Mark Atkinson

I first attended Blacknall as an undergrad at Duke in the mid-80’s. Growing up Southern Baptist, I tried the local Baptist churches, but noticed my friends were all attending Blacknall. It quickly became my church home. After Duke, marrying Helen, four years in the Navy, a 25-year career at Kimley-Horn, living in Cary, raising four children, and attending NCCU law school (2017-2020), Helen and I moved back to Durham in January 2020. We joined as members in early 2021.

Important parts of our re-integration into Blacknall were a backyard worship service during the worst of COVID, helping in the nursery and on the audio/PPT team (BAT), my involvement on the Durham Ministry & Engagement Team (DMET) for a two-year stint, and a small group that we host at our home. 

I thankfully grew up in a loving Christian home. I have always appreciated a good sermon, but as I've gotten older, I've learned to value the times of confession, the Lord's Supper, and being in a community that shapes me and reminds me of the good things that are in Christ Jesus.

Rich Frothingham

I joined Blacknall in 1978 when I arrived at Duke for medical school. Margaret and I met here and were married by Ed Henegar. We have three married children and three grandchildren. I currently care for people with HIV infection at Duke and for federal prisoners at Butner.

Jesus is my Lord and Savior. I experience his unconditional love and forgiveness. Serving him means caring for those on the margins. Examples have included rural Haitians, gay men, prisoners, and persons with disabilities.

I connect to Blacknall community in worship and in service. I currently lead a small group, sing in the choir, teach 4th and 5th grade boys, and serve meals with Reality Ministries. In the past I’ve led missions, family life, and finance committees. I’m open to multiple roles as an Elder.

We experience tension as an evangelical congregation within the PC(USA), and we have internal conflicts. I hope that we will continue to reach across the various divides, listen to each other, and respect each other. When I first entered Blacknall, mill-worker Luther Raspberry greeted me and handed me a piece of hard candy. Going forward, I hope we will continue to welcome whoever comes through our doors.

Pete Gerend

Alexa and I have been married for 26 years. Together we are blessed to be the parents of Asa (20), Jack (18), Greta (16), and Sam (14). I spend my work days at Bain & Company, where I partner with leaders of large organizations as they navigate change. I also teach undergrads at Duke on the intersection of buinsess and theology.

We’ve been at Blacknall since 2003. I love the diversity and energy of this place — it’s full of long-serving saints and people for whom Durham is a meaningful stop along their journey. In many ways, Blacknall is our family here in Durham. It's a place where we feel truly known and loved and are called to serve.

It’s humbling to be known and loved by the Word made flesh, the Creator of all things. I am on a journey with Jesus — walking in the assurance of salvation while still living in a broken world. Jesus continually challenges my comfortable assumptions about what it means to follow Him and to be salt and light. Passages like Romans 12 have been especially shaping for me — the call to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind,” to offer my life as a living sacrifice, and to use whatever gifts I’ve been given in service to others. 

We find ourselves in a meaningful moment, in a place full of opportunity and more than enough challenge. As Blacknall continues to live into its calling, I’m excited by the ways we are being invited to embody the love of Christ more fully — in how we worship, serve, and engage our neighbors. My hope and prayer is that we would continue to discern together how to faithfully live that calling with humility, courage, and love.

Ron Manila

I grew up in Philadelphia and studied in Pittsburgh before a saving encounter with Jesus while I was completing a master’s degree in environmental engineering at Duke. People at Blacknall played a significant role in my faith journey and also introduced me to Betsy Scholtes, now Manila. We married in 1996 at Blacknall and were sent out by the church to serve in Central Asia for nearly 25 years as part of a YWAM ministry.

I led various projects and teams consisting of Christians and non-Christians as we served communities with development projects while sharing the love of Christ. We raised our two oldest children, Daniel and Faith, overseas, and adopted our two youngest, Joy and Joseph, whom God connected us with through our ministry work. In 2023, we returned to Durham to join International Students Inc. at Duke University, providing practical blessings to international students from many different backgrounds and seeking to give them opportunities to encounter Jesus. 

During these efforts of inviting others to follow Jesus, I have often been humbled by Him as He calls me to change, by his grace, to think and act more like He does. Blacknall has been an important part of that walk. If I serve in the role of Elder, I would seek to help us as a community to stay true to the call of the Gospel: to look more like Jesus, by His grace, as we work with Him to invite more people from all backgrounds to join us, by His grace, in this calling.

Susie Meghdadpour

I work as a nurse practitioner at Duke as part of a team providing care for children with chronic lung diseases. I also have a public health degree, and an interest in studying how families and communities influence the health and behavior of vulnerable children.

I grew up in Iran, in a Christian family, and acknowledged Jesus as my Lord and Savior as a teenager. I attended a small school, originally a Presbyterian Mission school, and "chapel" was part of my elementary school experience. My faith was both challenged and grew when I was in college, and Blacknall was a part of that. Through my adult life, I've continued — sometimes daily — to learn to trust God for His good gifts, to believe in His abundance, and to see His hand and care both in good times and in hard circumstances.

I joined Blacknall as a college student at Duke and have been involved in local missions, children’s ministry, communion prep, and as an Elder with responsibility for our Mission Outreach. I’m currently on the board of Samaritan Health Center, and am also learning how to stand with, and support, our immigrant neighbors. I love how much Blacknall is a church that cares for its members but also for neighbors. I’m grateful for the ways this community has given me places to use my gifts, and hope that I can be a part of Blacknall’s ongoing deep engagement in worship and mission — as a response to God’s great love for us.

Trina Rogers

My husband, John, and I have called Blacknall home since 2020, along with our three children, Liza (21), Cate (11), and James (10).

I am deeply grateful to belong to a community that loves God’s Word and seeks to live out Christ’s love everyday. Some of my most meaningful connections have been forged through Women’s Bible Study, where I co-facilitate a small group, and through the Chapel Hill small group we co-lead.

I am grateful daily for the gift of faith – the unearned saving grace of Jesus that Paul beautifully articulates in Ephesians 2:8. God has used many churches to shape my faith. I have deep roots in the Presbyterian church, where I was baptized and developed a personal relationship with Christ. I’m married to a PC(USA) pastor, and spent nine years volunteering alongside John during his time as a campus minister. I have also been richly blessed by gospel-centered churches beyond our denomination and delight in the ways Blacknall weaves different traditions together in worship.

Professionally, I am an entrepreneur. After earning my MBA, I co-founded and spent 18 years building a business with my father. Since selling the company, I have served on the board of the Center for Christian Study at the University of Virginia, coach UNC entrepreneurship students, volunteer in our children’s schools, and mentor students through the NC Study Center.

It would be a joy to serve Blacknall as an elder, humbly seeking to embody the truth and beauty of Jesus together.

Chad Weinard

I was raised and came to faith in the Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama. After attending Duke University as an undergraduate, I met my wife, Ashley, studying art history in graduate school in New York City. In 2003, we adopted an old farmhouse in Durham and joined Blacknall, where we felt the presence of Christ in a community we came to love. I now work as an independent technology consultant for art museums and research institutions.

Vibrant experiences of the Spirit working in India, Rwanda, and Uganda impressed on me the value of sharing relational ministry with partners, congregations, and communities around the world. At Blacknall, I’ve served as chair of the International Ministries Team (IMT), which supports an amazing slate of individual ministry partners — many of whom are former members, all with deep connections to our congregation. I’m currently a member of the team that guides Blacknall’s “Deep Common Journey” with Congo Initiative. Our international partnerships are deeply relational: We seek to be changed as we help our beloved partners affect change, ministering to those around them.

For more than 20 years, Blacknall has been a blessing to our family, and we’ve sought to be a blessing as well. Our three children (now 20, 18, and 14) were born, baptized, and loved at Blacknall from the nursery to Sunday School to Blacknall Youth Group and beyond. Over the years, we’ve been involved in many aspects of Blacknall life — whether hosting dear small groups and annual Easter celebrations, or leading committees — each has drawn us closer to community, and to Christ. Blacknall has shown us the Word made flesh, and out of such abundance, I’m eager to serve.

Stephanie Wheatley

I began attending Blacknall in 2008. It has been a church home for Chris and me and our two daughters, Chloë and Marika, ever since. I have been blessed through friendships, our worship as a community, small groups, time on the Session, and serving alongside of friends. 

I came to faith as a child in a Christian home and am so grateful to have friendships and experiences that nurtured a deeper faith as I grew up. At the center of my faith is my trust in God’s love for us in Jesus and the practices of prayer and worship where we draw close to him. I have grown in my faith especially through challenging seasons and can see God clearly at work through His people. The community at Blacknall has been a specific blessing in my life.

It is my prayer and hope that Blacknall continues its many decades of faithful witness to Christ in Durham in the coming years, especially as we discern how to welcome people who cross our paths in this city. 

Charlene Brown

I grew up in Northern Virginia and attended the University of Virginia (’08), where I became a follower of Jesus through campus ministry. While I had visited Blacknall many times since moving to Durham to pursue my MDiv at Duke (’11), I began regularly attending in 2021 and joined in 2022. In hindsight, I see threads of Blacknall’s ministry throughout my journey —from coming to hear John Perkins as a student, to volunteering with the food pantry at Iglesia Emanuel, and through the church’s support and prayers as I launched InterVarsity at NCCU and later as I served as InterVarsity’s National Director for Black Campus Ministries work. I am grateful for the ways God has provided a worshipping community, accountability, and discipleship. Of note, I’m an avid baker, lover of board games, biker of AT on beautiful mornings, and a Urologic Surgery Resident at UNC. My life, faith, ministry, and leadership have been transformed by the triune God and it’s out of this transformation that I hope to serve. I am excited about how our community might grow in prayer, live more missionally, and bear witness to God’s glory in Durham and beyond.

Melissa Hartemink

I began attending Blacknall in 2001 when my husband, Alex, and I moved to Durham. We quickly felt at home: The Blacknall community is an integral part of our life together, where we can know and be known, love and be loved, serve and be served. Through worship, fellowship, and service, I see and experience Christ at work in the body of believers. My gifts include teaching, hospitality, and administration, and my walk with Christ compels me to serve the church. After 24 years of membership, I have participated in many ways, including Durham partner ministries, children's ministries, small groups, women's ministries, two staff search committees, and our recent pastor nominating committee.

My favorite part of Sunday is being with you, God's people, praising the Lord through song, and partaking in communion where I am reminded each week of the Lord's deep love for me, for us; that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are His beloved children, and in Him, we have new life. God's Word, as revealed through the Scriptures, and my relationship with Christ are central to how I see the world, my relationships, and my vocation.

I am an educator by training and have taught elementary students in a variety of settings in Massachusetts, Durham, and Kenya. I am mother to Abigail (21) and Andrew (19) and stayed home with them for 10 years before re-entering my career as an educator. I am humbled by and grateful for this opportunity.

Dan Kronstad

I am humbled to be considered to serve at Blacknall as elder for a second term.  My wife, Tanya, and I have made Blacknall our church home for the past 15 years, along with our three sons (Erik – 20, Caleb – 18, James – 16).  For the last 20 years, I’ve served with the ministry of International Students Inc. (ISI), currently as the Triangle Area Director.  Tanya now also serves with ISI, as part of the international student conferencing team.  Throughout the years, ISI (and hundreds of internationals students) have been blessed immensely through the Deep Common Journey partnership with Blacknall. A phrase often heard in our household and ministry captures well my heart and desire for Blacknall: “Building bridges of trust that can bear the weight of truth”. A passage of scripture that speaks to this, found in 2 Corinthians 5, has profoundly stirred within me a yearning to love Jesus and to love others in His name. The call from Jesus is to be an ambassador/minister of reconciliation to others.  This has led to what has become a lifelong journey and vocation of being a bridge builder culturally and spiritually. If elected Elder for a second term, I believe the ways God has shaped me through this first term on session and as a cross-cultural worker will be useful in helping to lead Blacknall as we continue to be beacons for Christ in Durham and the world.

Mark Paulson

My wife, Anne, and I were married in Charlotte in August, 1985 and moved to this area and got involved at Blacknall a year later in August, 1986. This community has been foundational for my family and me – our children (Courtney and Nick) were baptized and grew up at Blacknall, and our daughter and her husband Francisco were married here in 2015. The past 39 years have been a rich spiritual journey marked by deep friendships for which I am very grateful.

I love the diversity of our Blacknall community and the involvement we have both locally and globally in living out and proclaiming the gospel. I’m grateful for the thoughtful and humble leadership that God has provided.

I am a sinner that has been redeemed through Jesus. Christ is my hope and my purpose. Through His sacrifice on the cross I am able to know the God who created me and who sustains me daily. Out of gratitude for His love, I strive to walk in obedience to Him and His will. I recognize that sanctification is a lifelong process marked by confession and forgiveness and I am grateful for the Lord's faithfulness toward and patience with me.

I think relationships to those both inside and outside of our community of faith are fundamental to our mission as a church - to glorify the Triune God, to make known the crucified and risen Christ, and to advance the Kingdom that God is building in us, in Durham, and around the world. As an elder, I hope to promote and nurture opportunities for relationship and to weave those opportunities into our collective ministry."

Katie Reeder-Hayes

I am originally from Alabama but moved to Durham for medical residency 21 years ago and as life has worked out, we remained and NC has become our family's home. I came to Blacknall with my husband, Mark, in 2004 and we have raised our five kids here: Ben (21) Samuel (18), Connor (14), Patrick (13), and Everett (10). I feel as though different aspects of Blacknall's community life have been most front-and-center for us in different seasons, but serving in the nursery, as a Sunday School teacher for pre-school and elementary kids, as a participant and leader in the women's retreat, and on the Health Advisory Team during the COVID pandemic, have been some of my most meaningful areas of connection, and the children’s and youth ministries have been fundamental to our life as a family. Even though my faith in Christ has been central throughout my life, my experience continues to change. In the upheaval in the medical community, in the area of social justice where I work, and in the larger culture for the past few years, I feel newly challenged to trust that God is sovereign even when I can't immediately see that in circumstances around me, and newly convinced that only He is really trustworthy to hold me and those I love together! I feel called to share this reassurance with others at Blacknall as an elder, as we all navigate times when we feel the world to be unsafe, uncertain, or changing too fast for us.