Photo by Joel Carrico

Reverend Sara Pearson

Meet Rev. Sara

Pastor Sara has been serving as a pastor at Prince of Peace since 2015.  Her first call was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in an awesome town called Minong.  Before becoming a pastor, Sara served in the Peace Corps, worked as a naturalist, and slept in on Sundays.  In 2007 she followed the Holy Spirit to seminary up in Berkeley where she met her husband, Nathan.  The two have been married for 12 years and love that their kids (elementary ages) get to have a whole church family to support them.
   
Pastor Sara’s passion for church work includes inter-faith relationships, helping those who have been hurt by organized religion to find a loving community, and making puns a normative language.  When she isn’t working hard at theology and community building, you can find her surfing in the ocean, playing with her kids, or riding her bike.  To connect with Pastor Sara for walks, coffee, or beer, use the link below.

Email Rev. Sara

Vicar Sharon

Vicar (or Intern Pastor) Sharon was born in Michigan as a Preacher’s Kid in a fundamental Baptist denomination. From these roots she gained a deep understanding of what it means to serve God and care for others. She also learned how to deliver a sermon at a young age.
 
Through a variety of life experiences, across wide-ranging parts of the US, she began to find her way. She discovered a passion to work with those in substance addiction and this led her to pursue a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology at The Seattle School for Theology and Psychology in Washington State.
 
In 2018, following significant life challenges, she followed an inspiration that led her to a local Lutheran church that welcomed her with no expectations, affirmed her belovedness, and encouraged her to return to her calling to love God and serve others. Two years later she began her studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley. Sharon is now with us until July 2024.
 
Vicar Sharon welcomes any opportunity to talk about theology or spirituality, life lessons learned the hard way, or what spark of joy you’ve encountered in your life. Click the link below to connect with her.

Email Vicar Sharon

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Photo by Joel Carrico

Office Manager:
Anne

Anne joined the team in May 2007 as Community Life Director to focus on building relationships within Prince of Peace and to assist the congregation in active involvement in our community.  In December 2018, Anne took over as the full time office manager when Carol Gobby retired. Still you will often see her around Prince of Peace with a camera, taking action shots of all of our fun activities for the website, Facebook page and newsletters.

​Anne received her Bachelor of Human Environmental Sciences from the University of Missouri at Columbia. She has worked in retail management, IT services marketing, software training, and human resources. 

When not at Prince of Peace she volunteers at her children's school. She also loves long walks on the beach, sailing, reading, cocktails and meals with interesting people.

Email Anne

Photo by Joel Carrico

Director of Youth & Service Ministry:
​Drew

Drew joined Prince of Peace in May 2019. Originally from San Diego, CA, Drew has traveled a lot since childhood. He  graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College (an ELCA affiliated school in St. Peter, MN) with a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy.

Drew early career started with Lutheran Volunteer Corps in Milwaukee, WI. Being placed at an inner city school with at-risk youth which ignited a passion for working with youth and creating and implementing systems of simplicity, sustainability, and justice. He spent three years teaching English and working with community leaders towards improving the segregation and inequality issues that plague Milwaukee.

After seven winters in the Midwest, Drew returned home to California. He has spent four years working at two ELCA Camps in Southern California: El Camino Pines and Luther Glen. There Drew worked as Program Director of both camps, overseeing Summer Camp, Winter Retreats, weeks of Environmental Education, and creating service learning opportunities for inter-generational ministries.
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Now in the Bay Area for the first time, Drew is thrilled to be part of the Prince of Peace family. He is excited to be able to share his love of community, sustainability, and social justice with the youth and congregation as a whole as Director of Youth and Service Ministry. When not working, Drew can normally be found telling amazing jokes, playing with his two cats, or exploring the Bay Area.

Email Drew

Photo by Anne Hess

Office Associate:
Katie

Katie joined the staff at Prince of Peace in June 2023, after being a member for over 20 years. A San Jose native, she graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA with a BFA in Graphic Design. After many years working in the real estate industry she is excited to now be in the nonprofit world, supporting a congregation that shares her enthusiasm for social justice issues and inclusion.

While not working in the office, you can probably find her at the nearest thrift store or letterpress printing on her antique printing press. She is also a volunteer at History San Jose with the San Jose Printers' Guild. 

Email Katie

​Music Staff

Photo by: Teresa Tam

Music Director:
​Barbara Day Turner

Barbara Day Turner has been on the music staff of Prince of Peace for almost 40 years. She is also  the founder and music director of the San José Chamber Orchestra, and its family of youth orchestras, celebrating their 25th Anniversary! An ardent advocate for new music, she has premiered more than 130 new works with SJCO alone, as well as 5 operas, an assortment of harpsichord works written for her and a number of other unclassifiable works involving music. Named the 2012 Silicon Valley Arts Council “On Stage” Artist Laureate, Maestra Day Turner is also Music Administrator and Conductor of the Utah Festival Opera where she has been resident conductor for 15 seasons. She has led 25 of the Festival’s mainstage productions, including such works as Barber's Vanessa, Verdi’s Otello, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Mozart's Don Giovanni and musicals including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Secret Garden, and Kiss Me Kate. Maestra Day Turner has conducted opera in Berlin and the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra in Germany as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Mexico, as well as guest conducting throughout the US. Her discography includes six recordings with SJCO, the PBS award-winning DVD of George Roumanis’ opera Phaedra, the Naxos release of Alva Henderson’s opera Nosferatu, and a recent critically acclaimed Naxos release of varied works by Howard Hersh entitled 6Angels and Watermarks. Recently honored with the SJSU Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Alumna award, she is a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera national auditions, a judge for the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and serves on the board of directors of the Women's Philharmonic Advocacy and the advisory boards of the Delphi Trio and Opera Neo in San Diego. Maestra Day Turner holds BA and MA degrees in music, with an emphasis in harpsichord performance from San Jose State University.

Music Staff Associate:
​Kerry Lewis

Music Staff Associate Kerry Lewis assists Director Barbara Day Turner in rehearsing and conducting the choir, writing and arranging music for church services, and organizing/maintaining the music library at Prince of Peace. When he is not conducting the choir Kerry sings in it, as does his wife Elizabeth.
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Kerry is a published composer and a graduate of San Jose State University, where he studied music composition with Lou Harrison. His music has been performed by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Winchester Orchestra, the Prince of Peace Sanctuary Choir, and other local groups. Kerry and Elizabeth are long-time members of Prince of Peace and have lived in San Jose for many years.

Organist:
​Michael Touchi

Organist/pianist/composer Michael Touchi has been providing lovely "grace notes" at Prince of Peace for over 26 years. The San José Chamber Orchestra's Creative Consultant, Michael's most recent work, Gallarda, was commissioned and premiered by SJCO early in 2014. Written for pianist Jon Nakamatsu and clarinetist Jon Manasse. Gallarda was reviewed as a “work of dancing lyricism”-”exciting”. Other popular works written for SJCO include Kahea, Tango Barroco, Nocturn, and Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings. He has numerous choral works published, and a recording of his brass quintet Chorea Solis was recently released by the St. Louis Low Brass Collective. A pianist and woodwind doubler, his professional affiliations include Symphony Silicon Valley, Opera San José, West Bay Opera, TheatreWorks, and Best of Broadway San Francisco. He can be heard on the Broadway revival cast album of A Chorus Line, Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohéme, George Stiles’ The 3 Musketeers, and has a CD of compositions featuring commissioned works by SJCO. A native of San José, he received his B.A. in music performance from San Jose State University where he studied bassoon with Vernon Read and composition with Brent Heisinger.

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