2019 Nominating Committee Nominees

NOMINEES FOR FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH NOMINATING COMMITTEE (CLASS OF 2019) The Nominating Committee is responsible for considering nominations and preparing the slate of persons to be recommended for election as Ruling Elders. The Nominating Committee also nominates members to serve on Pastor Nominating Committees when needed. Each year four members are elected by the Congregation and two members are designated from the Session to serve on the Nominating Committee for a term of two years. The following nominees will appear on the slate for a congregational vote at the Annual Meeting February 5, 2017. Nominations may also be made by the congregation during the Annual Meeting. Persons nominated from the floor must have been contacted by the nominating member and expressed a strong willingness to serve and to make a regular time commitment.

Betsy Hasson and her husband Keith have been members of FPC since 2004. A native of Durham, NC, Betsy graduated from East Carolina University and has lived in Atlanta since 2000. At FPC, Betsy has served on the Flower Guild, the Christian Education Council, as the Chair of the Nursery Preschool Committee, as the Chair of the Christmas Pageant and has volunteered on the Nursery and Elementary Halls since 2007. She currently serves on the Emerging Generations Council, the Children’s Ministry subcommittee, is a Volunteer POD Leader on the Elementary and Nursery Halls, a member of Circle 5, and is the current Treasurer of Presbyterian Women.

Betsy and Keith live in Chastain Park with their two boys. Cooper is in third grade and JK is in first grade both at WT Jackson Elementary School. When not volunteering for FPC, Betsy occasionally finds time to read and travel with her family.

Tom Lowry first attended FPC in 1993 after graduating from Rhodes College and moving to Atlanta. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama where he and his family attended Independent Presbyterian Church. Tom and his wife, Elise, were married at FPC in 1999. They have an 8th grader, Ethan, and a 5th grader, Emma. The Lowrys live in Loring Heights. Tom has leveraged his Political Science degree to the fullest having spent his career in the totally unrelated field of the Internet. You may have seen his 'Technology and the Family' talk he has shared a number of times around the church. Tom and Elise are members of the Ours For Today Sunday School class.

Most recently Tom served on the Long Range Strategic Planning team.

Mary Catherine Sutherland and husband Ben have attended First Presbyterian since 2007, but became members in 2010. Mary Catherine grew up in Nashville, TN and attended and was confirmed at First Presbyterian Nashville. She graduated from Emory University Nursing School and worked at Piedmont Hospital for nearly 8 years. She and Ben got married in 2005 and have two children (Charlotte, 7, and Catherine, 3, with another on the way. Mary Catherine is active in Sunday school, as a preschool and elementary volunteer, in outreach to families with new babies, and most recently, served on the Long Range Strategic Planning Team.

Gail Watson comes from a long line of members of First Presbyterian Church, including both sets of grandparents, the Minnichs and Paullins, and parents William and Caroline Minnich. Gail, her sister Cary Lide, and brother Bill Minnich were all baptized and raised at FPC. Gail was married to her husband, David Watson, at FPC and they raised three children—David Jr., Elizabeth Watson Shelton, and Katharine Watson Cowan—here. Gail went to E.Rivers Elementary, Northside High, the newlyfounded Westminster Schools, and then on for two years at Pine Manor Junior College in Wellesley, MA before transferring to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she graduated with a degree in elementary education. Gail taught school in Atlanta for several years and at First Presbyterian, has been a Sunday school teacher, a Stephen Minister, a Flower Guild volunteer, a member of the Hospitality Committee, a volunteer at the reception desk, and a faithful member of the Chancel Choir. She loves to garden, enjoy the outdoors, travel, and spend time with her beautiful family.