Susan Cooper is an active lay person at Grace in the Desert Episcopal Church (GITD) in the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada. She is dedicated to Recovery through her own personal journey as an active participant in the Al Anon twelve step program. This authentic and transparent community has become a model for her spiritual, emotional, and physical wholeness.

Susan’s relevant experience for RMEC is in administration and communication including website management and social media.  Personal discernment has clarified her passion for Recovery. She is the Director of Recovery for the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada and the Recovery Minister for Grace in Desert Episcopal Church (GITD); she is a spiritual teacher, team player and writer.

Cooper’s church experience includes church administration, three terms on Vestry, Eucharist Minister and Visitor. She is active in all aspects of worship. Susan was a delegate to the 78th and the 79^th General Conventions. She has been elected, once again as a delegate to the 80^th General Convention.

Before retirement, Mrs. Cooper was in upper management for two major basic research centers where she handled development, public relations, and information services. Since her retirement in 2007, Susan has devoted herself to helping others through her church and recovery ministries.

The Rev. Dr. Ed Treat has been a pastor for 25 years and currently serves as senior pastor of Transfiguration Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Minnesota. He has been recovering from addiction for 34 years and has directed the Fellowship of Recovering Lutheran Clergy (FRLC) for the past 18 years. He is currently developing a new national ministry to raise awareness around addiction and how faith communities can better respond called the "Center of Addiction & Faith." He has published two books: "Our Stories of Experience Strength and Hope, by the Fellowship of Recovering Lutheran Clergy" and his first novel, "The Pastor," a cozy mystery about a Lutheran recovering alcoholic pastor who solves a murder in his congregation. Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's a great read. 

Priscilla was raised in New Jersey and New England and has spent most of her adult life between New England and Florida, where she now goes on personal retreats to Little Gasparilla Island.  She received her BA degree from Briarcliff College and did graduate work at the New York School of Design.  She enjoyed many years as a designer but tragedy hit in her 10th year of sobriety when her only child was killed.  After some healing she decided to dedicate the rest of her life to women in recovery, from death of a spouse, to divorce, death of a child, addiction, and many other difficult situations which she experienced and can offer compassion and hope.  She was ordained a deacon in 2012 in North Carolina where she now resides. She is the chairperson of the Diocesan Commission on Recovery and serves on several boards and committees for social justice, jail chaplaincy, and activities for youth in her town. She leads retreats and speaks at various AA gatherings. At this time she is planning on speaking at each of the 57 churches in her diocese to educate and give hope.

Eleanor Suman is an active member of Christ Church Episcopal Parish, Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she is active in recovery ministry. Eleanor celebrates over 20 ears of sobriety. “Working my 12 step program has enriched my life spiritually, emotionally and physically, and provided me with a platform to pass this message to my sisters and brothers in Christ.” Eleanor has been a member of the Oregon Diocesan Recovery Commission since 2000, and has served as a co-chair since 2012. Ms. Suman is privileged to carry the message of recovery and God throughout the Diocese of Oregon. Eleanor Joined the Recovery Ministry of the Episcopal Church in 2005. She is has benefited from sharing and hearing the stories of recovery in the Episcopal Church throughout the country, and is honored to have been elected to the RMEC Board in 2019. In addition to her recovery work, Eleanor is a member of the Canterbury Choir at Christ Church and cooks for the homeless and hungry with fellow parishioners through a program called Potluck in the Park, feeding over 300 people every Sunday afternoon, rain or shine.

Porter Taylor is the retired Bishop of Western North Carolina. He served as the Diocesan Bishop from 2004 to 2016. He has a PhD from Emory University in Literature and Theology and has taught at Belmont University in Nashville and Wake Forest Divinity School. He is the author of two books: To Dream as God Dreams: Sermons of Community, Conversion, and Faith and From Anger to Zion: An Alphabet of Faith. Most recently he was an Assisting Bishop in the Diocese of Virginia.   He and is wife live in Asheville NC.

Ms. White is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP), Substance Abuse Professional (SAP), Substance Abuse Expert (SAE), Family Mediator and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC-MHSP), with thirty years of experience in the Employee Assistance Program field. Ms. White is a Senior Lead EAP Management Consultant with Optum. She provides clinical and organizational consultation to a variety of Federal, State and private organizations. She partners with HR, Executive Leadership and Occupational Health on how to address difficult employee situations.

During 2020 she has cultivated relationships with key stakeholders to address the stress of COVID-19 and civil unrest. She has provided advise on implementation of practices to create positive culture change.

She has participated in the development and delivery of a Peer Support Program for Public Safety, a Wellness Walking Program and a Pandemic Prevention Program. Ms. White developed and delivered training programs on Managing Anger at Work and Preventing Violence in the Workplace. Ms. White is a trained Critical Incident Responder and has assisted individuals and organizations in recovering from disruptive and traumatic events in the workplace.

Laura is a mother, psychotherapist and entrepreneur committed to sharing the message of recovery. She has spent her career helping others develop and use tools for recovery. When confronted with addiction as a mother, recovery became more personal. Laura has been on her own personal journey healing from the devastating impact of this disease and learning to live more comfortably in the world. Laura says, “Sharing my story of recovery is how I sort through the pain, so I can let go of thoughts and feelings that no longer serve me well. I want to understand so I can grow and heal. I want focus on the light and not the dark. I want to make a difference.”

The Rev. Sandi Albom is a priest in the Diocese of Western MA, serving as interim rector in East Longmeadow, MA. After a 40-year career in nursing and corporate healthcare consulting, Sandi earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA and was ordained to the priesthood in 2018. 

Sandi is a person in long term recovery and serves as co-convener of Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church in NH and will also convene a newly formed Recovery Ministries group in Province 1 in 2021. For several years she has accompanied people in early sobriety as chaplain and spiritual director at a residential recovery center in Plymouth, NH. 

“I am grateful for this opportunity to give back in response for all God has given me in my life, freed, just for today, from the bondage of addiction. Serving others is an anchor for my sobriety. I must give it away to keep it.”

When I was 17-year old senior in high school, I attended my first Episcopal service and knew instantly that I belong in this faith community. I was a Bible major at Wellesley College and struggled with theologies and religions and agnosticism and finally was confirmed in the Episcopal Church in the fall of 1969. Since then have always been a communicant of the church wherever I’ve lived. I have served on vestries and search committees, sung in choirs, been a lector and a lay eucharistic minister, and edited the parish newsletter.

When I was 36, I attended my first 12-Step meeting and I knew instantly that I belong in this recovery community. I have been a member of both Al-Anon and AA since 1985. I continue to attend meetings of both fellowships and treasure the friends and program of each.

Over the years, I attended a few Recovery Weekends sponsored by the church and I reveled in being able to speak openly about both my faith and my addiction, but those opportunities were few and far between. How delighted I was when I learned about the Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church. I started out as a “Through the Red Door” reader, then became a contributor to that blog. The very day I read about the 2019  “Addiction and Faith” conference on the RMEC website, my partner--an Episcopalian in recovery--and I signed up. That weekend with other faith-filled recovering people was life-changing. How blissful it was to share stories, listen to speakers, and participate in Recovery Eucharists. How affirming to wear both hats--faith and addiction--and feel whole and welcome. We returned to New Hampshire, determined to help with our Diocesan Recovery Ministry, stay connected to our local 12-Step groups, and look forward to more RMEC gatherings and conventions.

The pandemic changed so much. There have been so many losses. But it has also brought weekly RMEC All-12 Step Zoom meetings and the chance to connect with others whose journeys are similar to mine. I am committed to participate in the work of the RMEC, to contribute what I can, and to be a witness to the life-affirming work of faithful recovery.

Ward Ewing retired as the Dean and President of The General Theological Seminary, New York, NY in 2010 after twelve years of service there and thirty-one years as a pastor in congregations in Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, and New York (Buffalo). He presently lives with his wife and dog at Ten Mile, Tennessee.

He has also been involved with Alcoholics Anonymous as a non-alcoholic for forty-one years. To learn about addiction he began attending open A.A. meetings in the mid 1970s. In 1980 a member of his congregation with seven years sobriety asked him to lead a group of members of A.A. to discuss spirituality and alcoholism. That group taught him how the Twelve Steps truly work, and he has used the Steps as his personal, primary spiritual program since. He continued to develop with members of the Fellowship classes for the church, and at General Seminary he developed a course on the church’s role in intervention and recovery and recruited Stuart Hoke to lead the class that continues today.

In 2004 he was elected to serve as a Trustee on the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous for U.S. and Canada and served as Chair of the Board from 2009 to 2013. He continues on the Board as a Trustee emeritus.

Ward has a variety of publications. This summer he completed a manuscript titled Twelve Steps to Religionless Spirituality: The Power of Spirituality With or Without God to be published by Cascade Books, a division of Wipf and Stock Publishers, this spring.

Presently he heads a group in the Diocese of East Tennessee that seeks to raise awareness about alcoholism and addiction for the clergy. As part of this group he writes a monthly article for the clergy of the Diocese on the topic of the church’s role for intervention and recovery.

Twyla P. Wilson, LCSW is a psychotherapist in private practice that specializes in the treatment of addiction, mental health issues and trauma. Her practice emphasizes holistic, empowerment recovery and healing. She is trained as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner through Peter Levine’s SE Trauma Institute. A certified trainer for Dr. Stephanie Covington, Twyla also trains professionals internationally on gender-responsive, trauma-informed addiction treatment modalities. Prior to private practice, she was a faculty member at Duke University Medical Center in the Departments of Psychiatry and Social Work.  At Duke, she started a clinical evaluation unit and a women’s addiction treatment program. Early in her career, she worked with the seriously mentally ill and founded a psychosocial rehabilitation program. Twyla has a MSW from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a BS in Family Relations from the University of Minnesota.