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2009-06-16 issue:

Executive Leadership sees major staff transitions

by Anna Groff

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Six individuals plan to leave Mennonite Church USA Executive Leadership this year.

In October 2008, executive director James Schrag (pictured) announced his plans to retire in November after 35 years of ministry. From August until November, Schrag will begin a writing project on the history of the process that transformed General Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Church into Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA. Schrag served as project director for the transformation team and then in 2001 began serving as Mennonite Church USA’s executive director.

Associate executive director Ron Byler will also leave Executive Leadership this year. Byler will begin serving as interim executive director on Aug. 1 and serve in that role until a new executive director is in place—likely later in 2009.

Byler (pictured) began his work with the Mennonite Church (MC) General Board as associate general secretary in June 1997. He continued as the associate executive director of Mennonite Church USA when it was officially formed in 2002. Earlier he worked for Mennonite Media from 1979 to 1991.

“The formation years of Mennonite Church USA have been tumultuous times,” Byler says. “I am moved by the persistence and faithfulness of the Executive Board and Executive Leadership staff to move us to a place where we can better respond to God’s call for us. I am looking forward to taking a number of months off after I finish my work for Mennonite Church USA and before I begin a new assignment. I am not sure what God has in store for me next, but I assume it will be in some area of non-profit management.”

Director of convention planning Jorge Vallejos has planned his final Mennonite Church USA convention. He plans to leave his position after Convention 2009, with his final day sometime at the end of August.

Vallejos (pictured) began working for the Mennonite Board of Missions in 1996 and then began working for Mennonite Church USA shortly after the 2001 convention. Associate director Rachel Swartzendruber Miller will move into the director role.

“Working in convention planning has been a wonderful learning experience,” Vallejos says. “I’ve had the opportunity to plan events that affect the entire church. I continue to believe that conventions are the number one identity builder in our church.”

Vallejos says he understands that some people value conventions less than others, but he hopes that instead of doing away with conventions the church will offer alternatives with a similar positive impact.

“Conventions are especially important to our young people,” he says. “We lose so many of them that I think the time and money invested is worth it because conventions are invitational and life-giving.”

Vallejos, who lost his mother to cancer this year, says the last time he spoke with her she expressed her hope that he continue working for the church.

“I truly believe that people who are at that stage have clarity about life,” he says. “Therefore I would like to continue working for the church in a different capacity.”

Identity director Marathana Prothro (pictured) will resign from her role sometime after Mennonite Church USA Convention 2009. Prothro served with Executive Leadership for four years. Prothro will begin a graduate assistantship with Wichita State University, where she has been attending part-time since 2006.  She will finish a master’s degree in communication in May 2010.

“I have been given opportunities to grow professionally and develop leadership skills that I wouldn’t have had in other organizations and businesses,” Prothro says. “On the one hand, I’m going to miss my coworkers and colleagues and being a part of things happening churchwide … However, it’s the time in my life where I need to explore this [academic] path. It still allows me to be rooted in the community I live in and congregation I attend.”

Director of intercultural relations Iris de León-Hartshorn (pictured) will transition to a new position in a Mennonite Church USA area conference. In September, she will begin serving as executive conference minister for Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference.  Her last day with Executive Leadership is scheduled for Aug. 14. De León-Hartshorn, along with her husband, Leo Hartshorn, and their grandson, plan to move to the Portland area in August.

After dedicating 21 years to her job, administrative assistant for the communications office Jo-Ann Schmidt (pictured below) plans to take early retirement this year, with her last day scheduled for July 31. Schmidt will eventually move to Ontario, where her children and grandchildren live, but for now she will continue living in Newton, Kan.

“The communications office has been a wonderful, exciting and challenging place to work,” Schmidt wrote in her resignation letter. “There have been a few setbacks; but in spite of these, the office has always offered much-needed guidance to Mennonite Church USA, and I feel it is an integral part in promoting our vision and goals.”

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