Candidates 2025
Meet the Candidates 2025
These are the candidates running for election at the Congregational Meeting on May 18th.
Andy Cramer
Board
President
Andy has found church leadership positions to be a good use of his skills and a positive experience. In his previous congregation, over the span of nearly 20 years, he served in many leadership roles, including the Board of Trustees, chair of a search committee, and chair of the stewardship committee. Andy currently serves as the Vice president of the Board of Trustees, worship associate, and co-chair of the Stewardship Committee and the Social Justice Coordinating Committee.
For Andy, “Being a UU and participating in congregational life is integral to who I am and calls me to grow and be the best version of myself.” He views church leadership as developing an understanding of the needs and desires of the congregation, articulating those, and leading the congregation to their achievement.
Andy Cramer
Fred Pannek
Board
Secretary
Fred is a lifelong Unitarian who has been active in congregations from Chicago to Atlanta to San Diego before moving to Sacramento in retirement. His team building and management skills, honed during his business career, will benefit the UUSS Board.
Fred cherishes the wonderful people and larger community he has found at UUSS. After serving in various volunteer roles here, he looks forward to contributing his energy and leadership skills to the continued growth of UUSS, as a compassionate, nurturing, community.
Emily Moran-Vogt
Board
Member at Large
Emily’s extended family has a long history of church involvement and leadership in the Seventh Day Adventist and Spiritualist traditions. While neither of these faith traditions fit what she wanted for herself and her family, she missed the community building around shared values that these communities brought and longed for a tradition that embraced different perspectives where people felt free to be themselves. She also wanted a community committed to public service and actively showing up for their broader regional community. In UUSS, she and her family found that community and are grateful to have been welcomed with open arms.
Emily feels called to building community and spiritual development in others. As the facilitator of the Young Adult Group at UUSS, she has helped younger folks in the congregation build connections, and looks forward to continuing that important work. Emily has extensive experience in managing social service programs at the county and state levels. She believes that support systems (such as government and community organizations) have the power to change people’s lives for the better and is inspired and dedicated to improving those systems of care. Emily is skilled at strategic planning, program evaluation, budget and contract development, coaching and mentoring, and communications, and wishes to apply those skills to UUSS’s benefit.
Emily Moran-Vogt
Patty Innes
Board
Member at Large
Patty has served as a greeter and volunteered with Soup Sunday. These experiences have been meaningful, and she looks forward to serving UUSS in a greater capacity. During her career as an RN she worked with a diverse range of people and groups—patients, administrators, and coworkers—in many different situations. That experience taught her to filter out distractions and truly listen to others’ concerns.
Patty deeply values collaboration and believes it’s essential in leadership. To engage others, she would focus on creating a welcoming atmosphere by not taking herself too seriously, actively listening to others, and ensuring they feel valued. Especially in uncertain times, this community grounds her, offering support and fellowship through simple acts of connection and uplifting words. Growing up, she admired the dedication of her grandparents to their church and is grateful now to have the opportunity to serve her own congregation as they once did.
Tom Derthick
Endowment Trust
Tom looks forward to further serving UUSS as he retires from some of his career roles while continuing to perform as a professional musician. Our community has been a great source of inspiration in the nearly two decades he and Lisa have been members. He is glad to contribute to the mission, values and covenant of the congregation.
Tom has 40 years of experience working with non-profit performing arts organizations in collective bargaining. His role as Union President involved management of budget, record keeping and conflict resolution with colleagues as well as employers. He has served the UUSS congregation in Religious Education, the Stewardship Campaign, the Grasshoppers, and solo recitals for the benefit of the UUSS music program.
Tom Derthick
Robin Viesel
Nominating Committee
After her first term on the Nominating Committee, Robin has learned enough about the processes and leadership structure of UUSS to further our mission of expanding our candidate pool to include a more diverse cross-section of the congregation, in terms of age, gender, expertise, and experience.
As she continues to engage in new roles and activities, she feels increasingly enmeshed in the UUSS community and better equipped to contribute meaningfully to our goal of offering a seat at the leadership table to more of our members. As a dual citizen and resident, she can offer a wider perspective on our UU culture and practices, on assumptions that we may assume are universal, but are not.
Sally White
Nominating Committee
Sally White has served UUSS as President of the Board of Trustees and Co-chair of the Stewardship Committee. Her other roles include the Auction Committee and Soup Sunday volunteer. She will bring her experience and knowledge of the congregation and its members to assist the Nominating Committee in finding appropriate candidates for our elected offices.
For Sally, community means interdependence, camaraderie, and working together to continue to build a strong organization that makes a difference in the greater community.
Sally White
Amanda Dewey
Nominating Committee
Being a part of the UUSS community aligns with Amanda’s personal and professional missions of being a force for healing in the world as a human, mother, partner, and nurse. Her intention on the Nominating Committee is for her enthusiasm for service and our beloved community to inspire others to serve.
Amanda’s experience as a nurse educator and project manager and her roles on the Safety and Caring committees at UUSS have prepared her to nurture leadership in our congregation. She looks forward to deepening her knowledge of UUSS and its members.
Sean Fountain
Program Council
Sean is deeply committed to continuing to further the Program Council’s goal of merging with the congregation’s shared values of Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity, with Love at the center.
As a leader at UUSS, he is not afraid to ask the uncomfortable questions and find creative solutions. His goal is to enable UUSS to act out our intention of radical inclusion and genuine welcome in order to keep new visitors attending and bring new volunteers to our programs and groups. Sean envisions UUSS as a pan-generational community, where children, youth, parents, and young adults are integral to our very concept of our congregations.
Sean Fountain
David Paul
Program Council
David wants to give his time, talent and support to UUSS in a leadership capacity after a career in local government. In his more than 20 years at UUSS David served on various committees and activities — most recently as Adult Enrichment Committee co-chair, the choir, and leading our monthly volunteers at Loaves & Fishes. Outside of UUSS, he is involved in Sister District, a political organization supporting Democrats in swing state elections.
For David, it is critical to have a community that shares his values and goals for the common good. In the current political climate our belief in the dignity and worth of every person becomes even more important. As a Program Council representative, he would be approachable, listen, and have fun while keeping in mind our values. His preferred approach to leadership is to work toward consensus, while not shying away from asking questions and saying no when appropriate.
Angela Martin
Program Council
Angela is inspired by the idea that within UUSS, we have both the freedom and the responsibility to create a beloved community rooted in connection, inclusion, and shared purpose. She believes that what we cultivate here—spaces of belonging, deep relationship, and spiritual exploration—serves as a powerful antidote to the isolation and loneliness so many experience in the wider world. She is excited by the opportunity to co-create programming that is welcoming, life-giving, and reflective of our UU values.
To this role she brings the skill of collaboration, honed through years as a community advocate, where she learned the importance of deep listening—creating space for diverse perspectives and working together to co-create solutions that honor the needs of the broader community. This spirit of shared leadership and intentional engagement aligns with the values of UUSS and would guide her approach to serving on the Program Council. As the working parent of a young child, she feels a special responsibility to help create spaces where parents can feel supported, connected, and deeply welcomed.
Angela Martin