Reverend Dr. Amy McCullough
Lead Pastor
Reverend Dr. Amy McCullough
Lead Pastor
Rev. Dr. Amy McCullough has served as the Lead Pastor at Grace since July, 2011. Ordained in the Baltimore-Washington Conference in 2000, she has served previously at Glenelg United Methodist Church and as the Associate Minister at Metropolitan Memorial (now National) United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Wellesley College (B.A.) and Duke Divinity School (M.Div.). She holds a Ph.D. in Homiletics and Liturgics from Vanderbilt University and is the author of Her Preaching Body: Conversations in Identity, Agency, and Embodiment in Contemporary Female Preachers (2018). She is an avid reader and runner. Along with her husband, Chris McCullough, she is the proud parent of two children.
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Christopher Schroeder
Minister of Music/Organist
Christopher Schroeder
Minister of Music/Organist
Christopher Schroeder is the Minister of Music and Organist at Grace United Methodist Church in Baltimore, MD. Previously, Christopher was the Director of Music and Organist at Towson Presbyterian Church in Towson, MD. In May 2006 Christopher received a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance at Indiana University in Bloomington and in May 2008 he completed his Master’s degree in Organ Performance and Church Music at IU.
Christopher has been involved in church music for more than thirty years. His first church music experience was at St. Mary’s Catholic Church where his mother was organist. With years of piano instructions and experience, he began to play organ at several Protestant churches in Rushville, Indiana. Before graduating from high school, he studied organ privately at Earlham College and attended Interlochen Music Summer Camp. Christopher studied organ at Westminster Choir College before returning to Indiana University to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. Chris continued his interest in music with part-time positions at various churches in the Indianapolis area while working full time in the fields of Social Work and Accounting.
In the Fall of 2003, Christopher returned to higher education to complete his music degrees, attending Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. While there, he studied composition, choral and organ techniques. He completed both the Bachelor and Master degrees in Organ Performance and Church Music under the guidance of many fine musicians and professors including Dr. Marilyn Keiser and Dr. William Gray.
Christopher enjoys playing organ recitals in the Baltimore area. Other passions and expertise include choral and congregational singing. Other interests include pursuing ways to make organ music and congregational singing more enjoyable and meaningful to the congregations of the church and to the general public.
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David Brock
Associate Organist
David Brock
Associate Organist
David C. Brock, a native of Georgia, began his church music career at age 11 when he became the principal pianist and then organist at his United Methodist parish church. While attending Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1973, David studied organ privately with music department faculty and was organist for the Glee Club and Women's Chorale for the 1972 Festival of Lessons and Carols. He continued to commute on weekends in order to play at his home church each Sunday.
Following graduation, David was accepted into the Ph.D. program at the Johns Hopkins University and moved to Baltimore. He began attending the A.W. Wilson Memorial church, sang in the choir, and studied organ privately with the music director, Theodore J. Talbert.
In 1977, at the request of SPRC, he became the organist and choir director of the Wilson Memorial church, a position he held until the merger with Grace Church in 1996. David served on many committees at Wilson Memorial, including a number of years as chair of the Administrative Board, a position that he held at the time of the merger with Grace in 1996. When the longtime organist of Grace church, Bruce R. Eicher, requested additional vacation time to pursue travels, David was engaged to be associate organist to fill in for 16 weeks each year. Following Mr. Eicher's retirement, David continued as associate organist under the direction of Christopher Schroeder, minister of music. The position was changed to a focus on accompanying choir anthems, playing for rehearsals, and directing the chancel choir as needed.
In addition to the B.A. degree from Emory, David also earned a M.S. degree from Johns Hopkins, as well as a master's equivalency from Hopkins in history and education. He retired from the Baltimore City Public Schools in 2004 following a 30 year career in the classroom and central office administration. While at Grace, David has served on the Trustees and chaired the Worship Committee and the Administrative Board.
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Carolyn Young
Director of Children's Ministry
Carolyn Young
Director of Children's Ministry
Carolyn Young, our Director of Children’s Ministry, is first and foremost a Christian, an active servant of God and youth ministry leader. She comes to Grace Church from a forty-year career as an educator and administrator; upon retiring as a middle school principal, she operated her own preschool.
Carolyn has also worked with the autism community for the past eight years. She has a proven record of developing partnerships with diversity-focused organizations and has a wealth of knowledge and experiences providing resources within the special needs community. She was instrumental in establishing and managing relationships between individuals on the autism spectrum, their families, medical professionals, insurance companies, faith-based organizations, as well as Laurel Community College and Prince George Community College. Carolyn has also successfully developed platforms for community awareness and advocacy for the special needs community.
Additionally, she has served as a consultant in children's Christian education curricula, Christian formation and assisted various churches in developing special needs ministries. Ms. Young began her ministry at Grace on July 15, 2019 and her Children's Moment during worship immediately captivated children and adults alike!
She is the proud mother of four adult children and four wonderful grandchildren.
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Tami James
Director, Grace Preschool
Tami James
Director, Grace Preschool
Tami has been a teacher for seventeen years; the last thirteen were at Gilman School. Most of her teaching career has been in a first-grade classroom, and she’s convinced the students taught her how to be empathetic, flexible, and creative, all traits that are needed to be the Director of a Preschool. Tami was also the Director of Early Childhood at Gilman and gained experience in creating the budget, working with architects to design spaces for little ones, purchasing curriculum, and researching developmentally appropriate practices. All prepared her for her new role as Director at Grace Preschool and leader during this pandemic journey, 2020 – 21!
With new technology and stringent safety protocols, Tami and staff have a plan in place for in-person learning, distance learning, teaching videos, and a plan for times when the school is between the two! Most importantly, the staff has restructured daily plans to incorporate community building, play, and communication more than ever. She has every confidence that students at Grace will be met with empathy, love, compassion, warmth, safety, and security.
Tami met her husband, Barry, in the Dominican Republic; they had moved there independently after college graduation to teach at an international Christian school in Santiago. After two years there, they married and continued to teach there two more years. They both became teachers at Gilman and now have four children, Emma, Dominic, Amelia, and Esther, all attending either Bryn Mawr or Gilman.
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Alex Carney
Communications and A/V Specialist
Alex Carney
Communications and A/V Specialist
Alex is our Communications and AV Specialist, a part-time position entailing responsibility for the church’s electronic communications and worship production and streaming ministries, as well as providing oversight for the coordination of all of Grace’s communication streams.
Alex originally comes from Dillwyn, Virginia and has had a lifelong excitement for all things creative. They have a passion for social media marketing and communications that they have pursued through work with churches and nonprofits. They pursued a degree in religion and gender studies from Shenandoah University and then received their Masters of Divinity degree from Drew Theological School in May 2020. Their hobbies include knitting, makeup artistry, and watching horror movies. Alex also loves spending time with their partner, as well as their cats, sugar gliders, and snails.
They are present on Sunday mornings, most often at the AV booth in the balcony as well as in the church office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
William McBride III
Administrative Assistant