Jeff Huber
Lead Pastor
Rev. Jeff Huber has been Lead Pastor at Summit Church in Durango since July of 2002. He holds a Masters in Divinity degree from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Pastor Jeff has also attended the Beeson Institute through Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. He was ordained in the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1993 and served Collegiate United Methodist Church and Wesley Foundation in Ames, Iowa; Smoky Hill United Methodist Church in Centennial, Colorado; Calvary United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Wheat Ridge United Methodist Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado before coming to Summit in Durango.
While most of Pastor Jeffs family is from the Denver area, he spent much of his younger years in parts of California and Oregon. He graduated from Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California where he was also active in the youth group at Lafayette United Methodist Church. It was in that church that Jeff had his first preaching experience. The people of Lafayette UMC encouraged him to pursue ordained ministry and while he fought it for a while, God finally got a hold of him when he was active at the Wesley Foundation campus ministry while at CU Boulder.
Pastor Jeff’s passion is leading God’s church and God’s people towards a deeper faith that is relevant in today’s world. His hope and prayer is that we at Summit Church in Durango will pursue God with our whole heart and strive to be Jesus Christ to the world.
Jeff and his wife Tami have two children, Thomas and Vika.
Jake Forsythe
Ministry Program Director
Jake Forsythe has served as the Ministry Program Director at Summit since 2012. Prior to that he served as the Youth Director for 5 years. Jake felt a calling into ministry after completing a 2-year online Bible College program through Liberty University.
Jake enjoys working closely with the staff and various lead teams here at the church as we build community, change lives, and bring hope to our community as a local church. Jake is married to Carrie and they have three children Taylor, Noah, and Sutton, one granddaughter, Leah, and a son-in-law Andrew. Jake is a die-hard Denver Broncos fan and he loves playing and watching sports, camping, fishing, and spending time with his family.
Ely Cartwright
Director of Worship
Ely Cartwright joined the staff of Summit in the fall of 2015 as the Director of Worship, which involves leading our contemporary praise band, overseeing our traditional worship, occasional preaching, as well as serving on our Executive and Adaptive lead teams. He completed a bachelor’s in Music at Asbury University and a Master of Divinity at Asbury Theological Seminary, both in Wilmore, Kentucky. Having been involved in worship ministry since his middle school youth group days, Ely also spent several years serving the local church in Lexington, Kentucky before coming to join Summit in Durango. Ely has also completed the 10,000 Fathers Worship School program and independently released a record of original worship songs, “There Is Hope”. Ely is passionate about exploring hope and beauty through worship gatherings, places where individuals and communities connect with God and one another, experience transformation, and are engaged in God’s restorative work in the world.
Ely enjoys exploring the local food and music scene as well as the vast wilderness surrounding Durango, especially by bicycle, but he also really enjoys good movies and music on the couch with his doggo Ziva.
Robb Bourdon
Director of Administration
Robb has been a member of Summit Durango since 1992 and on staff since 2006. He grew up in Michigan as a diehard Notre Dame fan which he remains to this day. He and his wife, Amy, have three children: Chloe who just graduated from Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction; Jacob who is a junior at Colorado State University in Fort Collins; and Zane who is a sophomore in high school. Robb loves most sports, but especially football, baseball, and golf. He has been on several mission trips including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Greensburg, KS, after a tornado hit the town, and Kenya to work with orphanages and widows. Finally, he likes to travel and has been to five of the seven continents as well as close to 40 of the 50 states.
Stacey Franco
Creative Arts Director
Stacey moved from New Jersey to Durango in June 2017. She works as the church’s creative arts director, creating all things video and graphics. She graduated from the University of Valley Forge as a video production major.
In her spare time she loves to go see new movies, or stay home and watch old movies, or talk about movies…you get it. She also loves cooking. Italian dishes are her favorite to make. The more complicated a recipe is, the more fun it is. When she’s home, she enjoys the company of her two cats. She loves driving, road trips, and traveling. The only thing Durango is missing is a beach.
Janelle Meyer
Office & Finance Ministry Assistant
Janelle Meyer joined the staff at Summit Church in April 2020 and is the Office and Finance Assistant. Her role includes administrative tasks and working in the front office, as well as providing assistance to the Business Administrator. Janelle has lived in Durango since 2001 with her husband, Eric and their son and daughter, Luke and Grace. She has been a member of Summit Church since 2005 and currently serves on Mission Finance Team, as well as with Native Hope Ministry and Kenya Mission Teams. Janelle and her family enjoy hiking, camping, traveling, and enjoying the beautiful outdoors.
Sallie Chappell
Office & Communications Coordinator
Sallie joined the staff at Summit in October 2021 as the Office/Communications Coordinator. Her roll includes working in the front office, creating social media posts, as well as building and sending out the weekly newsletter. Sallie lived in Southern Virginia for 20 years, and moved to Durango with her husband, Mathew in July of 2020. She has a bachelor’s in history from Christopher Newport University. She was a gymnast for 18 years. She went to Carson United Methodist Church in Virginia until she moved to Littleton, Colorado in 2019. Sallie’s relationship with her husband began when they were 3 and her mother convinced his family to join their church.
When Sallie is not working, she is usually curled up in front of the fireplace with her cat, reading a book.
Julia Griffith
Director of Caring Ministries
Julia Griffith joined our staff as the Director of Caring Ministries in July 2021. Julia has been deeply involved in church leadership and church life for the past fifteen years. Church has always been a second home to Julia, and the parishioners a second family. In fact, Julia loves church so much that she married a Methodist pastor!
Julia and her family moved to Durango from Birmingham, AL in June of 2020. She loves spending time with her husband Wade and their two boys, Wade (11) and Haines (10). In her spare time Julia enjoys watching movies, listening to funny podcasts, chatting with her sister, and spending time with friends. She looks forward to being a part of this church family where we can work together to love God and serve our community.
CJ White
Facilities Manager
CJ White has served as the Facilities Manager of the church since April 2010. She is responsible for maintaining all areas of the church property including the building and grounds.
Ashleigh Ewing
Assistant Director of Children and Family Ministries
Ashleigh Ewing was born and raised in Durango, Colorado. She has always had a passion for working with children. She began her working career in the nursery at Summit Church at the age of 12. Summit Church was a place that Ashleigh always considered a second home. She enjoyed working and attending youth group there for many years. She looks forward to making connections with young children and their families so they may have the same positive experience she did growing up.
Ashleigh graduated from Fort Lewis College with a degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education. After graduating, Ashleigh worked at Summit Early Learning Center for 4 years before pursuing other interests in the work force. Ashleigh has young twin boys, Connor and Tanner, and has been fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom for the past couple years.
Ashleigh enjoys spending time with her husband and boys, hiking, reading, and hanging out with family and friends.
Josh Mendrala
Rooted Coordinator
Joshua is the Coordinator of Rooted, the Young Adult Ministry at Summit Church. Joshua has spent the last few years involved in ministry across Durango, serving as a worship leader and volunteering in youth ministry. After graduated from Fort Lewis College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Writing, Joshua felt led to pour back into the college ministry that helped him rediscover his faith when he first moved to Durango. An avid writer, poet, musician, and lover of the outdoors, Joshua is excited to learn and be led by God in running Rooted, and cannot wait to see how He moves in this ministry.
Kelsey Scott
Interim Youth Director
Kelsey Scott has been attending Summit Church since her freshman year at Fort Lewis College in 2015. She was involved in our Rooted College Ministry her entire time at FLC and even continued to serve in leadership roles within Rooted after she graduated in 2019. Kelsey was also a volunteer leader in our youth ministry for several years while she was at FLC, so some of you already know her. She got married to her husband, Nathan, last summer here at Summit Church. Nathan was an intern here at Summit last year and still continues to lead worship here from time to time.
Kelsey is currently a middle school teacher at a school in Pagosa Springs, so she will continue to fulfill her teaching responsibilities for the remainder of the school year. Therefore, she will be in a part-time role here with our youth ministry until the end of the school year and she will transition into a full-time role in June 2022.
Jeanette Johansen
Early Learning Center Director
Suzanne McMillen
Thrift Shop Director
Suzanne comes to us with a background of working as a Director at the YMCA of the Foothills in many capacities. Director of Aquatics, Senior Programming, Building Blocks, Community Outreach, and Preschool. She has a degree in Early Child Development with a minor in Special Education from Cal State University Northridge. Along with her experience at the YMCA, she has taught in Christian and private schools.
Suzanne likes to spend time with her family and friends. Relationships are very important to Suzanne in making everyone (no matter their backgrounds), feel that they are heard and respected as a person.
Suzanne has always been very active with lots of energy! She has mostly liked to run and swim. Now she spends time on long walks with her dogs, riding her bike, lifting weights, and trying her hand at snowshoeing at Andrews Lake!
Georgia Stilwell
Thrift Shop Operations Manager
Georgia is originally from Arizona and moved to Durango in 2019. Prior to finding the thrift shop, she worked in various different management roles in retail and in the hospitality industry. Notably, she also guided at two separate wilderness therapy companies where a strong desire to serve her immediate community was instilled within her. She feels passionately about the thrift shop’s mission: Building Community, Changing Lives, and Bringing Hope.
She graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Parks and Recreation Management degree. She is able to put that degree to use in her spare time camping, backpacking, and hiking around Durango and the surrounding wilderness. In her spare time she enjoys thrifting and antiquing (yes, still!), reading, watching movies, tending to her jungle of houseplants, hanging out with friends, and cooking.
Jill Waterman
Director of Choral Music
Jill and her husband Connie moved from Wisconsin to beautiful Durango, Colorado in the summer of 2016 to begin their retirement, but obviously, that plan hasn’t materialized! She received a Bachelor of Music Education degree, and enjoyed a rewarding 33-year career, teaching choral and general music in Wisconsin. Jill has been involved in worship music ministry since the third grade – actively participating in anything that involved music. While in college, she sang in several church choirs as well as directed a children’s choir. Shortly after getting married, Jill became the adult choir director at their church, and continued in that position for 27 years, sharing a wonderful spiritual journey with her choir. She also had a lot of fun developing and leading the worship praise team for 10 years before their move out west.
Jill has been involved in Summit Church’s praise team since 2016, and in January 2020, began her choral music director position for Summit’s traditional worship service. She feels so blessed to be able to share her musical gifts with her choral singers as well as the congregation.
Jill and Connie have 2 grown children, Trent and Shanna, and 2 granddaughters, Natalie and Kendra. Jill enjoys hiking, biking, horseback riding, pickleball, traveling, playing cards, and of course, watching the Green Bay Packers. Go Pack Go!
Connie Waterman
Facilities Assistant
Connie joined the Summit staff in February of 2020 after moving to Durango from Wisconsin with his wife Jill in 2016. He received his Bachelor’s Degree with majors in Speech and English, and a Master’s Degree in Education Administration from the University of Wisconsin. After serving as a high school educator for 33 years he retired from education and explored a totally new career as Executive Director of a regional Performing Arts Center for ten years.
Connie values service and stewardship. He enjoys most of the shared activities mentioned by Jill (horseback riding excepted!), as well as moonlighting a “roadie” for her various rock bands for the past 39 years.
Echo
Staff Mental Health Counselor
Echo is the staff consultant for all things snuggling, belly rubs, and begging for treats. He belongs to Stacey, but for some reason thinks the church parking lot is the healthiest place for a cat to spend his time.