Leadership and governance at University UCC

Reverend Michael Ellick joined us as the Minister of Worship and Care in the Summer of 2023, and stepped into the profile of Minister of Vision and Stewardship in August 2024. This is something of a homecoming: after growing up in Olympia and Bainbridge Island, he received his B.A. in Comparative Religion at the University of Washington before moving to New York City to earn an M.Div. at Union Theological Seminary. Since then he has served churches in New York City and Portland, OR, but most recently served as the Director of Public Engagement for Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, where he developed multi-faith peacemaking efforts and an organizing curriculum to help churches reckon with their legacy of racism and colonialism.

Along the way Michael worked as a Public Finance Analyst, served as a Faith-Based Movement Builder and Community Organizer (most notably helping launch the New Sanctuary Movement and Occupy Wall Street), apprenticed under various Centering Prayer Teachers, and studied and practiced for seven years with a Tibetan Buddhist Lama (Khenpo Pema Wangdak). These eclectic influences reflect his ongoing passion for bridging the “inner world” of contemplative practice with the “outer world” of engaged public ministry.

Along with his spouse and best friend Alana Hartman, he spends his off-time raising two children (Zuzu & Desmond) and joyfully getting re-acquainted with – and re-rooted in -the Western Washington Wilderness

Rev. Steve Jerbi is currently on sabbatical and will return in May. He leads in communities by connecting faith, justice, and action. He began his call at UCUCC in 2021 and serves half-time as the Minister of Christian Formation, Love & Justice. Pastor Steve previously served congregations in Lana’i, Hawai’i, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee.

Pastor Steve is ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and serves under the full communion agreements of the ELCA and UCC. He is also the coordinator of community organizing for the ELCA and is the national director of the Organizing for Mission Network.

Pastor Steve is passionate about the intersection of racial, economic, and environmental justice. He offers training in racial justice work and faith-based community organizing. Youth ministry has been at the center of his congregational work and he loves cultivating experiences where faith comes to life – through worship, study, and play. Pastor Steve is also a professed member with the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans (OEF).

Pastor Steve and his partner Jennifer spend their free time shuttling their two teenagers to events and trying to get their little dog to drop the ball when playing fetch.

Rev. Deb Jarvis has been a Board Certified hospital and hospice chaplain for over 40 years. She has been a member of UCUCC for 39 years and joined the staff as Minister of Worship and Care in the Summer of 2025.

She honors tears, gives hugs and is a good listener. She is not afraid of conflict but also loves to laugh. She’s a good host, a bad mathematician and detests superficial conversation. Her geographical sense of direction is lousy, but her spiritual sense of direction is pretty good. She walked the Camino de Santiago in 2019 and was grateful for all those yellow arrows.

She hosts and produces the podcast The Final Say: Conversations with People Facing Death—available on all platforms. She is also a writer and her most recent book is It’s Not About the Hair: And Other Certainties of Life & Cancer.

She has a B.A. in Communications from U.C. Berkeley, an M.A. in Christian Arts from New College, Berkeley and an M.Div. from Northwest Theological Union.

She and her scientist husband/best friend/travel partner love good food, good friends and good wine. Also dogs!