Gretchen Henn, vice board chair and treasurer, has been a Jubilant since moving to Asheville in 2013, and is a regular attendee at Sunday Celebrations. She was in Jubilee! Singers for many years, enjoyed outings with the Earth Team, is an active member of the Book Club, and serves on the Finance Committee. Gretchen is a Hoosier by birth, and has also lived and worked in Chicago, upstate NY and Portland, ME for 30 years. She spent twenty years in corporate America as an IT project manager and systems engineer at IBM, has been a small business owner of one of Portland’s first bed and breakfast inns, and served as director of a small business counseling program at a community development corporation for five years. She is retired, but maintains a small business consulting practice, specializing in funding strategies and fiscal management. Her most active hobby is participating in various forms of social dance, and she also enjoys gardening, biking and hiking.

Michael Smith, board secretary, was born in Alabama and grew up in the Atlanta area.  He and his wife, Anne Marie have lived in Asheville since 2011.  He discovered Jubilee! when Matthew Fox spoke here in 2016, and was excited to learn that Jubilee!’s theological foundation is linked closely to Fox’s Creation Spirituality.  He has been part of our Social Justice team, led the “fair wages” focus group, and represents Jubilee in the Raising Wages NC’s WNC Coalition. After seminary, Michael was ordained in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ tradition, and has spent most of his career in faith-based, international service.  This has included living more than a decade in Ethiopia & Indonesia, and serving international agencies in support and administrative roles such as major gifts officer, chief operations officer and chief executive officer for 20 years.  In retirement, Michael served a term on the board of local nonprofit, Just Economics. He enjoys hiking, biking, photography and riding his motorcycle. He has cultivated a mindfulness practice over the past ten years that he says enriches his life in big ways.  Michael says he is a “process visionary” who brings to the board his commitment to the community, and a passion for justice.

Diane Dewitt moved to Asheville ten years ago from southwestern Michigan, after spending her earlier years in a suburb of Chicago. Her career of choice is teaching students with visual impairments, and she still does this part time. Environmental conditions and social justice issues have been her motivation for lifestyle and actions for many, many years. She has attended Jubilee! for nine years and currently provides leadership for the Book Group. She says her family is limited to a few fantastic people, whom she loves dearly.  

Jeff Peisner grew up in Central Florida, and lived and worked in Tennessee, south Illinois, Virginia, Nevada, England and Taiwan before moving to Asheville in 1994. He was a teacher for 25 years before retiring on his own dime, and has been together with his wife, Laura Loercher, since 2000.  Jeff enjoys dancing, swimming, pickleball, basketball, hiking, mountain biking, communicating in Spanish, and going on walks with his beloved dog, Dot. Novel experiences and connecting with creation in its many forms are two of Jeff’s main guiding principles for living his life. He has been regularly attending Jubilee! since 1995, and has volunteered as the leader of the Play team, served on other teams. and occasionally helps out with a variety of tasks at Jubilee! Jeff enjoys the connection with community at Jubilee!, and appreciates and resonates with the principles of love, forgiveness and acceptance that are shared during celebrations and throughout the community. He hopes to bring cooperation, empathy and acceptance to serving on the Jubilee! board.

John David Short is one of those rare folks who grew up in Asheville.  He was born and raised in Montford, and has made western North Carolina his home for most of his life. David’s work is multi-faceted, ranging from serving food and drink and hosting special events and celebrations to writing copy for various clients in finance, customer services and non-profit development.  He says when it all get too much, he can be found in the woods near water, usually in the Big Ivy or Shining Rock Wilderness, or by a fire with a volume of Hafiz, Tolkien or Leonard Cohen, and a notebook close at hand.  With an eclectic spiritual upbringing ranging from Sufism to the new age cult of personality rooted in the work of the Master DK, he discovered and was baptized in the United Church of Christ and studied traditional canon bible while a student at Appalachian State. He said that discovering Jubilee! was like discovering the middle ground that allows full expression of both his soul’s personhood and desire to serve the authentic love that he has always felt for all creation. He has been a Jubilant for seven years, and has served on the Social Justice team, Service team, and regularly works with Homeward Bound and Room in the Inn, both within Jubilee! and without.  Of his contribution to the board he says ”As a dad, I look forward to encouraging Jubilee! to use our space, talents and position in the community to offer more opportunities to connect, learn and serve as a congregation, especially during the week as many us must consider Sunday a workday.”

Louise Slater and her husband Steve moved from Columbia, SC to Candler, NC in fall 2016 and joined Jubilee! in February 2017. Louise has a Masters Degree in Psychology and her first career was in organizational development.  She helped for-profit companies improve their teamwork, their systems and helped with leadership, customer service and sales. Her next career move was to purchase a private educational consulting practice in which she and her business partner researched and recommended traditional and therapeutic placement options for adolescents and young adults.  Louise has served on both for-profit and non-profit boards, both private and public, including chairing a church leadership team.  She is currently on the board of Presbyterian College, a commercial construction firm, and a door and millworks firm.  She and one of her sons are involved in community development and environmental sustainability in Old Fort, NC, and are part of a movement called Outdoors For All.  Louise has 4 children, loves to hike, do hot yoga, cook, play with her rescue dog, Chloe, and travel with her husband.

Paul Muller says he was blessed to grow up on a farm in Iowa in the 1950’s and 60’s, and attended a small country church. He studied environmental engineering at the University of Iowa, and his career primarily involved working on air quality issues here in the southern Appalachians. He first attended Jubilee! in early 1990, and has enjoyed being part of it ever since. He especially enjoys the music at Jubilee!, and looks forward to being a part of the challenging process of moving forward.

Barry Brandt grew up in Minnesota where he studied Forestry at the U of M. He then lived in Florida for a decade where he enjoyed helping adults recover from mental illness. After a brief visit to Asheville, Barry was struck by the beauty of the mountains and the friendly people, and relocated here in 1991. He worked as a land surveyor at Ed Holmes and Associates Surveyors for 22 years, while also buying and selling modest homes which he remodeled himself. Discovering Creation Spirituality at the first Jubilee! celebration he attended was a profound experience. He realized there was a community of people that practiced what he had felt spiritually all his life. Barry has considered Jubilee! his spiritual home since the mid 90’s, and was active in the Spiritual Journey Team, Jubilee! Singers and Room At The Inn before moving back to Minnesota, where he and his wife, Paula, attended Jubilee! celebrations online. Barry returned to the mountains in fall 2022, and he and Paula now live in Weaverville. He has again become active in Jubilee! with the Welcome Team. Barry brings skills in communication, building maintenance, understanding architectural structure/systems, and real estate investment. He plans to be an active listener to help the board and the community address whatever challenges and opportunities are before them.