Affiliated Community Minister, Rev. Joanna Herren

Rev. Joanna Herren is a graduate of Moravian Theological Seminary (M.Div, 2014) and was ordained by UUCLV in 2019. She has been our Affiliated Community Minister since January, 2020. Rev. Joanna currently serves as a hospice chaplain for the Lehigh Valley Health Network. She previously served as a hospice chaplain at St. Luke’s Universality Health Network, where she also completed her chaplaincy internship and residency. She is a long-time member of UUCLV.

Director of Music, Larry Lipkis

Since 2010, Dr. Larry Lipkis has overseen the music program at the UUCLV. He directs the Beacon Choir, for whom he has composed and arranged numerous choral works. Larry accompanies the choir and congregation and provides incidental music for the services. He is also the Music Director of the Second Sunday Concert Series, which brings nationally-recognized virtuoso piano soloists to the church.

Larry is also the Bertha Mae Starner ’27 and Jay F. Starner Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at Moravian College, where he teaches music theory and directs the composition and early music programs. He is on the Board of Directors of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and serves as a music director for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Larry has composed over eighty works for chamber ensembles, choir, and orchestra, and performs and records with the Baltimore Consort, a world-renowned early music ensemble specializing in popular music from the Renaissance era.

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Administrator, Kate Scuffle

Kate Scuffle is an administrator, producer, educator and artist in the non-profit and arts communities. She came aboard as the UUCLV Administrator in 2009, and is a member of the AUUA. A Pittsburgher, Kate worked in theatre/arts admin in both NYC and Philadelphia before moving to the Lehigh Valley, where she was Administrator/ Asst to Artistic Director at the Pennsylvania Stage Co (Equity/LORT), and a co-founder and Managing Director of the award-winning Theatre Outlet.

Kate and husband George Miller then spent several years in Ireland, teaching, writing, and producing as Selkie Theatre. Kate worked with Bord Failte (the Irish tourist board), was a co-founder of Uachtar Arts, and served as Editor of “Oughterard Magazine”, a regional magazine serving Connemara. She has returned to Ireland several times as an Artist-in-Residence, and produced Irish/American theatre collaborations and touring productions.

In the Valley, Kate served as Executive Director of St. Luke’s Neighborhood Center in downtown Allentown, as Manager of Bethlehem’s Moravian Museum, and as a writer for Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce publications. She’s served on Boards including Mayfair, Open Space Gallery, WDIY Radio CAB, South Side Film Festival, Celtic Classic Education Committee, and PA Stage Company’s Outreach Advisory Board.

Currently she is co-producer of Selkie Theatre and a Teaching Artist with the Allentown School District Foundation. She served as a consultant with Touchstone Theatre’s Festival Unbound, creates community programming with Embassy Bank, and is working with Northampton Community College to develop their Irish Study Abroad program. You can hear Kate on WDIY 88.1/NPR on Mondays as a host of Lehigh Valley Arts Salon, and on Thursdays with her 8:00pm Celtic Cultural Moment on Celtic Faire.

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Social Media Coordinator, Kate McDevitt

Kate McDevitt began working for UUCLV in 2021 as Social Media Coordinator. For more than two decades, Kate has built and maintained websites for small businesses, educational organizations, online community groups, the federal government, and non-profits. Most recently, Kate worked for fourteen years at a non-profit association for writers, running its IT department, website, and social media channels. Kate currently works at CMAA as Director of Web Content Administration, manages social media for the productivity app Habitica, and mentors user interface design students online.

A writer, reader, blogger, vegetarian, member of the LGBTQ+ community, AFOL (adult fan of LEGO), and Hufflepuff, Kate resides with two cats in northern Virginia, just outside DC. There, Kate is an active member of Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church.

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