Robert Bell
 Robert holds a M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.S. from Wayne State University in Detroit MI.

He is member of Desert Spring UMC in Las Vegas NV where he has served on the church council, the technology committee and has been a delegate to Southwest Annual Conference.

He is currently an independent Management Consultant.

To date he has visited 28 African countries for official purposes.

Mr. Bell has also actively participated in the following:

­Past Commissioner, Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, Maryland,  

­Chairman of the Montgomery County Committee for the Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

­National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,

­National Alliance of Black School Educators,

­Africare (Life Member) and

­Stanford University Graduate School of Business Alumni Association (Life Member).

Dr. Bruce Billings
Bruce Billings is professor of economics, emeritus, having taught at the University of Arizona for 35 years.  He holds a PhD in economics from the Claremont Graduate University of Claremont, California.

He is currently the treasurer of  both the Tucson Wesley Foundation and the First United Methodist Church Foundation in Tucson.

He has served on the Conference Board of Higher Education, and the South District Union.

He has also served on many other local church boards and committees.

He has two grown sons and his wife Judith has two grown daughters.

Bruce enjoys hiking with his wife and remodeling their home which was built in 1936.

Reed Bowlby
Reed received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska and Master of Science in Engineering degree from Arizona State University.

He is retired from Motorola after 33 years service where he was a test engineer for communications equipment in NASA’s Apollo and Lunar Module program and Venus Orbiter.   He also consulted with major manufacturers on advanced electronics manufacturing technologies supported by Motorola.

Reed and Joyce are long time members of Scottsdale United Methodist Church. They are active on SUMC Missions Committee where their focus is on mentoring, tutoring and serving as surrogate parents to many of the Lost Boys of Sudan.

He has also served and chaired the Finance Committee, Staff Parish Relations Committee, and serves on the SUMC Foundation board of directors.

Dave Craytor
Dave is retired from Lockheed Martin after 40 years of service in Finance.

He has been a member of Epworth UMC for 37 years.

Currently he is the Chairman of finance and a member of Epworth Foundation.

He has served on Boards of West Valley, Christown and Southwest YMCA.

Currently he is the treasurer of Southwest Valley YMCA Board.

Dave has served as Treasurer for Wesley Community Center for four years.

He has served as US Area President of Y's Men International along with being an International Council member for two years.

He has been married to Barbara for 46 years and are both very active in church life.

Alberta Ellis
Alberta and her husband, John are current members of the Boulder City UMF.

She served eight (8) yrs. on the Conference Committee of Finance and Administration.

She enjoyed thirty-nine (39) years in direct sales.

Served on several local church Finance Foundation Boards.

She has also enjoyed thirty (30) plus yrs. of investment experience.

Daryl Johnson
Daryl is a graduate of UCLA where he earned a B.S. and an MBA degrees with a major in Finance.

Following graduation, he worked in the Department of Agricultural Economics on projects to improve productivity in citrus packing houses.

He has held senior sales management positions in several national generic pharmaceutical companies over a 30-year period.

Mr. Johnson served as Director and President of an industry trade association.

Since retirement, he has served as a volunteer with Interfaith Cares, chaired the Finance Committee and actively participated on several committees at Willowbrook UMC.

Rev. Dr. Travis Kendall
Travis was born in Boston Massachusetts and graduated from North Phoenix High School. He and his wife Janet have five children and twelve grandchildren.

The Rev. Dr. Kendall received his BA from DePauw University in Greencastle Indiana, an STB from Boston University School of Theology, a diploma from University of Geneva Switzerland and his ThD from Boston University School of Theology.

He has served the Phoenix area since 1972. He was the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Phoenix Commission UMC and Pastor of Flagstaff Federated Community Church and Faith UMC Phoenix prior to retiring in 1994. Since retirement he has served First United Methodist Church, Phoenix.

In addition Travis has served the Desert Southwest Conference in various capacities. He has served as the DSC Secretary. For 20 years Travis has both led White Water Camping for the Camping Program and worked with the Native American Ministry Committee.  He is or has been a member of the Association of Retired Ministers, the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Board of Pension and Health Benefits.

Rev. Dr. Laura O'Neil

Rev. Dr. Laura O'Neil is serving the sixth year as Senior Pastor of Desert Mission UMC.  Before coming to DMUMC, she served as Sun Lakes and Crossroads UMC in the DSC, as well as churches in Kansas East and Yellowstone Conferences.  Pastor Laura has been ordained for 34 years.

Her education background includes two Master Degrees in Divinity and Philosophy, and doctoral work at Iliff School of Theology and drew University.

In addition to church ministry, Pastor Laura has spent 10 years in social service, and 20 years in college instruction where she taught Philosophy, Ethics, Logic, Psychology, Counseling and World Religion

Pastor Laura has two grown children and two grandchildren.  She enjoys her Maltese dogs in her spare time. 

Tom Robison

Roy Schlessman
Roy had a distinguished career as a YMCA executive that spanned 50 yrs.

Immediately after retirement he assumed a part-time role of director of gift planning where he increased the Y’s Endowment program from 169 members with invested funds of $514,556 to 824 members with $2,507,500 invested and gift expectancies of $32,000,000.

He serves as a trainer, consultant & mentor to many fund-raising professionals.

Roy is a charter member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Emeritus Society.

Dr. Gene Ulrich
Gene retired from American express Financial Advisors (19 years) and moved to Green Valley, AZ, in 2004.   He is a current member  of Green Valley Community United Methodist Church serving on the United Methodist Men’s Board as well as the local Foundation Board.

Dr. Ulrich taught Biology courses in secondary schools and universities, including Westmar University in LeMars, Iowa.  M.A. and Ph.D. in Zoology, Biochemistry and Aquatic Biology.  Cancer research fellow (viruses) at Roswell Park Memorial Cancer Research facility in Buffalo, NY.  Post doctorate work in Marine Biology at Duke University and Fairleigh Dickenson University (on St. Croix, Virgin Islands).

He served as World Bank Aquatic Specialist Kasetsart Unviversity Bangkok, Thailand, and Visiting Marine Biology Professor at Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Philippines.

As a member of the Iowa United Methodist Annual Conference he was:  Chair of Environmental Stewardship Committee; Member Conference Pension Board & Conference Foundation; District Lay Leader.  His volunteer work includes:  UM Conference, Nigeria, 2001; Delegate – World Methodist Council in Brighton, England, 2001; VIM – Midwest Distribution Center – Chatham, IL.  Served on Finance Committee; Administrative Board; Staff Parish Relations; and other committees at the local level. 

Gene holds Single and Multi-engine private pilot ratings (4000 hours) and is a certified SCUBA diver with more than 400 hours in open ocean diving.  He enjoys photography, travel and golf.

Dr. Ulrich was Sioux City (IA) Teacher of the Year;  Iowa State Teacher of the Year; Runner-up, National Teacher of the Year, 1983.

He also was president, IA Life Underwriters (Now IAIFA) – 1999; and is a Certified Financial Planner.

Dr. William F. Waechter
Bill retired after 42 yrs in Community College administrative positions, the last 20 with the Maricopa Community Colleges in AZ as Vice Chancellor of Human Resources.

He presently works halftime as the Director of Planned Giving where he has identified/solicited more than 10 million dollars in deferred gifts.

He is a member of Gold Canyon UMC and serves on their Permanent Endowment Committee.

Bill holds a doctorate from the University of Southern California.

Bill and his wife Nancy have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.

Stanley R. Whitcomb
Stan currently operates his own consulting practice.

He was formerly the Senior VP for Information Technology for  Americans Stores, one of the nation’s largest retail grocery &  drugstore operators.

He holds a BS in mathematics from the University of  Nebraska and a Master’s in Business Administration (with  distinction) from Fordham University in NY City.

Stan was named “one of the 25 most influential people in retailing” by the Chain Store Age (September 1997 issue).

Stan and his wife, Gladys, are members of Desert Mission UMC.

Randy Bowman -- Ex-Officio
Randy Bowman presently serves as the Treasurer and Director of  Administrative Services for the Desert Southwest Annual Conference.  He began his career with the Conference in November 2000 as the Assistant Treasurer.  Randy is a graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.  He is a CPA, licensed in the state of Arizona.  He has nearly 30 years of accounting experience, including financial jobs in public accounting and the banking and real estate industries. 

Randy has been married to his wife, Vickie, since 1979.  Vickie was also formerly a CPA, although she is now disabled from significant symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis.  Randy and Vickie have two grown sons, Alex and Adam.  They share their house with Sydney, a 65 pound Chow.  

Randy has been an avid long-distance runner and cyclist in the past, although his aging body and mind have reduced those activities to hazy memories.  He still tries to get some exercise each day, but he can no longer think about running 50 mile races or riding 100+ mile bike races without his knees starting to hurt in anticipation.

Next to serving God and his wife, serving the Conference is one of the great joys of Randy’s life.

Rev. Michael Pearson -- Cabinet Liaison
The Reverend Michael Pearson is a graduate of Albion College, United Theological Seminary, and Michigan State University, where he received an M.F.A. in Ceramics. He was ordained Elder in the Detroit Annual Conference in 1978. He and his wife, Bethyl, and daughter, Kyla, moved to Arizona from Michigan in 1986. Kyla is a junior at Arizona State University. 

Before his appointment as the South District Superintendent, he served as the Desert Southwest Conference Director of Connectional Ministries. Prior to that, he held several pastoral assignments, including Velda Rose UMC in Mesa, Arizona; Dove of the Desert UMC in Glendale, Arizona, where he was the founding pastor and served the first 13 years of its existence, from 1989 to 2002; and two appointments in the Detroit Annual Conference. Before that, he and his wife taught at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, Korea.

Many national and jurisdictional events have benefited from Mike's expertise.  He has spoken at a national training event on Church Planting sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries and the General Board of Discipleship.  New Church Planting was the topic of similar events with the Amarillo District and the Arkansas area.  In addition, Mike has presented several times in conjunction with the Western Jurisdiction Academy for New Church Pastors.

He was the Conference Preacher for the North Arkansas Annual Conference in 1998. In 1999 he and his family participated in the World Methodist Pastoral Exchange in Great Britain. His book Letters from Maybe was released in 2005 by CSS Publishing.  He is an avid Bible collector and is currently learning bookbinding and restoration.