Our Staff
| The Reverend Tracy
Nichols Huffman, Pastor
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| Reverend Drew Hart, Assistant Pastor
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| Mary Marzec, Director
of Discipleship
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Joe Stapleton , Director of Youth Ministries
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| Gabriela Hristova, Director
of Music
A native of Bulgaria, Dr. Hristova came to the USA in 2001 to pursue education and a professional career as a Choral Conductor. She holds a bachelor degree in Choral Conducting and Music Education from the State Academy of Music, Sofia, Bulgaria. She has received a Masters Degree and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she studied under the direction of Professors Jerry Blackstone and Theodore Morrison. Dr. Hristova has worked and performed with choirs of all age groups, both professional and amateur. At Michigan she has been a Conductor of the University of Michigan Women’s Glee Club for two years after being their assistant conductor. She has been the chorus master for the University of Michigan Opera Productions and has been performing with the School of Music Chamber Choir, University Choir, and Orpheus Singers. Outside the University she has been Assistant Conductor and Accompanist of the Flint Festival Chorus, at Flint, Michigan, and has been active as a music teacher and adjudicator. Last winter she was the Visiting Director of Choral Activities at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. She directed the Oberlin College Singers, College Choir, and Musical Union, and taught an advanced conducting seminar. Before coming to West Side she was the Chancel Choir Director at St. Paul United Church of Christ in Saline, MI for four and half years. |
Beth Snyder, Office Manager Beth is coming to us after relocating from Wilmore, Kentucky where her husband completed his Masters of Divinity degree. She has spent the better part of her adult life in lay ministry volunteering in missions, staff parish relations, youth leader, mentor, bible study facilitator, and Sunday school teacher and curriculum developer. Originally from Dexter, Beth and her husband Tom recently returned to Dexter UMC as a pastor and wife team. They raised their three children in the Dexter/Ann Arbor area and now enjoy the addition of three grandchildren and son and daughters-in-law. Completing her degree in Management & Ethics from Asbury University in August, 2011, she is excited to put her newly acquired skills (and previous experiences) to work at West Side. Email: westside@westside-umc.org |
Photographs Copyright © 2010 Olan Mills, Inc. |
Tracy Huffman
has served as pastor of West Side United
Methodist Church since
1999. She is a graduate of Michigan State University
where she earned a bachelor’s degree
in Religious Studies in 1990. She continued
her studies at Boston University School of
Theology earning a Master of Divinity degree
in 1994. Rev. Huffman was ordained in the United
Methodist Church in 1994. Prior to joining the
staff at West Side she was an associate pastor at the United Methodist
Church in Clarkston, Michigan, from 1995 until
1999.
Pastor Drew joined our staff in 2008. He is an Ann Arbor native, and was active at West Side until he entered seminary in 1989. He was graduated from The University of Michigan in 1988 with a degree in Music Education, and from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1993 with a Master of Divinity. Prior to joining the staff at West Side, Drew served three congregations: Lake Orion, The Church of the Straits (Mackinaw City), and Millington. He and his wife, Caroline, have one daughter, Rachel.
Mary has been
employed at West Side since 2001. She came
to West Side with a
life time of experience volunteering in the United
Methodist Church. Mary has completed a four year
program and is commissioned as a Parish Christian
Educator through the Detroit Annual Conference.
Mary married Tim Marzec in 1977. They have a son
Joe, a daughter April, and son-in-law Pat. "The work of the Spirit
does not call for perfection, but for a journey.
My ministry at West Side is very much a part
of my Spirit's journey."
Joe Stapleton started as the youth director at WSUMC in January of 2012. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in English and was born and raised in Ann Arbor. He is committed to making the youth program at West Side a place where young people can safely inquire, seek, and learn for themselves, in a creative and original way, how it is to know God. "Yes; this is the way I should like him to rejoice, preferring to find you in his uncertainty than in his certainty to miss you." - St. Augustine.
Dr. Gabriela Hristova has been Director of Music at West Side United Methodist Church since August 2007. She is an active performer of Choral Music and a Music educator. She is a full time Professor of Music at the University of Michigan-Flint, serving as Director of Choral Music and a lecturer of History of Western Music.