna), and a proud Nana of six granddaughters and one grandson. She is a "PK" (preacher's kid) and thus has been in the ministry all her life.
She is currently co-teaching the Highland Sunday School class with Clarence. She loves singing, playing the piano, flea marketing, antiquing, and loving on her fur babies, Evie Belle and Layla Belle.. |
Sharon Burrall director of Music Ministry |
A lifelong church musician, Sharon Burrall has served as HV choir accompanist since 2011. She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Henderson State University and Master of Music from University of Central Arkansas. As an educator, she has directed choirs on the elementary and secondary levels. Sharon is also an active flautist often performing on alto and bass flute in recitals and chamber concerts.
Sharon is married to Randy Burrall and together they have a daughter, Katie (Drew), granddog (Lucy) and a fur baby (Barney). During her spare time she loves working on her hobby farm, photography, and hiking. |
Betty Morgan Organist |
Betty Morgan received her BM in Piano Performance from Hendrix College and received her MM from Southern Methodist University. She worked for 25 years at First United Methodist Church, Fordyce, AR and Highland Valley has been blessed to have her expertise for 13 years. Betty has also been a private piano instructor for over 35 years. Outside of church, Betty has one furry baby, 5 year old Wesley, a West Highland Terrier.
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Matt Taylor Director of Youth Ministries |
Matt began attending Highland Valley in 2014 with his wife Crystal and three kids. Almost immediately, he began serving in various missions and ministries including the sound board, Family Life Team, and with the Children and Youth. Matt knew he was being called to serve in a new way when the Director of Youth Ministries position became available. Matt's gift of evangelism grows our youth program each year. One of his goals is to have a diverse community of learners that reaches out into our community. He began Open Gym on Wednesday’s. This allows kids from our church and community to fellowship together through basketball, video games, and other games in the gym. He facilitates Sunday School each week as well as a Wednesday night Bible study. In these programs Matt encourages his youth to take the lead and teach the lessons with him stepping back and being a mentor and facilitator. Matt also encourages our youth to be leaders in our church and community. He encourages them to participate in church leadership giving their input to different committees on our campus. Matt takes Youth each year to Veritas, Ozark Mission Project, Refuge, Assembly, and Imprint. These are Youth events that encourage our young people to take the lead in their faith formation and to use what they have learned to go back to their home churches and communities to share the Gospel. Matt also co-founded our modern worship service The Journey. This service provides a free community meal each week along with a worship service. During this service, youth are a part of The Journey band and are allowed to serve by delivering prayers, reading scripture, and serving communion elements. Matt is also passionate about our Food Pantry. He led Highland Valley to become a partner with the Arkansas Food Bank which allowed our own food ministry to go from providing backpacks to students at Chenal Elementary to feeding over 100 families a week through our drive through food pantry mission. Matt’s favorite Bible verse is “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Matt feels that this is a guide to Youth. “You don’t have to be of this world. This world tells us to do what’s best for ourselves. Instead, be different!
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Crystal Taylor DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN'S MINISTRY |
Crystal began attending Highland Valley with her family in 2014. At that time two of her children began attending Youth while her third became a part of HV Kids. Since she had children in both programs she began volunteering in each. Crystal spent Wednesday evenings with the Youth and Sunday evenings volunteering in the Children’s Department. Years later as the Children’s Minister at the time resigned, Crystal made a career change and became the Director of Children's Ministries in 2017. Crystal has a degree in Early Childhood Education and began her career as a classroom teacher. She taught for 20 years and her career spanned teaching Kindergarten, First, Second, and Third Grades as well as a STEM lab. In 2015, Crystal was awarded eStem Public Charter School Teacher of the Year. Crystal continues to use her knowledge of early childhood education to provide quality Christian Education to our children birth-5th grade. She plans and teaches Sunday School and a Wednesday night Bible study. These programs provide hands on, engaging, age appropriate faith formation to HV Kids and kids in our community. Crystal also invites kids in our church and community to many special events throughout the year such as Vacation Bible School, Easter events, and an interactive Christmas event. Crystal enjoys planning, organizing, and teaching others about Christ through these interactive, immersive events. Crystal’s favorite Bible verse is Ephesians 3:20 “Glory to God who can do far more than we can ask or imagine by his power working within us.” This is what she uses to guide her time with kids and families. “We all have Christ’s power within us. That’s a powerful statement! Let’s use that to learn all we can, to be the light and share the light. Let’s use that power for God’s glory!”
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