PCD-UUA Leadership School Location

Leadership School
Quality Leadership and Professional Instruction
The Reverend Cathleen Diane Cox ('98)
Religious Heritage, Identity & Values, Worship Arts, and Chaplain
(415) 717-7177 or (707) 297-6798
Email - Website

Rev. Cat is a Unitarian Universalist spiritual director. Her ministry encompasses both a private practice serving individuals and life partners and an outreach ministry exploring “best practices” for spiritually grounded growth and development in community. She leads retreats, classes, workshops and worship services aimed towards the development of vibrant, functional, visionary communities facing up to the challenges of this world and this age. This facet of her ministry serves UU congregations, districts, conferences, UUMA chapters as well as other service oriented organizations.

Her ministry is grounded in the belief that, for both individuals and communities, the center point for healthy growth is found by following the thread of connection between our own deepest longings and the hungers of life itself. This process of discovery opens us to creating joyful, meaning centered lives which offer our best gifts in service to the world.

She is a graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry, and UC Berkeley (Master of the Art of Teaching) as well as of the BayArea Non-Violent Communication Committed NVC Practitioners’ Program. She is a recipient of the Margaret Fuller Award of the UU Women’s Federation. She has an extensive background in speaking, writing, teaching and workshop facilitation. Her community ministry is affiliated with the UU Church of Berkeley.

Bob Miess ('05)
Community Building Co-Instructor
(408) 781-7073
Email - Website

Bob Miess is a co-instructor in Community Building at the PCD Leadership School. He envisions Unitarian Universalist Congregations in which people can co-create, experience, and live out integral spirituality – spirituality that encompasses the whole person and the whole community. A 2005 Leadership School graduate, and Graduate Assistant in 2008, Bob most appreciates Leadership School's interweaving of communal worship, small group experience, larger group experience, Unitarian Universalist heritage, personal spiritual practice, and intentional community building.

Bob professionally specializes in facilitating workshops, retreats, and worship experiences that lead to congregational change and personal growth. He encourages and models leadership that embodies careful respect for every person and a deep sense of the interdependence of everything we experience.

Bob has extensive experience in UU congregational leadership, currently serving his home congregation in San Jose, CA as member of the Nominating Committee, Worship Associate, member of the Volunteer and Leadership Development Task Force, chair of the Annual Giving Campaign, Small Group leader, and participant in the Spanish Speaking Ministry. He has also served as Board member, VP of Programs, President (during the transition to Policy Based Governance), chair of the task force that created the congregation's Small Group Ministry, and participant in the “Building the World We Dream About” class. He serves our district as Ministerial Settlement Representative and member of the Nominating Committee. He has co-presented workshops on small group ministry, marketing, and building multi-cultural congregations at District Assembly and General Assembly.

Gregory Rouillard ('03)
Community Building Co-Instructor

Greg is a co-instructor in Community Building at the PCD Leadership School. He envisions a world where people in groups relate to each other with compassion and authenticity, using "power-with" and "both-and" intention and practice to move in connection toward achieving effective outcomes. Greg’s passion for nurturing effective, connected groups was kindled when he was a student at Leadership School. His main intention as a Leadership School staff member is to offer a living example of the practice and teachings of compassionate communication and collaborative, engaged leadership.

Greg is a 2003 graduate of Leadership School, and has served as a Graduate Assistant and on the PCD Leadership Committee since 2004. He has extensive experience in UU congregational leadership, having served as an RE teacher, board member and president, and Small Group Ministry facilitator and program coordinator. He has also served as a district committee member, district assembly program presenter, and General Assembly program presenter.

Greg has served as co-leader of the Men’s Council of Washington, D.C., and is the organizational consultant and General Manager of Capital NVC, an organization committed to the growth of Nonviolent Communication in the Metro DC area and to creating peace and understanding in the world. He is the Director of Family HEART Camp, a week-long immersion in Nonviolent Communication for parents and children in northern Virginia. Greg, his wife of 20 years, and two children are relocating from Northern Virginia to a cohousing community near Boulder, Colorado in the summer of 2009.

Karen Araujo (’01)
Dean

Karen invited UUism into her life 12 years ago and has been living her life with ever-growing faith since then. Her home congregation is UUC of the Monterey Peninsula. A 2001 graduate of PCD-UUA Leadership School, she has been its Dean since 2005. In addition to extensive congregational leadership, Karen has presented several programs at the Pacific Central District's Assembly and was on the UUA's 2007 UU University Planning Team.