Vestry Nominees

Amy Krulak

Amy Krulak is a lifelong Episcopalian who has been a member of Memorial Episcopal Church her entire adult life. She and her husband Alastair were married here April 30 years ago. Their three children Zoë, Gordon and Silvia were baptized here and the whole family performed in the first several musicals.

In her professional life as a clinical social worker Amy has been employed by Baltimore City Schools for the last 27 years. Amy has also been involved with the Samaritan Community as a Board Member and volunteer over the last 26 years. Her commitment to Memorial Episcopal Church and the community is strong and dedicated to it’s health and vibrancy.

Stacy Wells

Stacy Wells currently serves as Memorial's Senior Warden and manages training development at the Federal Aviation Administration. She lives in Bolton Hill with her kids, Nate (15) and Mary Anne (13.5). You might see her being dragged around the neighborhood by her two pups - Beatrice (Bea) and Bennett (Benny). Her favorite role at Memorial is singing in the alto/best section of the Choir.

Beth Torres

Beth Torres is entering her second year as Junior Warden. She is happy to be indulged by being allowed to sing alto in the choir. A native of New Jersey and lifelong Episcopalian, Beth is an Army Veteran who spent 32 years in the Army band program as a horn player. To support her habit of living in Bolton Hill, she works at the Department of Veterans Affairs in the small business office. Beth plays principal horn with the Greenspring Valley Orchestra and the Baltimore Philharmonia, and is the horn player with Quintessence woodwind quintet. She holds degrees in horn performance, music history, MBA, and Strategic Studies.

Scott Purnell-Saunders

Thomas Penniston

Tom Penniston is originally from Palmer, AK, and was raised Catholic. He and his amazing wife, Erin, who he met as an undergraduate student in Knoxville, TN, began attending Memorial when they moved to Bolton Hill in 2009. Since that time, all three of their beautiful children have been born in the city, baptized at Memorial, and raised in the neighborhood and church.

Tom and Erin moved to Baltimore to attend graduate school, having returned from Peace Corps service in the Easter European country of Moldova. Tom went on to earn his doctorate and works at UMBC as the Coordinator of Learning Analytics. He is dedicated to civic engagement and helping breakdown the barriers that divide us within and across communities.

Wendy Yap

Wendy first visited Memorial Church in 1995, when she attended Festival on the Hill. Inside the sanctuary, she was astonished to find retired racing greyhounds awaiting adoption. She returned to attend Sunday services and was drawn to the music and Episcopal liturgy, and to Father Barney Farnham's commitment to build an inclusive urban church. A few years later, she and husband Seth were married at Memorial. After living in Boston for a number of years, they returned to Baltimore and to Memorial, with children Christine and Julian in tow.

Wendy is originally from Seattle, but spent her formative years in Singapore, where she attended the Methodist Girls' School. She is an operations manager for CDI Labs in Baltimore, a biotech company. Wendy was confirmed as an Episcopalian in June 2021, and enjoys serving as a Memorial Church greeter. She has served on Memorial's Vestry since 2021, and is learning from her peers how to strengthen the church and community through outreach.

Ryan Strum

Ryan Sturm is a father of three children; James, 6, Dory, nearly 4, and Charlie, nearly 2. Husband of one, Sophia, his wife, who is nearly 40(!!). He spends his time cooking delicious meals, playing disc golf, and trying to please his wife and children. Ryan attended Baltimore Lutheran High School, now Concordia Preparatory, and has an Episcopal upbringing, having been baptized and confirmed at St Johns Western Run Parish in the 1990s. Ryan also enjoys playing the guitar, though his fingers are now soft and only grace a fretboard a few times every month. Previously, he was a rising trumpeter, playing for marathon runners at Epcot Center in 1999 and the London Marathon in 2001, and he enjoyed a minor scholarship for playing in both Concert and Jazz bands at his small college. Having met his lovely wife at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, in 2002 as friends, they reconnected in Baltimore in 2010 and have since become slightly more than friends (at times), and since they both have Episcopal upbringings, it has been only natural that they found themselves feeling at home at Memorial Episcopal here in Bolton Hill. Residents of Mount Vernon, you might find them walking and panting, or testing their parallel parking skills, to attend church at Memorial. They have had two children at Bolton Hill Nursery school, with a third slated for entry next fall. They have also had two of their children baptized at Memorial, and really enjoy the Memorial community, and are excited to become further involved in the future of the church!

Keenan Dvorak-Fisher

Keenan Dworak-Fisher and his wife Sally Dworak-Fisher first came to Memorial in 2005 when they were enthusiastic members of the Connect prayer and discussion group.  They were drawn to Memorial by its eagerness to embrace the full meaning of Christ’s message of love, especially the inclusiveness within the church and its commitment to creating a more just society.   They have lived in Baltimore since 2002, first in Federal Hill and now in Otterbein.  Their son, Zeke, is in the 8th grade at Roland Park Middle School.  Keenan works as an economist for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington DC, where he directs the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) program. The mission of the NLS is to provide high-quality data to support meaningful research in the social sciences, and Keenan loves that this work puts him in contact with researchers from a wide variety of fields who use NLS data to study economic, demographic, and social topics throughout the life course of the surveys' subjects.   He is looking forward to bringing his analytical skills to help Memorial continue applying its resources wisely and justly in the world.  In his spare time, he likes reading, running, and harassing Sally and Zeke with his extremely bad Dad jokes.

David Dimmock

David came to Baltimore in 1976 as a fresh college graduate, to visit his brother and play in a pit orchestra for a community theater musical. He subsequently won a lottery drawing for a "dollar house" renovation project in Otterbein and never left town. His first association with Memorial was playing in the pit for Annie in 2010. He joined the church choir in 2013 and has been here ever since. David is retired from Northrop Grumman, where he worked for 35 years in program management. He lives in Guilford with his wife Megan and their beloved dog, Dexter.

Steve Howard

Stacy Wells currently serves as Memorial's Senior Warden and manages training development at the Federal Aviation Administration. She lives in Bolton Hill with her kids, Nate (15) and Mary Anne (13.5). You might see her being dragged around the neighborhood by her two pups - Beatrice (Bea) and Bennett (Benny). Her favorite role at Memorial is singing in the alto/best section of the Choir.

David Toia

David Toia serves as Registrar on the Vestry at Memorial. The son of an Episcopal priest in Bucks County Pennsylvania, he grew up in the rectory of Good Shepherd Church in Hilltown where his father was minister and his mother played with the folk group. Growing up, David studied piano, percussion, and voice, and sang with several touring choirs. He graduated Cabrini College with a degree in Communications and worked for several years as a radio engineer and producer with several radio stations in Philadelphia. He went on to complete his Masters in Humanities at Arcadia University, where he met his wife Justina. David has worked for several school districts in Pennsylvania, a private school in Maryland and is now the Manager of Immersive Media with the Center for Teaching and Learning at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Much of his current work includes running the Center's video production team and designing virtual reality content. Additionally, David is an adjunct instructor with the Johns Hopkins School of Education where he teaches Gaming and Simulation Design for Education. David, Justina, and their son Grey, live in Mt. Washington. 

Vacant