The NGLI Steering Committee consists of members of the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance (UCBMA) and wider church representatives and is staffed by the Director, Leadership Initiatives. This group cares deeply and is optimistic about congregational ministry in the United Church of Christ so endeavors to consistently offer a relevant and hopeful leadership initiative. One of their primary responsibilities is to annually review written and video applications and collectively discern who is invited to participate in the next NGLI cohort. The NGLI Steering Committee also approves overall curriculum goals and objectives as well policies that give direction and form to the program. The NGLI Steering Committee works closely with the Director, Leadership Initiatives who oversees and organizes NGLI’s web of events, offerings, and relationships.
Rev. Dr. Geneva M. Butz served as Pastor of Old First Reformed UCC in Philadelphia and Associate Conference Minister of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference. Now retired, Geneva teaches Sunday School in her local church, participates in the Green Task Force in the building where she lives, serves on the board of a community Choir, and maintains contact with a wide variety of friends in Philadelphia and around the world. A Director of the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance, she is involved in the Next Generation Leadership Initiative.
The Rev. Dr. Rodney Franklin is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and staff chaplain at the University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital.
He has served churches in ministerial positions in Savannah, Georgia; Cleveland, Ohio; and Birmingham, Alabama. Rev. Franklin organized an inter-church fellowship among congregations in Birmingham’s Smithfield neighborhood.
Rev. Franklin has served the UCC in many regional and national leadership capacities, including on the Boards of the Wider Church Ministries and Global Ministries.
Rev. Franklin is a graduate of Talladega College (BA), Candler School of Theology at Emory University (M.Div.), and United Theological Seminary (D.Min.)
Rev. Franklin is Chair of the Board of Trustees; Chair of the Executive, Personnel, and Governance Committees; and an ex officio voting member of all other Committees of Trustees of the Pension Boards. He is also a Director of the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance.
Rev. Dr. Elena Larssen is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance (UCBMA), an affiliated ministry of the United Church of Christ and an affiliate of the Pension Boards. Rev. Larssen is the Generosity Officer for the Mid-Atlantic Region on behalf of the National Ministries of the UCC. Before being appointed UCBMA Chair, she served as Vice Chair of UCBMA. She is also a founding member of the Steering Committee for the Next Generation Leadership Initiative.
Rev. Larssen has served as Associate Conference Minister in the Minnesota Conference; Senior Minister, First Congregational Church Long Beach, CA; Associate Minister, First Congregational Church of LaGrange, IL and First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, CA; and Campus Minister and Adjunct Faculty of Memorial Chapel, United Campus Christian Ministry at Stanford University.
Rev. Larssen has served on several boards, including the Downtown Associated Youth Services and Urban Community Outreach, a church-based center for the unhoused (both in Long Beach, CA). She is a founding member of the UCC’s Antoinette Brown Society and Working Group. She has served on the Committee on Ministry Ethics Committees for the Northern California-Nevada and Southern California-Nevada Conferences. She was Founding Co-chair of the 2030 Clergy Network, a network to strengthen, sustain, and mobilize UCCordained ministers in their 20s and 30s.
Rev. Larssen holds a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. She is a graduate of the University of California in Santa Cruz, CA (BA in Literature).
Rev. Larssen is married to Rev. Mark Pettis, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Minister of the UCC. They have an elementary school-aged son and a basset hound.
The Rev. Charmaine Penn Johnson serves as Associate Minister of Spiritual Formation at Kirkwood United Church of Christ in Atlanta, Georgia.
Rev. Johnson served as Associate Minister and subsequently Assistant Pastor of Victory for the World Church before accepting a call to Kirkwood UCC. She served in various lay leadership capacities at Victory prior to becoming an Associate Minister.
Rev. Johnson’s business background includes various positions in IT with Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York; Communications and Pursuit Strategist for Ernst & Young LLP in Atlanta; Business Analyst/Supervisor/Project Manager for the Georgia Department of Human Resources; and Quality Control Proofreader for Market Force Information.
Rev. Johnson’s community activities include the United Church of Christ African American Women in Ministry (AAWIM) National Steering Committee, where she serves as Co-Chair; Member in Discernment (MID) Advisor for the UCC Southeast Conference; and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Golden Life Member.
Rev. Johnson earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Loyola University New Orleans, an M.B.A. from William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester, and a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.
Rev. Marvin Silver - Rev. Marvin M. Silver serves as Associate Conference Minister for Justice & Witness Ministries with the Central Atlantic Conference (CAC) of the United Church of Christ (UCC). The CAC is the Mid-Atlantic region of 167 UCC local churches covering NJ, DE, MD, DC and parts of VA and WV.
In this role, Rev. Silver works to maintain a climate of pastoral care through guidance and support of clergy, local churches and peer-to-peer pastoral support networks. And he organizes and mobilizes the expertise and leadership of professional networks for church development and congregational vitality.
Rev. Silver also serves as Director of the CAC’s Justice & Witness Action Network – a justice movement of local churches, clergy & justice leaders building & organizing power to secure a just and compassionate world for all.
More than just responding to social injustices, Rev. Silver is transforming the CAC’s paradigm and approach to the work of justice by building a new justice movement based on a vision, mission and set of core principles that defines and unites local churches, clergy and justice leaders into a powerful, effective, and faithful organizing network. As the architect of the new Justice & Witness Action Network, he collaboratively organizes and leads strategic campaigns to advance a justice agenda regionally and nationally.