For information on each board member, please click on their name below. [/accordion-item title="The Rev. Richard Mahaffy, President" id="richard-mahaffy"]  E-Mail Dick The Rev. Richard “Dick” Mahaffy is a recently-ordained priest of the Episcopal Church who has been profoundly Deaf since birth.  He was educated at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the Williston-Northampton High School in Easthampton, Massachusetts.  He went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Religion from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and a Master of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He was ordained through the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.  He recently moved to Florida with his husband, Doug, who is also profoundly Deaf.

Lee came from many generations of Episcopalians and attended hearing churches all her life.  Currently, she is attending St. Matthew Episcopal Church in Brown Point, Tacoma, WA. She is licensed as Worship Leader and Eucharist Minister and serve regularly at St. Matthew. In addition, she provides Pastoral Support for Deaf community within the Diocese of Olympia (Western Washington).

Lee grew up as oral Deaf since birth and she had a deaf sister.  She learned ASL while attending Gallaudet in the mid-1970s. She has two grown daughters, one is an ASL interpreter.

She has many ideas that will help the ECD fulfil the need of Deaf members who are mainstreaming in Episcopal Churches with hearing congregations.

The Rev. Emily Hillquist Davis‎ Vicar of St. Thomas Deaf Church in Kirkwood, Missouri. Emily advocates Deaf-led worship services and group discussions. She works with Deaf leaders in providing rich and varied programs as well as developing strong ties with the Deaf community.

Cass is a retired ICU & Trauma Nurse and lives in northern San Diego county. She’s been an Episcopalian all her life. She was born Hearing. Her hearing loss began in the mid-1980’s. She benefits some from her hearing aids. She joined the ECD in the early 1990’s and has served on the Board as Second Vice-President, Member at Large and currently as Secretary. She is a Licensed Lector, Chalice Bearer, Acolyte and Lay Eucharistic Minister at her church.

Cass enjoys reading, counted cross stitch and walking her hearing dog, Cumin.

Cass is currently the interim Member at Large 1

Rev. Suzanne recently celebrated her 10^th year of ministry as a
deacon in the Diocese of Rochester, NY. Her diaconal
ministry has always focused on ensuring access to the Gospel for people who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing.

In her secular life, Suzanne is a speech-language pathologist in private practice.  Much of her work over the course of her career has been with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing folks.  Rev. Suzanne is unilaterally deaf.  She is the current President of the Hearing Loss Assoc. of America – Rochester Chapter, and serves on the Task Force on Disability and Deaf Access for the National Episcopal Church.  Suzanne and her husband, Bill, have three adult children, a cat and a Corgi, and are proud to live in Rochester, NY.

Suzanne is currently the interim Secretary

Ron recently completed his third term as a Senior Warden at St. Thomas Deaf Church in St. Louis. Also, Ron is currently a Nembership Secretary for the Episcopal Conference of the Deaf (ECD), since October 2018.

He serves on the altar guild at St. Thomas as well. Aside from his important duties, Ron teaches part time at three olleges/universities in the St. Louis area. At these colleges, he teaches American Sign Language courses at University of Missouri – St. Louis and St. Louis Community College and a course in the Deaf Studies Program at Maryville
University.

Ron also works part time as an overnight stocker at Walmart. He has a Masters degree in Theatre from Lindenwood University. Speaking of theatre, Ron has been involved in the theatre arts off and on for more than 35 years, since age 11 (!). (At the time of publication, he just made a stage “comeback” in a production titled Magnificently Miscast, after being inactive for nearly 15 years.) In his free time, Ron enjoys working out, taking walks, going out, being with good friends, the arts and lots more; he continues to seek full-time employment. Ron lives in St. Louis, where he has lived his whole life. 

Laurence grew up mostly along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in Hattiesburg, MS with his mother who was a Nurse Practitioner and my grandmother, along with his twin sister, “Lauren,” now, a youth minister in Dallas Texas. He attended the University of Southern Mississippi and graduated, in Deaf Education and was a teacher for four years in both Mississippi public Schools and at the Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge, Louisiana before he felt a call for ministry.

In 2014, Laurence graduated from the
Seminary of the Southwest, an Episcopal Seminary in Austin, TX and got his M.Div. After seminary, he returned home to the Diocese of Mississippi to be Episcopal Chaplain for the students at Mississippi State University. As of 2018, he began his work as the Episcopal Chaplain with The Table: Lutheran Episcopal Campus Ministry at RIT/NTID and he also serves as the
Missioner to the Deaf for the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester.

Name and Ordination Year

1. SYLE, Henry Winter 1883
2. MANN, Austin Ward 1883
3. KOEHLER, Jabob M. 1887
4. TURNER, Job 1891 permanent deacon
5. CLOUD, James Henry 1893
6. DANTZER, Charles Orvis 1895
7. WHILDIN, Oliver J. 1901
8. VAN ALLEN, Harry John 1902
9. SMIELAU, Franklin C. 1902
10. FLICK, George Frederick 1907
11. KEISER, John H. 1908
12 HEFFLON, George Henry 1910
13. ALLABOUGH, Brewster R. 1911
14. MERRILL, Herbert C. 1914
15. TRACY, Hobart Lorraine 1915
16. CHARLES, Clarence W 1919
17. PULVER, Henry 1922
18. SMALTZ, Warren M. 1923
19. GRACE, Homer E. 1925
20. LIGHT, J. Stanley 1926
21. BRADDOCK, Guilbert C. 1926
22. SAWHILL, Collins Stone 1927
23. HANSON, Olaf 1929
24. FORTUNE, Roma 1929
25. STEIDEMANN, Arthur O. 1929
26. WATERS, Horace B. 1931
27. FLETCHER, Robert C. 1931
28. MECKLING, Gustav C. 1937
29. ALMO, Bengt Olof Georg 1939
30. LANGE, Willaim M., Jr. 1943
31. LEISMAN, Arthur G. 1943
32. BERG, Otto B. 1944
33. ELLERHORST, James Clifford 1944
34. NIES, Edwin W. 1950
35. HIRTE, Silas James 1950
36. MATHIS, Steve L., III 1955
37. SLASOR, Douglas Stewart 1958
38. PICKERING, Roger A. 1963
39. POPE, Jesse A. 1965
40. DESMARAIS, Camille L. 1966
41. CROFT, Jay Leslie 1969
42. ALBY, James Francis 1972
43. RARDIN, Thomas Michael 1978
44. ROGERS, Fielding 1979
45. NAGEL, Virginia 1988 first Deaf woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church
46. MOSIER, William 1994 vocational deacon
47. BUZZARD, Henry 1997
48. ANDERSON-KRENGEL, Erich 2002
49. SELFE-VERRONE, Christine 2004
50. BAGIONI, Elizabeth 2004
51. MAHAFFY, Richard J. II 2017

Chronological list of Episcopal Conference of the Deaf Presidents, and year of the conventions they presided over:
The Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, 1881, 1888
The Rev. Francis J. Clerc, 1883, 1887 (son of Laurent Clerc, renowned deaf educator)
The Rev. Austin.W. Mann, 1886, 1893, 1898
The Rev. Henry Winter Syle, 1889
The Rev. James H. Cloud, 1896
The Rev. Charles O. Dantzer, 1905,1908
The Rev. Oliver J. Whildin, 1926, 1928, 1931, 1934
The Rev. Henry J. Pulver, 1937, 1940, 1943, 1946
The Rev. James R. Fortune, 1949, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964
The Rev. Robert C. Fletcher, 1954
The Rev. Otto B. Berg, 1966, 1967, 1968
The Rev. Steve L. Mathis, 1969, 1970, 1971
The Rev. Dr. Roger A. Pickering, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1993
The Rev. Camille L. Desmarais, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982
The Rev. Robert Grindrod (1983 – 1986)
The Rev. Jay L. Croft (1988 – 1990)
The Rev. Dr. Roger A. Pickering 1992 – 1993 (or 1995, since Virginia Nagel says he preceded her term?) per discussion with recent ECD Presidents:
The Rev. Dr. Virginia Nagel (1996 – 2002, per email from Virginia Nagel herself.)
The Rev. Jay L. Croft (2003 – 2004? need to check Proceedings)
The Rev. William Mosier (2005 – 2007? need to check Proceedings)
The Rev. Barbara A. Allen (2008 – July 2011)
The Rev. Marianne Stuart (July 2011 – 2017)
The Rev. Richard J. Mahaffy II 2017 – present

Thank you to our volunteer staff members! Contact Us to apply for one of these vacant positions.

Development Officer
Historian / Archivist
Parliamentarian

Ron Selinger
St. Thomas Deaf Church
c/o Grace Episcopal
514 E. Argonne Drive
St. Louis, MO 63122