Plenary Speakers, Panelists & Workshop Leaders

SanDawna is currently serving as the Transitional Synod Leader. She has served the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) on three denominational levels: mid council ministry, national staff for the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency, and a local pastor. In her last call, she was the Executive Presbyter for Minnesota Valleys Presbytery; she provided training, consultation, coaching, and resources for presbyteries to support Committees of Ministries (COMs), call seekers and calling organizations. Additionally, her experience includes serving as the denomination’s Associate for Leadership Development with direct responsibility for equipping adaptive pastors. As the Associate for Gender and Racial Justice, Rev. Ashley facilitated ministries and programs at all church levels that helped the PC(U.S.A.) in becoming an inclusive, diverse, and racially just denomination.

Elise Bates Russell currently serves as the executive director of Johnsonburg Camp and Retreat Center, serving youth, families, non-profit and corporate groups with leadership development, teambuilding, retreats, outdoor education and missional opportunities. Her education includes a degree from the College of Wooster and a Masters in architecture from the University of Michigan. Her passions include leadership development, healthy governance, effective teams and cultural diversity. Elise enjoys hikes with her family, travel, hearing new ideas, being outdoors and meeting people!

The Rev Holly Haile Thompson, DD, a blood member of the Shinnecock Nation, Long Island, NY, studied at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, IA, was graduated in 1985, ordained by the Presbytery of Western Colorado in 1986 becoming the first Native American Woman to become Minister of Word and Sacrament/Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Holly taught PCUSA Polity at Cook College and Theological School in Arizona served congregations in Colorado and in New York State, and is a member of several churchwide committees including the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee (REAC), the Native American Consulting Committee (NACC), and the Doctrine of Discovery Speakers Bureau, all of the PCUSA. Currently, Holly volunteers with the United Methodist Church’s northeast Native American Ministries Committee - supporting the UMC ongoing ‘Act of Repentance’. Although Holly was Honorably Retired in 2011, she most recently concluded her service with 1st Presbyterian Church Potsdam, NY as Transitional/Supply Pastor to explore what an “Anti-Racist Church” might look like. She works with the Poor Peoples’ Campaigns of Northern New York and of Long Island. Holly is married to Kahetakeron Harry Thompson of Akwesasne, and together they share 7 children, 16 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.

Anthony Trujillo is a member of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, one of the six Tewa speaking pueblos located in the upper Rio Grande Valley. He is a first-year PhD student in American Studies at Harvard University with a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School. His research focuses on Indigenous engagements with – and resistance to – colonial/imperial religious and political systems in the 18th and 19th centuries while seeking to draw connections with the sovereignty movements of contemporary Native nations and descendent communities. He is the coordinator of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Working Group at Harvard. He is also serves on the Native American Coordinating Council of the Presbyterian Church USA which seeks to address the denomination’s embrace of the Doctrine of Discovery and its entanglements in settler-colonialism.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico. She holds a B.A. in Education / History, and a M.A. in Education/History from the University of Puerto Rico. In 1984 she obtained the degree of MDiv (Master of Divinity) from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. Completed doctoral studies in Latin American Studies (ABD) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She was ordained to the Ministry of the Word and the Sacraments in 1984 by the Presbytery of Chicago being the first Hispanic woman ordained to such ministry. Has served as pastor in the presbyteries of Chicago, Monmouth and since 2006 in the Presbytery of New York City. Her ministry is community oriented, and she likes to collaborate closely with the community. Issues such as social justice, women rights, racial-ethnic and immigration, among others, are of much of her interest and involvement. Currently she is Co-Moderator of the National Hispanic/Latino Presbyterian Caucus as well as Vice-Chair of the Racial Equity Advocacy Committee of the General Assembly and ending her term as moderator of the Concilio Unido Presbiteriano Hispano Latino Sinodo del Noreste. She has been commissioner to the General Assembly of the IP (USA) in 1986,1996 and 2010. She has received several awards including recognition as a Woman of Achievement in the field of religion in Monmouth County, New Jersey in 1989, in 1990 the Excellence Award of Religious Communities by the Hispanic Resource Center in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The Southside United HDFC-Los Sures (Brooklyn) honored her for outstanding service to the Puerto Rican community and commitment to advancing Puerto Rican heritage. In 2006 she received the Woman of Faith Award, Women Ministry Area, IP (USA) at the General Assembly in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women to the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments. After 37 years of service as pastor, she recently retired.

Patricia Osterhoudt is a lifelong resident of Hillburn, NY and member of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, works as a Certified Addictions Recovery Coach at Foundations Recovery Community Center in Nanuet, NY.  She is also the founder and director of Matt’s Movement, Inc., the nonprofit started in honor of her only child, Matthew Brooks Osterhoudt, who passed away at the age of 22 from an opioid overdose due to his substance use disorder. The mission of Matt’s Movement, Inc. is community education, family support and support in recovery of those suffering from S.U.D.

Patricia believes winning the fight against Substance Use Disorder begins with educating the community about SUD and the unfair stigma that has been attached to the disease.

Since January of 2021, Patricia and Matt’s Movement, Inc., along with “Keep It Moving” of Newburgh, NY have been instrumental in training over one hundred community members in the use of Narcan and supplied each with a Narcan kit.

Patricia has been working with Village of Hillburn mayor, Joe Turis, to bring awareness programs to the village, along with support programs for the youth of the village who, because of COVID restrictions, have had to adjust to a new normal. 

Patricia is also an Elder and Clerk of Session at Brook Presbyterian Church of Hillburn NY. She leads Brook’s Substance Use Disorder ministry. She is on a mission to have all clergy in the Hudson River Presbytery trained in the use of Narcan and educated about S.U.D.

“They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:8, NIV

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Habakkuk 3: 17-18 NIV

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”

Psalms 1:3 NIV