2027 Worship & Music Conference Faculty
Click on the class name at the bottom of each bio to be directed to the class description. Class Leaders are listed alphabetically by last name. CCM denotes that a faculty member is a PAM Certified Church Musician.
Tim Altman
Instrumental Ensembles Co-Director
Tim is Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina–Pembroke teaching trumpet, conducting, wind ensemble/concert band. He was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in 2019. He is a Yamaha Artist, is principal trumpet of the Fayetteville (North Carolina) Symphony Orchestra and the Carolina Philharmonic, and has performed with The Four Tops, The Temptations, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Doc Severinsen, and others. He holds a DMA from University of Kentucky, an MME from University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, and a BA from Virginia Tech.
Instrumental Ensembles
_edited.jpg)
Cecelia "CeCe" Armstrong
Preacher
CeCe currently serves as the Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She was elected in July 2024. She is serving St. James Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Charleston, South Carolina, as Associate Pastor.
Onstage with Worship Leadership
_edited.jpg)
John Bell
Routley Lecturer
John is an ordained Presbyterian minister (Church of Scotland), lives in Glasgow, and is a member of the Iona Community. He has been actively engaged in church music for over 40 years as an animateur, composer, and author.
Routley Lectures
Clark Campbell-Taylor
Drama & Robert Stigall Seminar Leader
Clark Campbell-Taylor, Drama and Robert Stigall Seminar Leader, is a professional theater artist and educator with a career spanning local, national, and global stages. He has over 30 years of experience as a theater educator and has directed a lot of school productions. Clark was a clinician for theater at PAM conferences in 2015 and 2017 in Montreat, and for hand drumming in 2016 at Mo-Ranch. He is delighted to be back in beautiful North Carolina with his wife, Leigh. Clark and Leigh share a rich life with their two adult sons and one eccentric cat.
Intergenerational Drama, Music and Theater in Small Churches
Leigh Campbell-Taylor
Drama & Robert Stigall Seminar Leader
Leigh has always been a creative interpreter and storyteller: as a professional actor, as a writer of museum exhibits, as a contributor to multiple liturgical volumes, and as a preacher. This year is the third time she and her husband, Clark, have had the exhilarating experience of serving as Drama faculty for PAM’s Worship & Music Conference. In addition, Leigh was blessed to partner with Kim Long to be preacher and liturgist at PAM’s 2016 Mo-Ranch conference.
Intergenerational Drama, Music and Theater in Small Churches
Ian Clarke
Percussion Seminar Leader
Ian is a 2026 MDiv graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and is currently serving in the role of Resident Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ian grew up in a household of musicians and has been playing drums, percussion, and guitar for over 20 years, and has sung in various school and church choirs for just as long. He has a long-standing interest in all things worship and music which continues to be cultivated and shaped.
Percussion
_edited.jpg)
Ahreum Congdon
Co-Service Musician & Organ Recitalist
Ahreum is Director of Music and Organist at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth, Texas. She previously served on the organ faculty at Iowa State University and was College Organist at Cornell College. She also held organist positions at Yale’s Marquand and Berkeley Divinity Chapels. An international performer, she has played across the US, Asia, and Europe, including at AGO conventions. Born in Seoul, she holds degrees from Westminster Choir College, Curtis Institute of Music, Yale, and the University of Iowa.
Onstage with Worship Leadership, The Resourceful Organist
_edited.jpg)
Elisa Macedo Dekaney
Adult Choir & Adult Chamber Choir Director
Elisa is Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives, Professor of Music Education, and the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence at Syracuse University in New York. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dekaney received her PhD from Florida State University. She has conducted all-state choirs, honor choirs, and choral festivals in the United States and abroad. Her choral music is published by Carl Fischer, BriLee, and La Voz. Her latest book on Brazilian music is published by Routledge.
Adult Choir, Adult Chamber Choir
Gillian Erlenborn
Handbell Choir Co-Director
Gillian is the Conductor of Handbell Choirs at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Gillian also serves as the Handbell Choir Director at Middlebush Reformed Church in Middlebush, New Jersey. She speaks at state and national conferences about the benefits of handbells in the music classroom. Gillian is an alumna of Westminster Choir College, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in music education and a Master of Arts in teaching.
Handbells, Handbell Reading Session
Hannah Garrity
Artist-in-Residence
Hannah serves as Director of Christian Faith, Life, and Arts at Second Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Virginia; Montreat Conference Center’s Arts Ministry Director; and Founding Creative Partner at A Sanctified Art, LLC. Her creative energies are inextricably linked to her understanding of her faith. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Cornell University and an MS in teaching from Pace University, and was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
Art Workshop: Visual Proclamation - Digital, Art Workshop: Visual Proclamation - Hands On, Onstage with Worship Leadership
Todd Gillespie
Middler Choir & Family Choir Collaborative Pianist
Todd is a collaborative pianist and educator based in Greenville, South Carolina. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Winthrop University. Todd teaches choir at Blue Ridge High School and is Music Director at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Greenville. Todd is a highly sought-after collaborative pianist and frequently collaborates with choirs of all levels.
Family Choir, Middler Choir
Kelly Gold
Child of Blessing Children's Coordinator
Kelly Gold, Child of Blessing Children’s Coordinator, has served as the Director of Children’s and Youth Music at White Memorial Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, since 2019. Prior to working in the church, she taught middle school chorus, theater, and general music in North Carolina public schools. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in voice performance from East Carolina University. When she is not sharing her love of music with children and youth, she is enjoying time with her family, Jason, Wyatt, and Eva.
Children's Classes
Jasiel Hernandez Garcia
Student Community Leadership & Preaching Seminar Leader
Jasiel serves as the Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Kerrville, Texas. He is a member of two well-established PC(USA) preaching groups and has served as a keynote speaker at conferences at Montreat and Mo-Ranch. Jasiel’s writing has been published in These Days, Journal for Preachers, and various publications through Austin Seminary. He is married to Jessie, a high school German teacher. They have two wonderful dogs.
Preaching at a Crossroad
Donghyun Jeong
Adult Bible Leader
Donghyun Jeong, Adult Bible Leader, serves as Assistant Professor of New Testament at Austin Seminary and is ordained to the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He is the author of Pauline Baptism among the Mysteries: Ritual Messages and the Promise of Initiation (De Gruyter, 2023) and many academic journal articles.
Adult Bible: Paul, Circumcision, and Baptism, Children in the New Testament
Elizabeth LaJeunesse
Adult Choir and Adult Chamber Choir Collaborative Pianist & Organ Recitalist
Elizabeth LaJeunesse, Adult Choir and Adult Chamber Choir Collaborative Pianist and Organ Recitalist, a Tallahassee native, moved to North Carolina in June 2025 to serve as Director of Music and Organist at First Presbyterian Church Asheville. She holds a BME (choral) and an MM (organ) from Florida State University. Over a 30-year career as an organist and collaborative pianist, she has worked with numerous church, community, and collegiate choirs, and coached countless college students. Elizabeth plays for Florida All-State choirs each year and was the 2024 recipient of the Distinguished Service of an Individual in Music Education award from Florida Music Education Association.
Adult Choir, Adult Chamber Choir
_edited.jpg)
Zach Light-Wells
Co-Service Musician
Zach blends the sounds of his Appalachian roots with the music of sanctuaries and concert halls. Shaped by traditional hymns, gospel, choral music, and Americana, Zach’s musical voice is distinct, eclectic, and cultivated. Zach serves as Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, and he holds a Master of Sacred Music and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Southern Methodist University.
Onstage with Worship Leadership, Service Playing with Guitar
Gary Malvern
Instrumental Ensembles Co-Director
Instrumental Ensembles
Sally Ann McKinsey
Child of Blessing Seminar Leader
Sally Ann is the editor of the journal Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts. She is an adjunct professor of studio art at Furman University and lives in Clemson, South Carolina.
Growing Faith in Worship
Melissa McNair-King
Child of Blessing Seminar Leader
Melissa leads PAM’s initiative to help congregations more fully include children in worship. Melissa is a graduate of Furman University and Columbia Theological Seminary. Before joining the PAM staff, she pastored congregations in Arkansas, Virginia, and Georgia. She lives in Tucker, Georgia, with her husband and three children, who all love attending the PAM Worship & Music Conference each year.
Growing Faith in Worship
Isaac Moshay
Senior High Choir and Senior High Chamber Choir Collaborative Pianist
Isaac is a pianist, organist, and choral conductor who serves as Minister of Music at Ebenezer Third Baptist Church, Austin, Texas. A native of Houston, Texas, he holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Huston-Tillotson University and is pursuing graduate studies in choral conducting at The University of Texas at Austin. His work “Praise Ye the Lord” is published in the GIA Abbington African American Sacred Music Series.
The Piano in Worship, Senior High Choir, Senior High Chamber Choir
Isaac Moshay
Senior High Choir and Senior High Chamber Choir Collaborative Pianist
Isaac is a pianist, organist, and choral conductor who serves as Minister of Music at Ebenezer Third Baptist Church, Austin, Texas. A native of Houston, Texas, he holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Huston-Tillotson University and is pursuing graduate studies in choral conducting at The University of Texas at Austin. His work “Praise Ye the Lord” is published in the GIA Abbington African American Sacred Music Series.
The Piano in Worship, Senior High Choir, Senior High Chamber Choir
Click on the class name at the bottom of each Interest Session Presenter's bio
to be directed to the Interest Session's description.
Interest Session Presenters are listed alphabetically by last name.
Wade Burns
Interest Session Presenter
Wade began an urban renewal apprenticeship in the late 1960s after graduating from Virginia Tech. Two years into his work in the West End of Atlanta, an integrated neighborhood of aging homes that quickly shifted to majority Black, redlined by banks, and marked by poverty and crime, he purchased a house and chose to stay in this community, which shaped him over the next 30 years. His neighbors taught him resilience, faith, and hope for the Beloved Community. He will share the ways faith, love, and grace can transform lives and communities.
David Dunbar
Interest Session Presenter
David is the Director of Music and the Arts at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he directs the Sanctuary Choir and Bell Choir and leads the praise band, Xultation. In addition to his formal music education in conducting (MM, DMA) and composition (Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Certificate), David has played piano professionally at the Gaslight Theater Company in Tucson, Arizona, performing in a wide range of musical styles, including pop, rock, and jazz.
Tom Granum
Interest Session Presenter
Tom is a lifelong Presbyterian and has served mostly Presbyterian churches and also other congregations in Georgia, Michigan, and Alaska. Returning to Athens, Georgia, in 2021, he planned to retire but has found rejuvenation serving First Baptist Church (CBF) as Director of Music Ministries and Organist, bringing both creativity and energy to worship and music. He and his daughter Meg Granum Gurtcheff served as co-directors of the 2021 PAM Worship & Music Conference.
Alexandra Jacob
Interest Session Presenter
Alexandra Jacob, Planning Team Member and Interest Session Leader, serves as an Associate Pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis and as the Program Host of Sing For Joy, a sacred music radio program produced at her alma mater, St. Olaf College. Alexandra and her husband Andy, a church musician, enjoy making music together and spending time outdoors. Alexandra was deeply formed by the ministry of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians as a young person, and is grateful to be part of this conference.
James Klotz
Interest Session Presenter
James has been Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Farmington, New Mexico, since 2023. James’s dissertation, “Let the Desert Bloom: A Close Reading of Isaiah 35 and a History of Consequences in the Development of the Colorado River Basin,” explores these passions for biblical poetry and American history, and it considers how Native attitudes toward human habitation in the desert resonate with those of the biblical prophet and offer timely wisdom for modern policy.
Margaret McGillivray
Interest Session Presenter
Margaret is a horn-wielding, piano-tickling musical warrior with a commitment to the highest levels of collaborative music making and learning. She is Director of Music Ministries at First Presbyterian Church of Howard County in Columbia, Maryland. She is an in-demand clinician and recitalist on modern and natural horns and in her spare time is learning to play the organ.
Jeremy Roberts
Interest Session Presenter
Jeremy is Associate Minister of Music at First Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. He directs the Children’s Choirs, Youth Singers, and Te Deum (an adult ensemble), and assists with the leadership of the Plymouth Choir by both directing and accompanying. Jeremy previously was the Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Asheville, North Carolina.
Mitch Rorick
Interest Session Presenter
Mitch serves as Director of Music and Organist at First Presbyterian Church of Gainesville, Florida; Artistic Director of the Gainesville Youth Chorus; and Co-Director of the Santa Fe Singers at Santa Fe College. He holds degrees from Wheaton College, Franklin University, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Florida State University. Mitch has completed three levels of Kodaly training and is certified in children’s church music (K-12) by Choristers Guild.
Enoch Smith Jr.
Interest Session Presenter
Enoch is a pianist, composer, and worship leader known for blending gospel, jazz, and classical traditions. He serves as Vice President of the Heart of Jazz Foundation and is an active church musician and educator. His latest album, The Book of Enoch, Vol. 1, reflects his deep commitment to music as ministry and spiritual formation. Enoch brings decades of experience improvising and arranging in worship contexts.
Dillon Swanson
Interest Session Presenter
Dillon is a rising figure in liturgical music, awarded for his innovation in sacred music, liturgical theology, and worship practices. He is currently Director of Music Ministries at Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church (Roanoke, Virginia) and Chorus Master for Opera Roanoke. As a composer and scholar, Dillon has published in CrossAccent, The American Organist, Sundays and Seasons, and Call to Worship, and received commissions for notable events in multiple states.
Sara Terrell
Interest Session Presenter
Sara is the Director of Worship and Music at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Music in composition from Florida State University and her Master of Music in choral conducting from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. As a lover of convergence worship, Sara is fluent in diverse musical styles and comfortable in multilingual spaces. She is passionate about engaging the whole of the gathered body in worship and singing.
Christopher Titko
Interest Session Presenter
Christopher believes in sharing his faith through the transformative power of music. He studied handbells with Donald Allured at Westminster Choir College and attended Indiana University and the University of Oklahoma. Christopher musically served various denominations and spent five years as Church Music Editor for J. W. Pepper. He is the Director of Music at Monumental UMC in Portsmouth, Virginia, and Artistic Director of the James River Ringers in Richmond, Virginia.
William Whittington
Interest Session Presenter
William holds an MM in Choral Conducting from the University of Arizona and BM in Sacred Music from East Carolina University. His interests include jazz in worship, with a particular focus on the sacred choral works of Duke Ellington and Kurt Weill. He serves as Director of Music Ministries at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona, and Artistic Director of the Tucson Summer Chorus, and maintains an active performance calendar with the Gaslight Theatre.
Austen Wilson
Interest Session Presenter
Austen is the Director of Music Ministries at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Iowa City, Iowa, where he oversees a comprehensive and expanding music ministry of choral, handbell, and instrumental ensembles, and works collaboratively with staff. He believes that music builds community, preaches the gospel, helps us find belonging, and strengthens our faith.
Miatta Wilson
Interest Session Presenter
Miatta is a certified Christian educator and 2025 APCE Educator of the Year, with 30+ years of experience in faith formation. She serves as Mission Associate for Christian Formation with the PC(USA), supporting leaders nationwide. Known for her warmth and creativity, Miatta equips communities with practical tools for lifelong spiritual growth through workshops, resource development, and deep connections across generations.