The following members are serving as our 2024-2025 Board of Directors. You can reach them through their contact information listed in the Church Directory or by emailing UUFH Office.

Jan Partin, President

I was born in Tulsa, but moved to Pittsburgh when I was ten years old. While attending Bowling Green State University, I met Ron Partin. We were married in 1968 and had twin sons, Matt and Brett, born in 1972, which have netted nine wonderful grandchildren.

I worked as a social worker placing foster children from 1968-72. After the boys entered school, I earned her master’s degree and began working as the county director for the American Cancer Society and then regional director for 17 counties.

After 10 years with the ACS, I became a residential realtor and enjoyed working with buyers and sellers. My counseling skills came in very handy! After 26 years, I retired at the age of 70.

We moved to the Blue Ridge mountains in 2000 and have loved living here ever since then. We became active in UUFH right away and both of us have served in a number of capacities.

We are active in Friendship Force International, a group that nurtures fellowship by traveling the globe and staying in other club members’ homes. We have had the good fortune to visit clubs in New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, and Peru. I love to travel and learn about different cultures and meet people from all over the world.

I have also been active in local environmental organizations. I am committed to doing whatever I can to reduce our carbon footprint and work toward environmental justice.

I enjoy gardening, tennis, reading, and just hanging out with my family.

Charlie Mitchell, Vice President

I grew up in Webster Groves, Mo, a suburb of St. Louis. I worked in the auto repair business for several years before moving to the Chicago area where Marianne and I met. I attained a BS in Business Administration from Elmhurst College and worked for State Farm Insurance in claims for 28 years. 

Upon retirement, Marianne and I moved from Baton Rouge, La. to Hendersonville to enjoy the mountains and travel. We joined UUFH in 2012. I have been the computer tech here since 2014 and in 2018 became the Security Team lead.

Both Marianne and I have volunteered in several places locally. I currently volunteer at IAM and am known as the “tomato man” as I pick up and deliver tomatoes each week to five food banks in Hendersonville.

Liz Curtis, Secretary

Birthplace Springfield, Illinois; BA French & German from Indiana University with a stint at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland; 40 years as a computer programmer/analyst in Boston, MA, then Dallas TX, then WNC.  My husband, Jim, and I both brought our jobs with us to Flat Rock, NC in 1998 and telecommuted to clients scattered here and there.  We were married 46 years and both retired in 2006. The plan was to grow even older together.  My sweet Jim died in 2021.  A UU since 2007, I’ve served on Committee on Ministries, Landscape, Endowment, Nominating, Stewardship, the Board and was recently the volunteer bookkeeper.  It’s a good community we have here in the mountains for gardening, reading, and volunteering.        

Bill Elder, Treasurer

I was born in the midwest (Kansas) but spent most of my life in Maryland, attending Sidwell Friends School, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and the University of Maryland. In college I majored in Psychology and Business Management, and later undertook advanced level work at Antioch University’s Columbia Visual Arts College pursuing a fine arts master’s degree. I also engaged in non-degree study at the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory. 

I moved to the mountains in 2003 and first visited UUFH in 2006, becoming a member in 2007. Prior to 2006 I was largely un-churched since leaving college, finding that creed based faith organizations required adherence to rules and dogma that I couldn’t wholly support.

Since that time, in addition to become an ardent UU, I have served the congregation in a number of capacities including UUFH board positions as Vice President, President, and Past President. During 2011-2013 I led the Sanctuary Renovation team. I have served in positions on the Worship Team, co-chaired the 2014-2015 Pledge Drive, served on the Strategic Planning team and the Committee on Ministries and founded/led the Concert Committee through six musical seasons at UUFH. I am a lifelong music lover and served as the President of the Hendersonville Symphony League for several years. After the League was absorbed into the Symphony board, I served as Vice President, two terms as President and am currently the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Hendersonville Symphony.

During a varied business career, I reached executive and officer level positions in several companies and retired from the corporate world in the late 1990’s to pursue my passion of photography. I was self-employed with my own company, Expressions! Photography LLC until retiring in 2011. During that time, I operated a portrait studio in Flat Rock as well as wide-ranging sports photography businesses in North and South Carolina.

Jerry Medeiros, Finance Committee Chair

My wife Charlotte and I joined our Fellowship just prior to the pandemic.  We were introduced to UU in Rockville, Maryland and ultimately married in a Bethlehem, PA UU church in which we both served as board members.

Having found Hendersonville while visiting the Biltmore on an RV road trip from Florida, we summered in Hendersonville for 10 years before becoming full time residence in 2016.

While in Florida, I did extensive volunteer work with Hospice and the local Hospital. With hospice, I served as a respite worker and also worked in a program to assist children who had lost their siblings and/or parents. For the local hospital, I served as an assistant chaplain visiting patients.  

I currently serve on the Endowment committee and look forward to contribute additionally as Finance Chair and Board Member.

Claudia Boozer-Short, At Large Member

 My husband, Mike, and I moved to Hendersonville in 2017 as snowbirds, living our summer and fall in Belgrade Lakes, ME. We moved from New Hampshire, where I had a 28-year career as Extension Educator in Family and Consumer Resources for the UNH Cooperative Extension. I had also been active for 30 years in the UU Church of Manchester, NH, so being part of a new UU community was very important to me. I immediately started attending UUFH and became a member in 2018. UUFH has felt even more like a home to me, since my parents were active members in the 1990’s. 

  As Co-chair of the Membership Team for many years, I have enjoyed welcoming newcomers and new members and working with my team members. I was also part of the Transition Team when Rev. Don Rollins was our Interim Minister. 

  Sadly, my dear Mike passed away from a massive heart attack on November 3, 2022. This community of UUFH friends has been a tremendous support and I am deeply grateful.

   I will continue to live in the summer cottage by the lake in Maine, which Mike and I enjoyed together for so many years. His two sons and their families will come for vacations, and I’ll welcome the visits from other family and friends too. Because of the Zoom technology, I’m still able to participate in Membership Teams Meetings and now Board of Director Meetings. And I watch the virtual services most Sundays. I look forward to returning to Hendersonville each Fall to greet my UUFH friends in-person! 

Bill Reese, At Large Member

I am originally from Johnstown, PA coming from a long Methodist tradition.   Eventually I moved up to the Southern Tier of New York and north eastern PA working mostly in accounting and corporate finance.   

Along the way I found Unitarian Universalism and I have belonged to congregations in both Pittsburgh, PA and Jamestown, NY.  I met my partner, Randy, in Jamestown, and has been with him for over 23 years.

Having originally discovered the area while my daughter was attending Warren Wilson College in Asheville, Randy and I retired to the Hendersonville area two years ago.    Both of us are small town, mountain folks, and Hendersonville was an ideal choice to escape from an average snow fall of over 250 inches a year.  

In addition to work and family, I have been involved as a volunteer in various social pursuits.

Evette Strickland, At Large Member

While I am new to UUFH (2/13/22), I was first introduced to Unitarianism almost 50 years ago. I have attended Unitarian churches in Knoxville, TN while in college, First Unitarian in Nashville as a young adult, and an old Universalist church in Hopkinsville, KY when Jack & I married, before linking up with a dozen Unitarians and forming the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Clarksville (TN) in 1992. I served as its 2nd president and was tapped to go to Boston for small congregation training. It was so exciting to spend a week at the spiritual center of our faith!  All told, Jack and I spent a dozen years helping to build UUFC into a viable church community and still support them.

When we relocated to East Tennessee from Kuwait, I attended UU Chattanooga, but due to the distance (55 miles each way), I could only attend irregularly. When Jack & I decided to downsize and relocate yet again, having a Unitarian church was priority #1. So here I am!

I am honored to be selected by my peers for this important assignment. I have no managerial skills nor advanced degrees. I am pragmatic and a good team player with a modicum of common sense. If confirmed, I will give the committee and the congregation my best efforts.

Steve Weisberg, At Large Member

Originally from NY, Steve lived in South Florida for 33years.  He was director of a Meals on Wheels Program for 20 years, and Executive Director of the Alliance for Aging for 5 years.  He retired in 2006 and lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico,  for over 12 years.  He and his wife Lynn moved to Hendersonville  in 2018 and joined UUFH in 2019.  Steve is currently a member of Membership Committee as well as Men’s Discussion Group and men’s Lunch group.