Vestry Candidate Profiles

St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church
VESTRY CANDIDATE PROFILES
January 2005

Richard Childs was born September 23, 1969, at St Vincent's Hospital In Portland, Oregon and was adopted at birth and moved to Tucson in 1973. Richard grew up on the northeast side of town and played baseball for The Tanque Verde little league and tennis for the Tucson Country Club. Richard attended St. Michael's Parish Day School from 1975 to 1983. He graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School in 1988 where he participated in basketball and tennis. He graduated from University of Arizona in 1993 with a Business degree. In 1997, after daughter Makinzie was born. The family moved to Sacramento, CA.

Richard worked as Mortgage Broker until moving back to Tucson in 2003 and is currently working as a Mortgage Banker for M&I Bank. Richard has been very active in his daughters' school district as a volunteer and this year as President of the Educational Enrichment Foundation for the Tanque Verde School District.

Richard has been attending St. Michaels Parish since September of 2003 and would like to become more involved. He would like to be proactive in recruiting younger families to our parish and promoting expanded education in the Sunday school program.

Karen Smith grew up in Philadelphia, attending both the Catholic and Episcopal Church. Her undergraduate degree is in Classical Archeology from Princeton, and her M.D. is from Georgetown. Karen's subspecialty in medicine is Rheumatology (RA and lupus, etc.). Her husband is from a rural/ranch community in New Mexico. They chose to live in Tucson because, on some level, it is a cross between Philadelphia, D.C., and Hobbs, New Mexico.

Karen has no vestry experience but has been an active speaker with the Tucson hospitals and the Arthritis Foundation for ten years. Karen was philanthropist of the year for the Arthritis Foundation.

Karen's daughter is in the first grade at St. Michael's. She would like to be on the vestry in order to be an advocate for children and young adult programs.

Carolyn Schlager was born and raised in western Nebraska, the second of three girls. She attended Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D., where she earned a B.S. degree in Respiratory Therapy. Carolyn has been in the field of Respiratory Therapy for 25 years. She worked in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, and Bloomington, Indiana before moving to Tucson in 1990. Since moving to Tucson, Carolyn has worked at St. Mary's Hospital and is currently a supervisor in the Respiratory Therapy Dept. She has been an adjunct faculty member for Pima Community College off and on for the last ten years, teaching various subjects related to Respiratory Therapy. She is also on the advisory boards for the Respiratory Therapy programs at Pima Community College and Pima Medical Institute.

While she was raised in the Lutheran church, Carolyn had drifted away from any organized religion during her college years. She became interested in the Episcopal Church through her sister and niece. When they moved to Tucson after her sister's husband died, Kathy started attending St. Michael's. Since both sisters were living together, Carolyn thought it would be a good model for niece Mariah if they all went to church together. To her surprise, what began as something she was doing for her niece, became something she did for herself. She discovered her faith at St. Michael's. Since then, through the fellowship Carolyn has found at St. Michael's, her faith has grown stronger and deeper. It has become something she depends on when faced with life's challenges. She finds comfort and peace whenever she walks through the doors. As Carolyn has become more involved at St. Michael's, new dimensions have been added to her faith.

Currently, Carolyn is blessed to have her mother living with her. Her younger sister, Edella Schlager, also lives in Tucson and is an Associate Professor at the U of A.