DeShazier, Jones, and Steinbrecher begin service as Trustees
Julian DeShazier, Verity Jones, and Paul Steinbrecher began service as members of the Board of Trustees of the Disciples Divinity House at the April 27-28 meeting. The national board numbers twenty-one plus three ex officio members.
Julian DeShazier is the Senior Minister of University Church in Chicago, where he has served since November 2010. He is a BA graduate of Morehouse College and an MDiv graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School. He previously served as Teen Pastor at Covenant United Church of Christ, and has also worked with the Coca-Cola Leadership Program and Fund for Theological Education. He serves on the boards of the UCC’s Council for Youth and Young Adults (CYAAM) and the United Black Christians (UBC). He is also an award-winning musician and songwriter, known as the rapper J. Kwest of Pure Music. He is married to Mallorie DeShazier.
Verity A. Jones is the Project Director of the New Media Project and a Research Fellow at Union Theological Seminary. She is the former publisher and editor of DisciplesWorld, and the past president of the Associated Church Press. She has also served as the Senior Minister of Central Christian Church in Terre Haute, Indiana, and as Associate Minister of the Colchester [Connecticut] Federated Church. A graduate of Yale College and Yale Divinity School, she is an ordained minister with joint Disciples and UCC standing. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Louisville Institute. Verity, her husband William Wagnon, and their daughter live in Indianapolis.
Paul A. Steinbrecher is a principal with Interactive Design, Inc. (IDEA), a Chicago-based architecture firm, which he joined in 1997. His areas of special expertise include historic preservation, libraries, and cultural and religious institutions, and his work includes the Lincoln Park Zoo, Fourth Presbyterian Church, University of Chicago, Chicago Theological Seminary, and since 1995, the Disciples Divinity House. He has been a visiting lecturer and a docent trainer with the Chicago Architecture Foundation. He is a former Director of the Royal Oak Foundation (the American arm of the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and served on the board of the TimeLine Theatre Company. On a pro bono basis he is designing the expansion of the library at a translation institute in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is a BA graduate of Grinnell College and received his M. Arch. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Evanston and regularly attends Monday dinners and forums.