Staff

Office Manager – Kathy Flagstead

Kathy Flagstead is our Office Manager, administers and coordinates the work of the church office. This work involves managing the use of the church facilities by Hillcrest and outside groups and coordinating special service arrangements such as memorials, funerals, baptisms, etc. The Office Manager also prepares the worship service bulletins, and processes articles for publication in the church newsletter. Email Kathy

Financial Secretary – Jim Flagstead

Jim Flagstead is the Financial Secretary for Hillcrest and is responsible for processing bills for payment, for maintaining financial records of the church’s income and expenses, and for publishing financial reports. The Financial Secretary also maintains the membership roster, church attendance records and records of contributions. Email Jim

Chancel Choir Co-Directors – Kurt and Rose Loth

With backgrounds in classical music, as well as opera, they bring a love of great well-done music to the choir. While Rose usually conducts, Kurt can also be found directing, singing tenor, or playing handbells, sometimes at the same time!

Organist and Pianist – Dr. Mary Beth Lamb

Since Spring 2007, Mary Beth Lamb has been organist at the Hillcrest 10:30 service, where she also accompanies the Chancel Choir (piano and organ). She currently also plays at St. Catherine’s in Martinez, cantor at St. Perpetua in Lafayette, and sings with the Choral Ensemble of Cantare Con Vivo. She’s been involved in Church music since high school in Kansas City, MO, as choir member, director and accompanist. She currently teaches piano to around 35 budding musicians. She has a minor in music from St. Mary College in Leavenworth, KA (majored in theology), an MA in theological studies from the University of Dayton, OH and a Ph.D. in the history and culture of religions from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Pianist – Lino Rivera

Born in the Philippines, Lino Rivera has performed as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and accompanist on three continents. Lino is a celebrated performer for Composers, Inc., an organization based in San Francisco that is dedicated to promoting works by contemporary American composers, where he has performed three World Premieres in the past two seasons.

Lino currently serves as Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Saint Mary’s College of California. He holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Santo Tomas, the University of Hawaii, and a doctorate from the University of Maryland. Lino maintains active concert engagements across the country. He has been an accompanist with Hillcrest since 1999.

Pianist and Percussionist – Kevin Bench

Kevin Bench is one of the original musicians from the 8:30 am service created over 20 years ago. He is known for his keyboard work on a variety of instruments, as well as his percussion acumen. He plays at our services, memorials, weddings, and other church events. He was a touring member of Musica Sacra, a local interfaith choral group and currently is kept busy operating the new sound system.

Guitarist and Vocalist – Ron Borland

Ron Borland sings, plays guitar, mandolin, and percussion. He enjoys writing songs with Christian themes and strives to include a variety of musical genres in worship services. Ron taught the History of American Popular Music course at Humboldt State University (“most fun I ever had in a classroom”) and served as manager and program director at KHSU (Arcata, CA) and KDVS (Davis, CA). Ron has played at the 8:30 service at Hillcrest for the last 3 years and, before that, performed regularly at First Congregational Church (Antioch). Ron can be frequently found singing with Dee Dee Kirwan (also in the picture above) at the 8:30 service. Dee Dee brings a beautiful voice and a great talent on the guitar to enliven our morning service and other special occasions.