Murray Grove Board and Staff

Board of Trustees

Rev. Carol S. Haag, President

Carol Haag recently retired from 13 years as the religious educator with The Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ. Prior to her career in the ministry she was a mother and homemaker, Girl Scout leader and administrator, peace movement worker, church volunteer, Seeing Eye puppy raiser, horse lover and some-time gymnast.

Following in the footsteps of her husband, Carl Haag, who served Murray Grove in several capacities over the years, Carol has enjoyed the hospitality of Murray Grove through church events, a family reunion, a women's retreat, and of course the annual Homecoming. She is hoping to blend her church experience and work in the peace movement with the new policy governance model the Board is initiating to bring to Murray Grove an even greater role in the spread of Universal Love.

Patricia Robison, Secretary

Pat Robison, the oldest daughter of a dedicated Pennsylvania country doctor, enjoyed a full and varied career in elementary and special education before taking early retirement in the late eighties. She has an interest in all areas of the Arts, has sung in choral groups for many years, is working on a series of Mandalas using shells and stones picked up along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, adores books and book discussion groups and enjoys writing.

Pat grew up a Methodist and later in life began a search for meaning which required truth to be validated through experience and reason. She found Unitarian Universalism in Ann Arbor, Mich., while searching for a church to provide religious education for her son David. She has been a UU since the late sixties and an active member of both the UU Church in Cherry Hill and the UU Ocean County Congregation.

Pat grew to love Murray Grove as a result of her attending the services of the UU Ocean Congregation when they met at MG and various retreats and special programs, which impressed upon her its historical importance as well as its beauty and the significance of its location. She has not yet walked to Barnegat Bay from Murray Grove. That adventure and many more are ahead for her.

Deborah L. Duncan

Debbie Duncan discovered a new home at the Unitarian Universalist church in Binghamton, NY, in 1976. Active in many areas of church life including Religious Education, Welcoming Congregation program, Board of Trustees and Pledge Drives, she also served on the Board of the New York State Convention of Universalists from 1996-1200. In 1999, Debbie moved to Northfield, NJ, and is active in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore Congregation. With a Masters in Public Administration, Debbie has worked in museum education, health education and a range of social services, and is currently working at the New Jersey Center for Non-Profits.

Rev. Kelly Murphy-Mason

Kelly Murphy-Mason, LMSW, was raised in southern New England, where she attended Catholic and girls’ schools. She later studied literature and writing at both Harvard College and the University of Michigan. For years, she taught creative writing and composition to undergraduates. An anthologized essayist, she has also published pieces in The Washington Post Book World, Time Out-New York, Slate, The Week, and Beliefnet. Her interest in sacred story and narrative knowing has evolved throughout her career, as she has explored their therapeutic, educative, and spiritual dimensions. Her graduate work in clinical practice, psychiatry and religion was done in the dual degree program at the Columbia University School of Social Work and Union Theological Seminary, which the Rev. Mason completed in 2004. She then pursued postgraduate training at The NIP Center for Spirituality and Psychotherapy. From 2000 through 2002, she was Seminarian on staff at The Unitarian Church of All Souls; from 2005 through 2006, she served as both Intern and Summer Minister at The Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist, her ordaining congregation.

A longtime member of the UU Christian Fellowship and former trustee of The Universalist National Memorial Church, the Rev. Mason has a personal dedication to preservation of historic Universalist witness within progressive Christianity and liberal religion. She now sits on the board of The Murray Grove Association, a retreat center devoted to spiritual growth and community building, and retains membership in The Center for Progressive Christianity. In addition, the Rev. Mason is a licensed mental health practitioner who holds memberships in both the Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy and the Society for Spirituality in Social Work. She also serves on the UU Trauma Response Ministry for the Metro New York district. She currently lives in New York City, where she works as a pastoral psychotherapist on the staff of the Blanton-Peale Counseling Center.

Dr. Anthony Panzetta

Tony Panzetta is an M.D. (Psychiatry) and Director of Emotional Intelligence Development at the Temple University Health Center. He is also a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing, where he has been the president of the congregation and the chair and member of a wide variety of committees and other groups, and has been a Trustee of the Metropolitan New York District Board, the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Unitarian Universalist Counseling and Education Services and the Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for District Lay Leadership Development. He is married to Kevyn Malloy, Ph.D., and has two sons and three step-children.

Donna Renfro

Donna Renfro is the Director of Religious Education (DRE) at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County (UUCMC), in Lincroft, NJ. She has been the DRE since July 2002. Before that she was a congregant at UUCMC, and had just been elected Vice-President of Programs when the DRE position came open. She began attending UUCMC in 1998, and became a member in 2000.

The very first thing Donna was asked to do at UUCMC was to help start a congregational retreat for UUCMC at Murray Grove. She first visited Murray Grove without an appointment, and was awed both by the story of John Murray and Thomas Potter, and the warm welcome, reception, and dedication of Michael Masters and Ellen Chulak. Donna has participated in numerous retreats and trainings at Murray Grove.

Donna came to New Jersey from Texas, when the toy company she co-owned was bought by a New York toy company. She served as Secretary of the Board during her company’s many transitions. Before founding the toy company, Donna was the Director of an early childhood learning center in Houston. She also co-owned another business, restaurants in Hawaii, and was a junior high school teacher of French and German after college. Donna's one son, age 22, still lives in NJ. In her leisure time, Donna enjoys spending time with her son, sailing, reading, and dancing.

Elizabeth Ann Terry

Elizabeth Ann Terry has worked for more than twenty years in the nonprofit field. She conducted hundreds of workshops for thousands of organizations through the Nonprofit Center at LaSalle University, the Center for Effective Public Policy, the Joseph Priestly District of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Bread and Roses Community Fund, Grassroots Fundraising Institute, as well as directly through NIA work, her consulting firm (HYPERLINK www.niawork.com www.niawork.com).

Elizabeth has served as volunteer, staff or board member for: Partners for Sacred Places, Bread and Roses Community Fund, Center for Effective Public Policy, Center for Responsible Funding, Family Planning Council, NARAL-PA, Philadelphia Black Women's Health Project and Tenants Action Group of Philadelphia. She has been affiliated with local, state and national organizations that advocate for and serve traditionally underserved populations.

While working for the Center for Effective Public Policy, she compiled and edited Corporate Resources for Community Needs, a study of volunteering and giving patterns in the Delaware Valley. She was the Executive Director of The Other Side magazine and currently is the Senior Project Manager for Partners for Sacred Places. Elizabeth attended Temple University and Bryn Mawr College. Elizabeth was introduced to Unitarian Universalism by Rev. Benjamin Maucere while serving as the director of NARAL-PA. She has been a member of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia for 15 years. At this time she is a member of the Joseph Priestley District's Journey Towards Wholeness and Philadelphia/Wilmington Growth Teams.

An avid gardener of the soil and of the spirit, Elizabeth is enthusiastic about the mission of Murray Grove and the growth of Unitarian Universalism.

Nathan Walker

Nate Walker received his doctorate in the Higher and Postsecondary Education Administration program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also received a Masters of Arts degree. Nate is a candidate for UU community ministry and in May 2005 he received a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary, New York. He has just completed his ministerial internship at the UU church in White Plains, New York.

Nate is the Executive Director of the National Tuition Endowment student movement and a member of the young adult community in Metro New York. He is the founder of the Da Vinci College Foundation with the mission to be the first official UU college in America.

Staff

Ellen J. Chulak, Executive Director

Ellen Chulak came to Murray Grove in June 1998 with the specific charge of helping to revitalize the organization. Prior to her arrival, she spent 10 years with the Massachusetts workforce development system. Among several rolls there she was the founding director of a multi-corporate/agency career center serving thousands of professionals in transition. In addition, Ellen established the first development and public relations office for an innovative independent school north of Boston as well as serving as the executive of an art and history museum located in Gloucester, MA. She has organized and led staff and board retreats, team building and strategic planning sessions for many organizations.

Ellen has spent a lifetime deriving joy from creating forums for people to express themselves, both artistically and personally. With a strong belief in mission and vision leading the way, it has been her fond desire that Murray Grove become a leader in helping people become more directly connected with themselves and their world through living as more tolerant, loving, spiritual, joyful and creative souls.

Ellen is a life-long Unitarian Universalist who enjoys singing and writing and her large family, which includes a grown daughter and two stepsons.

Michael Masters, Assistant Director

Michael Masters arrived at Murray Grove in January 1999. It is the latest stop on a journey that began in the orange grove country of southern California and has led by way of a study of history at the cliff-top seaside UC Santa Barbara to twelve years teaching English in Yokohama , Japan (where he lived for a year in a Zen temple and became an expert in remote traditional hot spring inns), sandwiched on either side by 14 months of backpacking through Europe on the way to Japan and another 14 months backpacking through Southeast Asia on the way back. Four years of reacclimation to this culture followed, from a base in the Boulder, CO, area, including a year of Blue Highways-style backroads driving around North America looking for just the right situation for himself. And here’s where he found it!

Paralleling, and far more important than the exterior journey has been the interior one. On a path of self-discovery for nearly 40 years, Michael has come to the firm and essential conclusion that all meaning in human life comes from the experience and practice of radical selflessness – which is identical to Thomas Potter’s universal love! Talk about synchronicity! He lives and works at Murray Grove trying to live up to Thomas’s example, serving this sacred site and the people who come here as selflessly and as lovingly as he is able.

Kathy Hermansson, Coordinator of Facilities and Housekeeping
Louise Ille, Outreach Coordinator
Carolyn Maher, Bookkeeper

Eileen Murphy, Graphic Designer
Jo-Ann Castano, Webmaster