Arnold Rots, President, Class of 2022

Arnold Rots is a Ruling Elder and retired (though still active) astrophysicist, living in Waltham, MA. He has worked at observatories in the Netherlands, Virginia, West Virginia, New Mexico, India, Maryland, and, finally, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA. He has a keen interest in theology and organs, and enjoys playing the cello in the local orchestra and doing (sprint) triathlons. He has in recent decades served Church of the Covenant, Presbytery of Boston, and Synod of the Northeast. He is a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society and a member of, among many others, the Fellowship Of Reconciliation and Astronomers for Planet Earth.

Carol Anway, Secretary, Class of 2023

Carol Anway grew up in Superior, WI, and attended Hamline University in St. Paul, MN for physics and math. She enjoyed her time away from studies with cello and handbells. She graduated from UCLA with a Ph.D. in elementary particle physics in 1995. She moved to Seattle, WA, supported our military for her first decade at Boeing, and then researched lightning protection for commercial aircraft. She founded and directed a bell choir at Kent First Presbyterian Church for nineteen years until the church closed. Carol was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2018 for her accomplishments in data analysis. Carol retired from Boeing in 2020.

Mark Douglas, Vice President, Class of 2024

Mark Douglas is an ordained teaching elder in the PC(USA) and Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. He teaches a wide variety of classes, including ethics, theology, and, with colleagues in astrophysics and evolutionary biology, science and religion. He also directs the Masters of Theology degree program. Mark holds degrees from Colorado College (B.A. with honors in biology), Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., Th.M.), and The University of Virginia (Ph.D.). His most recent book, Christian Pacifism for an Environmental Age (Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 978-1108476485) was published in June 2019. Another, Modernity, the Environment, and the Christian Just War Tradition, also with Cambridge University Press, will be out in September of 2022. In the spring of 2022, he will be a research fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, where he will begin work on War in a Warming World: Religion, Resources, and Refugees.

Sandra Hawley, Treasurer, Class of 2023

Sandra Hawley, a retired electrical engineer, specialized in design and layout of analog integrated circuits for implantable medical devices, and industrial instruments.  Previously she taught college mathematics and statistics.  In retirement she has pursued interests in alternative energies and climate change, including design and installation of an off-grid solar power system at a remote cabin. As a scientist and a lifelong Presbyterian, synergy of science and faith has always been important, and through PASTCF finds the opportunity to connect with other scientists of faith. She is a ruling elder and a deacon, serving the church and related organizations in many roles in all governing body levels.

Rachelle McCalla,
Class of 2022

Rachelle McCalla has served as pastor of the First United Presbyterian Church in Atlantic, Iowa since 2016. She is a graduate of Hastings College, the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, with excellence in biblical studies and preaching, and In 2021 she completed the Doctor of Ministry degree in Science and Faith from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Prior to her current call, Rachelle served as pastor and campus minister in Nebraska and Wisconsin. Beyond church duties she has served as president of the Atlantic Ministerial Association and is currently the local Booster Club vice-president. She has also served on the Presbytery Des Moines’s Commission on Ministry. Rachelle has a long and growing interest in many areas of science as they relate to faith. Most recently she has focused on neuroscience, prompted in part by many church members over the years who developed dementia, and also her own father’s battle with Parkinson’s disease.

James Yao,
Class of 2022

Jim Yao is a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary. He and his wife Nancy co-pastored two yoked churches in the Finger Lakes region of New York. He currently serves the Moorefield Presbyterian Church in West Virginia. After earning a B.S. in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute he spent 28 years in information technology at various companies. Growing up in a biracial home and a culturally diverse area, he learned to navigate a variety of cultures and faiths—attending bar mitzvahs, helping out with VBS at a Roman Catholic Church, paying respects at funerals of his father’s Buddhist friends. These experiences helped him as a hospital chaplain intern, as a pastoral intern at Atlanta Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, and in his call as pastor. His greatest interest is music, especially singing in church choirs, community choruses, and even a little opera. He plays flute and a little piano, enjoys ice skating, walking dogs, and reading mystery and adventure novels. He has a strong interest in science and astronomy, and enjoys the NY Times crossword puzzles.

Margie Peeler,
Advisory Board Member

Margie Peeler graduated from the University of Tennessee in May 2021 with a degree in biosystems engineering and a minor in religious studies. While at UT, she served as an intern and board member for UKirk, the Presbyterian Church (USA) campus ministry. Additionally, she discovered a love of agriculture while working on an organic produce farm outside of Knoxville. After graduation she worked on a diversified vegetable and mushroom farm in Pennsylvania followed by a goat dairy in Montana. In the fall of 2022 she will begin a Masters of Divinity degree at Duke University, concentrating in “Faith, Food, and Environmental Justice.” In seminary and beyond, Margie hopes to use her biosystems engineering background and agriculture experience to continue learning how growing good food and growing religious community might intermingle and support one another.

D. William McIvor,
SciTech† Editor (ex officio)

Bill McIvor is a retired Presbyterian pastor, having served congregations in Bellevue, WA, Birmingham, MI, Spokane, WA, and Sudbury, MA. Now living in Seattle, he enjoys occasional preaching and teaching opportunities at churches and retirement communities. Bill has edited SciTech† since 1997 and also manages PASTCF’s website, <www.pastcf.org>. He likes the time retirement affords for reading theology as well as the varied book choices of three disparate reading groups. For fun he is trying to relearn playing the trumpet.