The Society for Human Resource Management defines onboarding as any process designed to “help new hires adjust to the social and performance aspects of their jobs so they can quickly become productive, contributing members of the organization.”

Bishop Peggy Johnson and her Cabinet clearly believe in onboarding, since two new Eastern PA Conference district superintendents, set to begin their work July 1, have already been meeting with the Cabinet for months and learning from their soon-to-be peers. They have also engaged in Cabinet events and activities.

The Rev. Evelyn Kent Clark and the Rev. Andrew Foster III will step readily into their new roles, as their predecessors—the Rev. Dawn Taylor-Storm and the Rev. Tracy Bass, respectively, move on. Clark will succeed Taylor-Storm as Superintendent of the South District; and Foster will follow Bass as Superintendent of the East District.

Clark, a native Philadelphian and former educator, is pastor of New Life UMC in Drexel Hill and Trinity Lansdowne UMC (known as The Garden Church) in Lansdowne. Both churches are in the South District. She has served on the UMC’s General Board of Discipleship and a number of conference boards and committees. She has chaired the Committee on Episcopacy, the Order of Elders and the South District Committee on Ordained Ministry.

Foster has been Superintendent of the Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts (RISEM) District since 2017. He returns home to Eastern PA, where he was previously the pastor of Janes Memorial UMC in Philadelphia.

Also a native Philadelphian, he formerly served Grace Community UMC in Chester, where he founded the church’s Resource & Empowerment Center, Inc. And he was the first African American pastor to serve at Clearview UMC, a cross-racial/cross-cultural appointment.Foster is a trained ministry coach and mentor, who has served on many committees and has taught Certified Lay Ministry classes.

After leading the East District since 2014, Bass moves to the Virginia Conference, where he will lead that conference in planting a new church in Chesapeake, Va. He and his wife—also named Tracy—are returning to their home state.

Taylor-Storm becomes our conference’s new Director of Connectional Ministries, after being Superintendent of the South District, and formerly the Southeast District, since 2014. She previously served as pastor of St. Matthew’s UMC of Valley Forge, and before that, White Haven UMC.

Taylor-Storm succeeds the Rev. Anita Powell, who will retire this month but plans to remain active. Powell previously served as Superintendent of the former Central District.

The Rev. Bumkoo “BK” Chung, West District Superintendent, is the new Dean of the Cabinet for a year, succeeding Bass and Taylor-Storm in that role. He joined the Cabinet with them in 2014. The Rev. Steve Morton has been North District Superintendent since 2018.

“God continues to bless the Eastern PA Conference with gifted and Spirit-filled leaders for the work of superintendency, programmatic ministry and administration,” said Bishop Johnson. She describes superintendency as “the glue that holds the system together.

“As we enter into this transition time, we thank God for those who have served so well and for the leaders who have offered themselves to God to fill these positions. The future is bright.”