The nominating committee, working with our Human Resources and Nominating Team, has selected two outstanding candidates to stand for election to the GLAD Council. David Coatsworth is new to the Council, and Vance Martin has been serving on the council for the past year. Vance was appointed to fill a vacant position on the council.
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David R. (Dave) Coatsworth is from Tempe, Arizona. Having been a lifelong Disciple, he is currently a member of Community Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Tempe, AZ. Dave holds a BS in Public Administration, along with an MBA degree. For 9 years he served in the US Air Force as pilot and instructor pilot, F-4 & F-15 aircraft. He has since served for 27 years in sales and sales management positions for business management applications based on computing and telecommunications technologies. He has been active in the Arizona Region and the General Church since 1983. Within the Arizona Region he has been involved as a member of the Mission Interpretation Team, as Chair of the Finance Committee, as Treasurer and as the Regional Moderator. He also served as the Capital Campaign Chair and currently serves as the volunteer staff member for Stewardship Education and Development. Within the General Church he has served as a Member of the General Board, a member of the Administrative Committee and was a member of the Regional Ministers and Moderators Executive Committee. He also served as Parliamentarian and on the Commission on Mission Funding, as well as a member of the Disciples Seminary Foundation. In relation to the invitation to be nominated to the GLADF Alliance Council, David says: "The General Board and my congregation ministered to me and made me aware of justice issues related to sexual orientation, a topic to which I gave little attention as a youth and young adult. Their teaching proved especially valuable to me when a relative came out in the mid 1990’s. I have observed many straight people respond with fear and distrust regarding this issue, whereas for me, the church underscored the fact that we’re all children of God. I believe the church equipped me to have effective relationships with persons of all orientations in my church life, professional life, and family life." "I seem to have a gift for interpretation, and the focus of that gift in the church has been around issues of finance and stewardship. I sincerely appreciate the invitation to be a part of the GLAD Council. When I was invited to serve on the GLAD Alliance Council, I questioned my ability to fulfill the role. In spite of uncertainty regarding my qualifications I am willing to try to the best of my ability to give the best service possible. After prayerfully considering the opportunity, I hope to combine the gifts and ministry I’ve received, and use them to promote justice and interpret God’s love for all the children in the family. I ultimately determined that this may be God’s way of suggesting that I stretch. I trust that the rest of the Council and friends will recognize my limitations along the way and help me grow by stretching, and that you will all teach me and hold me accountable as necessary in our work together." |
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Vance Martin is a native of Los Angeles. He has one brother, two nephews and a niece. He was educated in Los Angeles, with a BA degree in Government from Cal State L.A. (1964).
He has been employed in public assistance with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Service since 1964, and was made Division Chief in 1994. He is presently in charge of community-based offices of the department that provide services to assist CalWORK’s program families to seek and find employment, in compliance with the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform Law. Vance has been a member of United Christian Church (DOC), Los Angeles, since 1961, having been baptized in one of the two predecessor congregations (East 28th Street Christian Church) in 1954. His late uncle pastored Century Birch Street Christian Church, which was the earliest African American Disciples congregation in Los Angeles, thus giving him long roots within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He has attended many Disciple Conventions and Assemblies since 1967, and served as the second vice-moderator of the General Assembly from 1985 through 1987. Vance was a Disciple delegate to the Consultation on Church Union for the 1989 Plenary. He served on the Commission on Theology from 1978 through 1989 and with the Disciples-UCC Partnership Committee in the late 1980’s. Within the Pacific Southwest Region he has served as the Regional Vice Moderator from 1978-1980 and served as the Moderator from 1980 to 1982. He has been a member of the Christian Social Concerns/Church in Society Committee from the 1970s through 2004, and did notable work on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Planning Committee. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Disciples Seminary Foundation at various terms of office from 1985 through 2003. Ecumenically he has served as a member of the United Ministry at the University of Southern California from 1987 to the present time, and has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Claremont School of Theology from 1993 to the present, having served as chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. He is currently the secretary of the Board. He also served on the seminary’s Center for Sexuality and Christian Life. In the spring of 2002 he attended the African American Roundtable of the Pacific School of Religion’s Gay and Lesbian Center. He has interests in book and art collecting including African American cinema posters, Latin American graphics, Afrocentric-themed entertainment and travel posters and advertisements from Europe, and sub-Saharan African masks, as well as 20th Century modern dance. |
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