Executive Board
President: Rev. Jonathan Drury
Jonathan Drury views himself as a compassionate person, a good communicator,
and a hard worker. He models his love for people on the love demonstrated by
Jesus Christ, and has always felt called to care for folks who appear to have been
disregarded or marginalized by the world. Jonathan approaches his ministry with
humility, and recognizes he is called to bring people’s attention to the Gospel. He
tries to do this in his life by sharing the good news of Christ’s story and by helping
folks to recognize the presence of God’s Spirit all around them. He is currently
serving as Senior Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Falmouth.
Vice President: Philomena Hare, M.Div, MSW, Pastor of First Congregational Church
of Wareham, is an authorized minister of the United Church of Christ. She has almost
30 years of experience serving on nonprofit boards in the areas of governance,
board development, and volunteer recruitment and retention. Rev. Philomena’s
primary passion for ministry is stewardship and the relationship between the way
we manage our time, talents and finances for the fulfilment of mission and vision.
She also recognizes that all work and no play eventually leads to burnout. So when
she is not working, you will find her at the movies, visiting museums, reading,
cooking, or attending a Providence Bruins game.
Treasurer: Beverly Hopkins, Beverly Hopkins joined the Board in 2019 as Assistant Treasurer and is now Treasurer. Beverly is currently a volunteer at the Council’s Hands of Hope Food Pantry in Harwich and was previously a volunteer at our Faith Family Kitchen in
Hyannis. Prior to her retirement in 2019, Beverly worked 13 years as Payroll
Manager at the Latham Centers in Brewster, and also for 10 of the 13 years as Staff
Accountant at Transitions Center in Yarmouth. Prior to moving to the Cape in
1998, Beverly worked as a pension consultant for several firms in the Boston area.
She graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor's degree in
Sociology.
Assistant Treasurer: Bill Harwood. Bill was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts. After spending all my summers in Brewster, my wife Jane & I moved to Brewster permanently in 1970 after graduating from the University of New Hampshire.
Bill worked for 13 years as a branch manager and loan officer for a local Cape Cod bank. In 1985 he transitioned to an eight-year career as an insurance salesman. In 1993, I became a residential real estate appraiser, eventually owning my own company and retiring in 2019.
Bill has been a member of Brewster Baptist Church since 1980, where he has served as Moderator, a Deacon, and chaired the Missions & Outreach ministry. Other interests include coaching ice hockey at Nauset Regional High School for 19 years. He is a retired baseball umpire (28 years) and a retired ice hockey referee (35 years). Bill attempts to play golf three days a week.
Secretary: Sarah Kanaga joined the Board as Secretary in September 2018, and feels privileged to serve as one of the younger members of the Board. (We feel privileged to have her!) Sarah is a Web Developer at Paraclete Press, a Christian publishing company out of Brewster, and is a member of the Community of Jesus in Orleans. Aside from web development, she is a member of the world-renowned choir, Gloriae Dei Cantores, and an actor in Elements Theatre Company.
Ex-Officio: Edye Nesmith, Executive Director
Board Members
Katia Regina Dacunha is a passionate woman who is energized by endeavoring to
be the best wife, mother, and lovely servant to the families around her as she can
be. Her life’s goal is to lead a healthy life -- spirituality, mentally, emotionally, and
physically in a way that pleases God.
Katia serves the immigrant community as well the Brazilian Presbyterian Church
in Hyannis alongside her husband, Alonso Dacunha. Their children are Klark and
Tirza. Katia’s experiences cover a diverse background, which includes elementary
education teacher, nurse, teen counselor (Brazil), tri-lingual domestic/sexual
violence and homicide survivor advocate/counselor. With joy, she is an active
volunteer for the Cape Cod Council of Churches, Barnstable No Place for Hate,
and the Cape Cod and Island Commission on the Status of Women.
Katia’s passion is to empower women to speak up, to really be what God has
designed for them to be in a world filled with inequality and oppression. In Katia’s
down time, you will find her gardening, painting, crocheting, and knitting.
Stephen Hawley, Pastor at Faith Assembly of God Church in Hyannis, joined the
Board in 2014. Stephen is ordained with the Assemblies of God and has been the
Lead Pastor at Faith Assembly since October 2007. Stephen is married to Lauri
Hawley, and they have three adult children and two grandsons. He loves spending
time with his family and friends, backpacking, gardening, fishing, and watching
movies.
Elizabeth (aka Betty Anne) and John Holman became year-round Cape residents in 2003 when they relocated after five memorable years in Boston. “Our goal has been to enjoy a healthy life of service and learning.” The Harwich-Chatham Newcomers’ Club, Our Lady of the Cape Church, Harwich’s Friendly Visitor program, and The Family Pantry’s Second Glance program have offered
meaningful activities and new friends. Betty Anne welcomes Muslim, Jewish, and
Christian women to Cape Cod Daughters of Abraham, a small book group,
committed to learning and understanding how religion and faith influence
members' lives. She is serving a third term on the Board of the Council of
Churches and as a recent Board member of Church Women United, Women of
Faith. As partners with the Refugee Support Team (an initiative of the Nauset
Interfaith Association), Betty Anne and John have hosted Summer Welcome
Weekends by the sea at Holman Haven, where family, friends, and one-time
strangers are always welcome!
Tom Lavin: I attended St. Mary’s Church in Holliston as a kid and completed my CCD work there and First Communion. In high school, I attended Portsmouth Abbey School where I participated in Masses as a Master of Ceremonies (altar boy). I was also Confirmed at Portsmouth Abbey. I transferred to Brooks School in North Andover which offered Protestant services. On the Cape, I have attended masses at St. Anthony’s (now St. Joseph’s) and I have also gone to services at Cape Cod Church. I suppose you could say my faith is a cross-section in itself!
I consider myself a wash-ashore Falmouth resident in my house my grandfather bought over seventy years ago.
Hon. J. Thomas Kirkman (Ret.). Tom Kirkman is a U.S. Air Force veteran, graduate from the University of Illinois with a B.A. and from Rutgers University, Camden, School of Law, with a J.D. He served as a Legal Services lawyer in Chicago, and then on Cape Cod and the Islands for nine years. He was a trial lawyer in private practice for four years. He then served for sixteen years as the Director of the Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit in the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office.
In 2009, Governor Deval Patrick appointed Mr. Kirkman to the Massachusetts District Court as an Associate Justice in the Orleans District Court. In 2015, he was appointed the Presiding Justice in the Edgartown District Court where he served until his retirement in 2019. Throughout his judicial career, Mr. Kirkman served on the Trial Court’s Domestic Violence Committee.
Tom has taken graduate courses in Judaism at the Harvard Extension School, Cambridge, MA; Community Ministry at the Starr King School of Ministry, Berkeley, CA; and pastoral care courses related to domestic violence, sexual assault, child and elder Abuse at Andover Newton Theological School when it was located in Newton, MA.
Tom currently serves on the Governor’s Council to Address Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, and the Advisory Board for Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence and Elder Abuse, Boston, MA.
Tom is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Society for Community Ministries and has been an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth, MA, since 1985.
Jean McCutcheon joined the Board in September 2020 after serving on the
Council’s Finance and Development Committee for three years. Jean has enjoyed a
career in development focused on education. She spent her early years working in
Boston at The Boston Latin School Foundation and Beaver Country Day School .
She then served as Director of Development at Cape Cod Academy for 19 years and is
currently the Director of Major and Planned Giving at Wheaton College in Norton.
Jean earned her Bachelor’s degree in French and Political Science from the
University of Vermont. She lives in Cotuit with her husband and has two sons.
Rev. Steve Youd is the former State Director of Mission and Stewardship for the
American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts. Most recently, Steve served as Senior
Pastor of the Mashpee Congregational Church. Steve is a graduate of Yale Divinity
School, where he was awarded the prestigious “Mersick Prize” for superlative public
address. It was bestowed by the late A. Bartlett Giamatti, former president of Yale
and subsequently commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Emir Sehic is a lawyer and owner of Sehic Law, in Dennis, MA. He is a graduate of Stanford University and received his Juris Doctorate at the University of Georgia School of Law. He served in the U.S. Army for over seven years, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. He joined the Cape Cod community in 2013. He became a member of Dennis Union Church and has served as past Moderator and Deacon. He lives in Dennis with his wife, Courtney Sehic, and their two young children.
Rev. Nancy McHugh is a United Church of Christ pastor, at the Dennis Union Church here on the Cape. She has been in ministry for nearly 20 years and was involved in both youth and children’s ministry prior to being ordained. She has served Churches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Vermont and been involved in a variety of interfaith nonprofits that address issues within the communities where she has served. Nancy also trained as a Marital and Family Therapist before entering the ministry and worked for 12 years in the Philadelphia area with children and families via the inpatient unit connected to CHOP and through outpatient services at Penn Council for Relationships and local community mental health centers. Nancy is married to Michael and they relocated to the Cape after 11 years in Vermont. They have five grown children and two grandchildren. She loves reading, biking, hiking and photography.
Ken Gavin is an accomplished English teacher residing in West Yarmouth. Ken holds degrees from Providence College and Virgina State University, as well as many certificates in reading and writing instruction from a number of institutions. He retired from full-time teaching in 2006 after 40 years of teaching English in the Barnstable Public Schools and at Cape Cod Community College. He went into semi-retirement which includes working part-time as an English teacher.
Mary Hansen-Joyce is a so-called “second career” clergywoman, who currently serves as a part-time Transitional Pastor for and to the good people of Christ Lutheran Church in Falmouth (a congregation of the ELCA in the New England Synod). Prior to her current call, Mary served the Cape and the ELCA as a hospice chaplain with Broadreach Hospice in Brewster from 2019 to early 2022. She transitioned to hospice chaplaincy after having served a call to hospital chaplaincy with the Cape Cod Council of Churches for 2.5 years as the Protestant Chaplain at Cape Cod
Hospital in Hyannis.
Mary served her first pastoral call as a full time Parish Pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Kingston RI, while maintaining her residence on Cape Cod. Mary feels blessed and honored to have been invited to join the Council Board, and looks forward to serving on the Chaplaincy Advisory Committee, as well as just being in mission and ministry again with all the faithful and dedicated people involved in any way with this organization!
Mary Collins moved to Cape Cod from England over 20 years ago, and is involved in various local ministries with prisoners, refugees, the homebound, and first-generation college students. She was previously an Executive Director of a healthcare trust in the British NHS and a consultant and mentor. She is a longtime supporter of the Council of Churches and an award-winning essayist and poet.
David Weston. David and his family are members of St. David’s Episcopal Church in South Yarmouth. He currently works as a trust and estate banker for Plimoth Investment Advisors, a division of BayCoast Bank. David’s career over 35 years has been within the insurance, finance and banking industries in many different capacities. He has served on some boards and within churches he’s attended before St. David’s. David’s formal education is a BA in Economics from Stonehill College and an MBA in Finance from Babson College. He grew up on the Cape, relocated to Connecticut after college, and eventually returned to reside in Yarmouth. David is married to Colleen, who is a Certified Public Accountant. They have three children: two adult boys and a black Lab named Mia.
Cheryl Harju member of the Board
