PERSONNEL NOTES

Congratulations to Shannon McNeil Smith, a member of the Neighborhood congregation in Montgomery, who begins Oct. 7 as executive administrative assistant for the general secretary’s Office at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin. She is currently working as a Mission Advancement advocate, a position she has held since March 4, 2019. Shannon is a graduate of Bridgewater (Va.) College with a bachelor’s degree in international studies, and a graduate of the University of Chicago with a master’s in Middle Eastern studies.

Through the end of October, McNeil Smith will be working alongside Nancy Miner, who is closing out her term as manager of the general secretary’s office. Miner and her husband, Blaine, are taking positions as co-district executives of the Church of the Brethren’s Western Plains District. In her more than five years in Mission Advancement, McNeil Smith has been serving with Nancy Timbrook McCrickard as a team working at relationship-building with donors to support the Church of the Brethren’s denominational programs. The work has entailed much travel, attendance at many district conferences, making personal visits with donors, and interpreting the work of the church. Prior to her employment with the Church of the Brethren, she was manager of human resources and constituent affairs in the Office of the Governor in Chicago.

Elsewhere, the Illinois Conference of Churches is reinvigorating its efforts and recently called Rev. Mary Alice Suter as its new manager. Suter is ordained in the United Church of Christ.