I have attended St. John’s Cathedral with my three children—Henry, Francesca, and Natalya—since August 2022. A native of Oregon, I was baptized at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Eugene and confirmed at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland. I currently serve as a uniformed attorney with the United States Navy, stationed here in Jacksonville.

I graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in 2003 with a degree in American Studies. After college, I worked as a high school teacher in Guam, a social worker in Chicago, and the coordinator of the English as a Second Language program at a charter school in New Orleans. In 2012, I earned my law degree from Tulane Law School and commissioned into the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Since then, my family and I have been stationed in Chicago, Illinois; Rota, Spain; Washington, D.C.; and Portland, Oregon, before arriving in Jacksonville in the summer of 2022. While living in Washington, D.C., I facilitated adult reading groups at my home church, St. Stephen and the Incarnation, and led two cycles of the Sacred Ground dialogue series at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Annandale, Virginia.

More than anything, I enjoy spending time with my spouse, Mariya, and our children. I am an avid reader and racquetball player, and Mariya and I are active in Jacksonville’s kizomba dance community. I am deeply grateful for the welcome and support St. John’s Cathedral has shown me and my family since we arrived in Jacksonville. I am inspired by the work the Cathedral does to nurture a community of faith and serve the larger community. Having recently learned that we will be able to stay in Jacksonville until 2028, I would love the opportunity to support and contribute to these efforts.