Rev. Dr. Leon Dunkley lives in East Barnard VT and ministers to the North Universalist Chapel Society in Woodstock, VT.

Ministry is a second career for him as he used to be a professor of music.

A graduate of Tufts University in 1987, Leon earned his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology/Musicology from the University of Pittsburgh ten years later. He taught at Brooklyn College and at Duke University. His studies included the traditional drumming of Ghana and the Republic of Zaire, the Kora tradition of Senegal, the Gamelan traditions of Java and Bali in Indonesia, the Jazz tradition throughout the Americas and, most recently, North American Bluegrass and Country Blues.

Leon entered seminary in 2005, attending the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California. Since 2008, he has served churches in St. Paul, Minnesota, in Silver Spring, Maryland and since 2017, in Woodstock, Vermont. He now serves as the settled minister at North Chapel, for the North Universalist Chapel Society.

Leon has been working with youth and young adults for the last twenty-five years. For many years, he has held classes, led workshops and organized successful, week long conferences. Using the arts, he teaches the skills of emotional maturity, compassionate reasoning and personal independence.

Leon is an artist, a musician, a songwriter and an avid dog lover. One of his greatest teachers was Samori Marksman Dunkley, the wisest Yellow Labrador Retriever in the history of the world.

Leon is currently writing a book on spiritual growth and radical forgiveness in the presence of racial violence and social distress.

Chloe Powell grew up in Barnard, VT where she currently makes her home base. She has worked in community education and the arts for 15 years with a focus on food and arts education.

As Music Programming Director for Barnarts Center for the Arts she brings a variety of artists through our rural community, highlighting both local, national and international talent. She works as an agent focused on bringing international artists through the US and Canada and is working through Barnarts to hosts artists residencies programs.

In her spare time she’s a fiddler, gardener, and volunteer columnist for the local papers.

She’s now the Director of Spiritual Exploration at North Chapel. She leads the children’s programs on Sunday mornings and is thrilled to be partnering on this exciting project.

Emily has lived in Thetford, Vermont for six years. Prior to that, she lived in northwestern Connecticut, where she and her husband Bruce raised three children, three goats, and one dog.

After graduating from Wesleyan University in 1985, Emily worked first in banking, and then in the advertising and insurance industries. After taking

time at home to raise children, Emily began a career in the field of education. She worked in the public school system, at first with middle-school students with special needs, and after her certification, as a teacher of high-school English. She later worked at the Litchfield Montessori School

at both the Children’s House level (3-6 year-olds), and at the Lower Elementary level. In 2014, Emily completed a course of training at the Montessori Elementary Teacher Training Collaborative in Lexington, Massachusetts.

For a number of years, Emily volunteered on the youth staff at the International Affairs conference on Star Island (Rye, NH), before serving as co-director of the conference’s youth program for four years (2011-2014).

In her free time, Emily loves to grow things, to travel, and to spend time in the woods and on rivers. She is a volunteer at the Upper Valley Haven.

Rev. Elizabeth Carrier-Ladd serves as the Minister of First Parish Church in Dorchester, MA. They are a fourth generation Unitarian Universalist. They studied Theater and Film at Hampshire College and earned a Master of Divinity at Meadville Lombard. Elizabeth has served congregations in San Diego, CA, Tulsa, OK, Lafayette, IN and Indianapolis, IN. They serve on the Leadership Collective of Allies for Racial Equity, a national UU anti-racism collective working in an accountable relationship with DRUUMM, Diverse Revolutionary Multicultural Ministries. In addition, Elizabeth is the Chaplain for Beloved Conversations Within Un/Learning for Liberation and a Coach for the Beloved Conversations Among Program. Their spouse, Seth, is also a UU minister and together they raise 4 children: Miriam (8), Theo (7), Elias (5) and Phoebe (2). The six Carrier-Ladd humans and two dogs reside in Revere very close to the beach. Embodied practice is central to Elizabeth’s well-being. This takes many forms including practicing and teaching yoga, walking the beach and the city streets, somatics work and snuggling the humans and puppies they love.