Our Staff
Cynthia A. Jarvis, Minister
Cynthia Jarvis never intended to become a Presbyterian minister. An English major at Denison University, she considered journalism, theater, the writing life or even, in desperation, becoming a paralegal. Instead she received a Rockefeller Trial Year Fellowship in 1967, a grant designed for religious outliers whose questions about God far outnumbered their affirmations. That year was spent in Boston. There she attended concerts, lecture series, protests and, by the way, went to classes in Old Testament, theology and social ethics at Boston University School of Theology. At the year’s end, she was hopelessly hooked on theology and transferred to Vanderbilt Divinity School. She completed her M.Div. degree in June of 1971 and was awarded the Tillet Prize in Theology. Like all cradle Presbyterians, she had learned to love God with her mind.
Ordained in September of 1974 to be the assistant minister of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wooster, Ohio, a congregation in residence at The College of Wooster, Cindy’s responsibilities included campus ministry. During those years, she gathered students who were uneasy with the institution of religion and invited them to wrestle weekly (often late into the night) with questions of faith. Many of those students are now colleagues in churches throughout the country. In 1979, she became Director of Field Education and Assistant Professor of Ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago where she loved teaching theology and literature and where she spent two years missing pastoral ministry. Therefore in 1981, when the search committee of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey asked her to be the Associate Ministry for Pastoral Care, she leapt at the chance to return to a congregation. With most of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary in the pews, her understanding of the church’s faith was tested and deepened during her time in Princeton. In 1996, the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill asked her to be the minister and head of staff. Through many dangers, toils and snares, she has been taught, by the congregation whose teacher she is, how to love God with her heart too!
Cindy and Abbey, her Scottish terrier, enjoy spending time at their cottage in Maine where Cindy reads theology, literature and the New York Times. Currently, she is co-editor of a seven volume biblical commentary for Westminster John Knox Press entitled Feasting on the Gospels. She is also co-editor of two books: Loving God with the Mind: The Pastor as Theologian and The Power to Comprehend with All the Saints: The Formation and Practice of a Pastor-Theologian. Currently she is writing a book of personal theological essays on the frescoes of Fra Angelico in the Cloisters of San Marco in Florence. With Mark A. Anderson, former Minister of Music in Chestnut Hill, she has written the text for Hear Now Our Praise with All Creation, the AGO Hymn of the Year in 1999 and Love’s Mystery, written for the 100th anniversary of the Philadelphia Chapter of AGO .
EMAIL: cjarvis@chestnuthillpres.org
Brian Russo, Director, Youth and Senior Adults
Brian Russo was born in Summit, New Jersey on October 18, 1981. He received his B.A. in Psychology (and earned membership to the Psychological Honors Society) from Seton Hall University in 2004, for which he researched auto-biographical memory narratives, contrast effects in rats, and differential evaluations within early-adulthood schizophrenic populations. Upon graduation, Brian gained employment at UMDNJ (The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey) and worked with Dr. Norman Hymowitz; researching, testing, evaluating, and educating about tobacco preventative measures, specifically in pediatrics. After his federal grant was exhausted prematurely, Brian joined a study-abroad program in Italy, and lived in Florence for five months, studying the language, culture, and history of renaissance art. It was during this experience that Brian felt persuaded to apply for the Masters of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary.
In 2006 Brian was accepted to the aforementioned, and there cultivated his personal call into ministry. He interned as a Chaplain at the Princeton HealthCare System, for which he worked at three distinct locations: The University Hospital, Merwick Hospice Care, and The Princeton House Rehabilitative Retreat. Brian also interned for two years at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, assisting the youth minister in the care of the youth of the congregation.
Brian joined the staff full-time in May 2009 as the Interim for Senior Adult Ministries, and has since become the Director of Youth and Senior Adults. He lives in Jenkintown, PA. When not with his responsibilities at the church, Brian enjoys reading, photography, philosophy, Radiohead, LOST, fantasy football, and amateurish studies in astrophysics.
EMAIL: brusso@chestnuthillpres.org
Rev. Diane Fitch, Director of Christian Education
Diane Jamison Fitch was born on October 17, 1962 in Newtown, Pennsylvania. She attended Bucknell University, spending a semester in Vienna, and graduating in 1984 with a degree in business administration and a concentration in information systems. Diane worked in retail management and as a computer administrator, was ordained an elder in her home church and discovered her call to attend seminary.
Diane attended Princeton Theological Seminary from 1989 to 1993. A highlight of her seminary experience was a year-long internship at McCracken Presbyterian Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was there that Diane came to know her call to parish ministry and discover her love of preaching. Following seminary, Diane worked as a pastoral assistant at Morrisville Presbyterian Church, and then as a chaplain, completing two Clinical Pastoral Education residencies at Abington Memorial Hospital.
In October of 1996, Diane accepted the call of Associate Pastor at The First Presbyterian Church of Yorktown, and was ordained as Minister of Word and Sacrament on November 3, at the Newtown Presbyterian Church. In 1997, she met and married her husband John Fitch, and in March of 1999, they welcomed their son Joshua into their lives. Diane chose to transition to part-time ministry, allowing time to be a full-time mom. In October of 1999, she began serving as a Parish Associate at Gilead Presbyterian Church, in Carmel, NY, developing and leading the Christian Education and Youth programs of the church. In April of 2001, Caroline was welcomed into their family. In September 2003, she transitioned to the First Presbyterian Church of Katonah, continuing to do part-time ministry focusing on Christian Education and Youth.
Diane and her family relocated to the Philadlephia area in July 2008. She worked as The Director of Children’s Ministry at the First Presbyterian Church of Ambler. In October, 2009, Diane accepted the part-time position of Director of Christian Education at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.
EMAIL: dfitch@chestnuthillpres.org
Donald Nally, Interim Director of Music
Donald Nally conducts The Crossing, a Philadelphia-based professional choir devoted to the performance of contemporary choral music, winner of the 2009 and 2011 ASCAP Awards for Adventuresome Programming from Chorus America. The Crossing commissions many works and has been noted as “Philadelphia’s best chorus” in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Donald is also music director of Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble, the region’s only professional choir, and chorus master for The Chicago Bach Project – annual performances of Bach’s masterworks presented by Soli Deo Gloria. This season he conducts the Latvian State Choir to open the International Festival of Sacred Music in Riga and will be Visiting Professor of Conducting at the University of Illinois.
Donald just completed a distinguished tenure as chorus master at Lyric Opera of Chicago where he collaborated with the world’s major opera singers, conductors, and directors. He has served many summers as Chorus Master of Il festival dei due mondi in Spoleto, Italy and was, for a number of years, Chorus Master of Welsh National Opera, where he conducted the WNO chorus and orchestra in major cities throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. While in the UK, Donald often guest-conducted London’s Philharmonia Chorus and collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia Cymru.
Prior to his work in Wales, Donald lived in Philadelphia where he was chorus master at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, director of music at Saint Mark’s Church, and artistic director of the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, which was awarded the 2002 Chorus America Margaret Hillis National Award for Excellence in Choral Music. His recent book, Conversations with Joseph Flummerfelt: thoughts on conducting, music and musicians, was published last May. He holds the distinction that in the last two years he has conducted concerts named to the Top Classical Events of the Year by the major newspapers of three major American cities: Chicago, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati.
Donald holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and the College-Conservatory at the University of Cincinnati, and a doctorate from the University of Illinois.
EMAIL: donald.nally@gmail.com
Ken Lovett, Interim Organist
Ken Lovett was born December 23, 1960, in Jacksonville, Florida, and spent his childhood and
formative years in the upstate of South Carolina, near Greenville. He attended Furman University (Bachelor of Music, Organ Performance, 1983) and Westminster Choir College (Master of Music, Church Music, 1986). Immediately after graduation he began a 25-year tenure as Director of Music at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. At St. Martin’s he directed a program of involving sixty volunteer and professional adults in two singing choirs and a handbell ensemble, together with a chorister training program involving twenty children and teens in weekly rehearsals and services.
Ken makes his home in the West Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia with his partner Jeff Perkins, Executive Director of Friend’s Fiduciary Corporation; their 16-year old son, Sam, a rising junior at Science Leadership Academy; Patty, a personable tabby cat; and a small flock of chickens. When not engaged with their respective careers, Ken and Jeff can often be found tending the gardens that surround their 1830 miller’s cottage. The property may be familiar to garden tour veterans; it has been featured on tours sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Garden Conservancy and Mount Airy’s Learning Tree. In the fall of 2011, Ken will begin teaching piano students in his home studio.
EMAIL: lovettck@gmail.com
Jo Ann West, Church Administrator
EMAIL: jwest@chestnuthillpres.org
Jackie Yorko, Director, Center on the Hill
Jackie came to Center on the Hill in September 2010, with a strong background in program development, community outreach and relationship building, public speaking, and health and wellness. Jackie was most recently the Director of Community Programs and Services for Chestnut Hill Health System. There she established and managed all aspects of a hospital-based health education and special event programs, including Senior Circle, a hospital relationship building program for seniors in the community, and Healthy Woman, a hospital relationship building program for women in the community. Jackie also spearheaded the physician practice and hospital services promotion where she organized and promoted physician lectures, seminars, health fairs, screenings and conferences, creating greater awareness of hospital physicians and services among target groups. Jackie was co-creator of the Change of Heart program, an intensive lifestyle modification program for people at risk of, or living with, heart disease. Once Change of Heart was launched, Jackie coordinated and managed all aspects of the program for 15 years and provided motivational exercise related lectures to the groups. Jackie currently serves as a board member for the Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment and is an active participant on their fund raising committee.
Jackie graduated summa cum laude from University of Maryland and received her Master’s Degree from Temple University in Exercise Physiology. She enjoys long distance biking, competitive tennis, hiking, snow and water skiing, and working out. Jackie’s son shares her love of sports and the outdoors, so they often spend their together time hiking or biking. Also, with twin daughters in school in New York City, Jackie enjoys quick but memorable trips to New York to “play” with her girls.
EMAIL:jyorko@chestnuthillpres.org
Hillary Mohaupt, Communications Coordinator
Hillary Mohaupt was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, just outside the suburban reach of Chicago. She studied history, French, and American ethnic studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she came to love her Presbyterian roots. In 2010, she received a Master’s degree in history and a graduate certificate in museum studies from the University of Delaware. Hillary has served on the coordinating committee of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women and the church-wide coordinating team of Presbyterian Women; she has co-led an annual educational tour of southern France and Geneva for PW about the history of women in the Reformation. Aside from history, France, and the Presbyterians, Hillary loves speaking Minnesotan, grammar, exploring new places, writing, mixed CDs, a good run, and really good dessert.
EMAIL: Hmohaupt@chestnuthillpres.org
Evelyn Carpenter, Administrative Assistant
EMAIL: ecarpenter@chestnuthillpres.org