Board of Trustees

Erin Powers is a Unitarian Universalist religious professional and aspirant for Unitarian Universalist ministry. They have served in congregational and denominational leadership is variety of ways since 2012.

Erin lives near Tampa, Florida with their spouse, 2 youngest children and a variety of animals. Their oldest is launching into adulthood in New Jersey. They are a homeschool family with a focus on science and arts. Erin is also a co-leader for her youngest’s Girl Scout troop.

Erin enjoys supporting and creating opportunities for youth to connect and build relationships with each other, with trusted adults, and with their Unitarian Universalist faith and values. Erin first attended RE Week at The Mountain in 2014 and immediately fell in love. So much so, that they came back that same year for Family Camp! They have been back several more times, bringing their children as much as possible so that they too might fall in love with this special place.

Living in the south, Erin is well aware of the challenges of creating  meaningful UU faith connection for young people. The Mountain is a vital touchstone for our UU faith in the South. Erin is excited to give back to The Mountain so that it remains the vibrant touchstone for UU values in the South.

I am a Birthright UU born and raised in the First Universalist Church in Yarmouth, Maine. While there I served on Board committees in the 1980’s and 2000’s; as well as serving as the Director of Religious Education, DRE, for 4 years. Since then, I have been a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville and served as the DRE from 1994-2000. Later, serving as the Board Clerk from 2020-2023.

Outside my work within the congregations, I have held multiple leadership roles within the Unitarian Universalist Association, UUA, from 2000-2013. I have also worked at The Mountain on two occasions: most recently as the Director of Development from 2016-2019.

My involvement within the Churches, UUA, and The Mountain have provided me the leadership experience needed to best serve the Nominating Committee. I gained a better understanding of funding, finances and faith development through my time on various boards, giving me a better understanding of the needs of The Mountain Board of Trustees.

I hope to bring these experiences and connections to the Nominating Committee to help support the Mountain’s mission, Staff, Board, and Leadership Committees.

I’ve been aware of Unitarianism since age 11 when I embraced a philosophy compatible with my nascent ethos. In 1978 I learned that ATL UU’s were researching a retreat property in Highlands, the same area I’d visited since early childhood & where I eventually purchased a sight-unseen residence in order to walk across the road to The Mountain.

My commitment to its mission is as solid as Little Scaly Mtn upon which it sits.  Implicit within that resolve is ensuring that it remains environmentally/financially viable, while realistically proffering an ever expanding philosophy as all institutions must.

Lee Reading has over forty years of experience working in non-profit organizations, doing leadership and program development, fundraising and strategic planning. He served The Mountain as Interim Director for two years (Feb. 2011 – Feb. 2013) and has been on the Board for six years (May 2018-May 2024).

A good part of my adult life has been dedicated to The Mountain. Having first heard about plans to create a UU Camp and Conference Center in the Southeast, near HIghlands, my wife and I were thrilled. We had just joined the UU Fellowship of Tuscaloosa (AL) in 1977, and this was another great reason to be so pleased with our affiliation. Long story short, we were able to join the staff of The Mountain, 1994 for me and 1995 for Susan. We worked there (here) for 10 and 12 years respectively.

The one thing that stands out so well is the close relationships formed with UUs all over the southeast and the close friendships formed with like-minded non-UUs from all over the country. I continued my work with UUs by becoming a congregational consultant, working with boards on retreat and as a placement consultant for UU ministers, mainly Interim ministry. I was involved with the then Mid-South and Thomas Jefferson Districts. In 2010 I agreed to serve on the Mountain Endowment Board, reconstituted. We met in person at the 2011 Annual Meeting, and I was elected Treasurer, mainly as we have remained residents of Highlands all these years.

I served on the Endowment Board until 2019. I have always been available as a volunteer, a role which began with UU of Tuscaloosa volunteer weeks. My next to latest effort was redoing deteriorated windows in the lower Rec Hall in 2020, during the Pandemic. I was pleased to be requested to be a nominee for the Nominating Committee in 2023, and continue my service to The Mountain.

I came with a group of volunteers from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia less than 10 years ago and have been volunteering several times a year since. It’s simply an inclusive, accepting, positive place in a beautiful inspiring physical setting. I have attended our annual church retreat twice. I’ve seen so many interesting programs scheduled but haven’t actually attended.

I want to assist in decreasing risk for The Mountain by continuing to improve maintenance and safety; assess what will keep guests returning; and determine how to make more people aware of The Mountain.

It’s important to me to spend time with family and friends; continue to learn about anything/everything; and expand my spiritual exploration.

I believe that we are all responsible for helping to improve people’s lives—whether through our gifts, or just consciously valuing and caring for everyone we meet.

I grew up in Gainesville, GA – a short drive from The Mountain, and spent many summers in Appalachia. I graduated from Auburn University in 2015, and have since held positions in the nonprofit, financial, and software industries. I currently live in Austin, Texas, though I work fully remotely and enjoy the freedom to travel that comes with it. I have three younger siblings and two phenomenal parents, who are scattered throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

I am a long-time program participant and raving fan of The Mountain, having attended camps and youth conferences since a young age. I attended family camps as a very young child, CONs (both as an attendee and as a PAL), and Elementary, Intermediate and Senior High MountainCamp every year until 2008. I worked as a MountainCamp counselor in the summers of 2012 and 2013, and Ascender Co-Mentor in 2014 and 2015.

I would like to leverage my connections to MountainCamp folks, AmeriCorps peers, growing professional network and experiences as a recruiter to help find eligible board members for The Mountain.

The Mountain created a community and provided experiences that have directly shaped the woman I’ve become. I am becoming emotional writing about it now, for as I’m sure those who have experienced “Mountain Magic” will agree – it is difficult to distill that feeling into words. The teachings of The Mountain and the time I spent on Little Scaly changed the way I view humanity; it fostered much needed self-confidence as I exited my youth and matured into an adult.

That impact is without a doubt something I’d like to spend my time, energy and talent supporting and amplifying for generations to come.  I want to serve on the Nominating Committee to do everything in my power to ensure the organization is robust and successful so that it can impact other lives with the magnitude in which it has impacted mine.

Teresa is a credentialed religious educator; the family ministry coordinator for the UU whole-church subscription service, Soul Matters; a longtime contributor to the UUA’s devotional, Braver/Wiser; and a seminarian at Duke Divinity School. Drawing on her five years working professionally as a hospital chaplain, she volunteers on the pastoral care team at the congregation in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She is the parent of three, happy (Mountain) campers, ages 7 to 16, and feels gratefully, powerfully “at home” at The Mountain.

Teresa first learned about UUism in 2004, when she bought an Our Whole Lives sexuality education book to use as a resource at the middle school where she then taught in Tallahassee, Florida. Discovering, through the values that shone in that curriculum, how special UU was, she began attending the church in Tallahassee. (That’s where she heard great stories of Mountain Thanksgivings and MountainCamp, though it would be another couple of years before she got here herself!) When she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2011, joining the UU was one of the first things she did. She soon thereafter accepted the position of religious educator, and then in 2014, came to The Mountain for RE Week. She was hooked! She immediately wanted to be a part of this special place, and more importantly, be a part of the special, faith-filled impact this place had on others. The following year, she asked if she could help run the kids’ camp for the RE Week kids. She did this for several years.

The Mountain is the place where–more than any other–she and her children most powerfully experience the strength and community of Unitarian Universalism. Teresa aims to use her connections throughout the Southern region–especially in religious education and family ministry–to help more people become not only aware of The Mountain, but deeply invested in it, and committed to helping the community thrive through involvement and leadership.