Vestry 

Martha Sterne

Martha Sterne

Senior Warden

Martha has been a member of St Luke’s for about 25 years. She came across the parish in 1999 when she was looking for an Anglican or Episcopal church that would baptize her soon-to-arrive twin boys. She settled on St Luke’s because of the quality of the sermons and has remained, not only because the weekly message still challenges and brings meaning to today’s world, but also because the parish environment fosters a very welcoming community and the culture is to “walk the talk.”

Martha has a B.A. (honors) in economics and an M.B.A. and brings to the vestry a depth of experience in a wide range of disciplines. Her professional life includes corporate roles in international business planning, marketing, sales operations, program management, and strategic planning. She has launched her own start-up, and supported the launch of another. She has 15 years of experience in property management. She was chairman of an 150-member theater group. She’s lived and worked in Canada, England, France, and Sweden.

Martha is in her fourth year serving on St Luke’s Vestry. She very much looks forward to serving this growing and thriving parish community as Senior Warden in 2024.

John Cleveland

John Cleveland

Vestry Member

Genevieve and I have been members of St Luke’s since 2017 and have been active in church activities. Father Ernest baptized all three of our children! We now have three young grandchildren. 

I have been a key advisor for Berkeley SkyDeck, a startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley. I’ve also been an executive advisor to Neowork Ventures since June 2021, an advisor to Empath since February 2020, and an advisor to Bestselfy since 2023. From August 2018 to June 2021, I served as an adjunct faculty lecturer at San Jose State University. I left the corporate world in 2020 after serving as the Chief Human Resources Officer of Seagate Technology, a data storage and management solutions company. I received a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University. 

What first attracted us to St Luke’s were the services, the friendliness of the members, and feeling a sense of belonging. I believe it is important to be involved with the church and strive to contribute as best I can.

Kelly Conway

Kelly Conway

Vestry Member

Kelly Conway has been a member of St. Luke’s since 1995 when Father Breuer married him and his wife Lynne. Two of his children, Allyson (23) and Heather (19) were baptized at St. Luke’s. Kelly’s eldest daughter lives in Marin County. Kelly has lived in the West San Jose/Los Gatos community since 1988.

Kelly’s professional background includes working in sales and marketing for well-known companies in the music, retailing and gaming businesses. He is the Founder and General Manager of Strike Marketing, a full-service marketing and advertising firm established in Los Gatos in 2004.

Kelly has been a member of St. Luke’s Vestry previously. During his first term, he participated with the Rector and Vestry to raise the funds to reroof the church and help manage the church through some challenging financial times. During his second term, he was involved in managing the church though the retirement of Father Breuer, the interim Rector’s term and the selection of Father Ricardo as the new and current Rector.

Kelly believes it is important to maintain and improve the church property to ensure it remains an iconic building in downtown Los Gatos. He knows that St. Luke’s can be a vital member of the Los Gatos community and contribute to its wellness; spiritually, emotionally and materially. He believes that it is the responsibility of the Vestry to ensure that the Rector is supported to accomplish his duties and goals and that St. Luke’s is well positioned to grow its contribution to the community, its members and the Episcopal church at large.

John Culwell

John Culwell

Vestry Member & Convention Delegate

I grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, and moved to the Bay Area in 1989 after earning a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Oregon State University.  I currently work in product development at a pharmaceutical company.  I married my wife Cathy, the daughter of an Episcopal priest, and began attending St. Luke’s in 2004 when we moved to Los Gatos.  I have been inspired by the clergy at St. Luke’s and am grateful to be a part of a warm church community.

Paul Fait

Paul Fait

Vestry Member

My wife, Gigi, and I have been attending St. Luke’s for the past two years enjoying the friendly community here. The people here worship in a celebratory way that inspires us. We arrived from St. Mark’s Santa Clara where we were members for 20 years, during which we raised our daughter. I served as a parish treasurer and also as a vestry member. 

For most of my life, I have lived in the Bay Area, attending high school and finishing my college years here. I am employed as a financial controller for a construction company. For relaxation, I enjoy reading, listening to music, yoga, and walking in our urban landscape and at the beach. 

While preparing and doing missionary work in Guatemala, I met my wife. At times, when difficulties arise, we remember our missions work helping us adapt to the situation at hand. Now and in the coming years, I hope to kindly serve those who enter the St. Luke’s faith community. 

Grady Jeter

Grady Jeter

Vestry Member & Convention Delegate

Grady grew up on a ranch and farm along the Red River in sothwestern Oklahoma where the only church for miles was a Baptist Church. Later his family relocated near Altus, Oklahoma,

and he attended his first Episcopal Church, St Paul’s, a bungalow remodeled as a very small church. He attended the University of Oklahoma graduating with an M.D.  He was then drafted into the Army. After his service, he trained as an orthopedic surgeon. In 1969 he began practice in San Jose, specializing in sports injuries and arthroscopic surgery, retiring in 2016.

His wife, Mary, is a public health nurse specializing in home care management. Together they have traveled the world  teaching and volunteering in remote areas such as Bhutan, and also as members of the United States Alpine Ski Team medical staff.

After his military service, he did not return to a church relationship. Fortunately, in 2018 he began attending St  Luke’s. Due to the extraordinary warmth and humble sincerity of the ministry and parishioners, especially Fr Ricardo, he has been truly blessed.

Glenn Katz

Glenn Katz

Vestry Member & Clerk

Originally from a small farm town in Kansas, I moved to the Bay Area in 1981 to attend graduate school, and it’s been my home ever since.

I’ve been working at the intersection of architecture, engineering, construction, education, and technology for over 40 years now. And these interests have led me to many fantastic work experiences here for technology giants – Xerox, Apple, and Autodesk – as well as inspiring me to start up several smaller firms. Currently, my daily focus is on two roles: as an educator at Stanford University, where I develop and lead courses on building information modeling, parametric design optimization, and sustainable design principles; and as a residential designer at Bearington Studios— a small design firm that gives me an opportunity to practice what I teach.

I completed my BS in Civil Engineering at MIT, where I focused on architecture, structural engineering, and the synergies between the two fields. Then, I completed my MS in Civil Engineering at Stanford University, where I’ve continued to teach and focus on innovation in the way we inspire the engineers and designers of tomorrow.

I publish quite a bit of educational content online through Autodesk, my own educational website, and a YouTube channel with over 13,000 subscribers and 2.5 million views. It’s incredibly fulfilling to receive messages from students around the world who report how having access to these materials empowers them to pursue new opportunities to improve their lives.

I was first invited to St. Luke’s to help out with the project of improving and reimagining the Parish Hall, and I had the pleasure of meeting with many of you through the presentations on that design. But, as I started attending our Sunday morning services, I found something very special – an incredibly engaging community of spirituality, caring, and love that I wanted to be a part of and to cherish as a guiding light in my life.

Loren Schlesinger

Loren Schlesinger

Vestry Member

I grew up mainly in western North Carolina, where I met my husband, Gene, to whom I’ve been married for nearly 22 years. We have two children, Joann, who is serving in the Air Force, and Evelyn, a high school freshman. I’ve worked as a registered nurse for almost two decades, most recently in the Post-Anesthesia Recovery Unit (PACU) at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto. 

I was raised in Southern Baptist churches, and I’ve followed Gene’s restless soul through enough versions of Christianity that I’m not especially concerned with denominational identities so much as I am with belonging to a faithful, welcoming community. The Episcopal Church and Saint Luke’s have been a good home for my own developing faith journey, because I love how widely our embrace extends: The Episcopal Church Welcomes You — We’ll Take Anybody! 

Our family moved to the Bay Area in 2018, and we started attending St. Luke’s about a year into the Pandemic (February 2021), because online church had taken a toll, and the Saturday courtyard service had just resumed. I especially like the informal, community feel of the Saturday evening service, for which Evelyn is the regular acolyte, and Gene and I serve as lectors. I also volunteer at St. Luke’s food pantry, and hope we can find more ways for our parish to reach out to and be involved in the community. I never had any intention of being on a vestry, but when Fr. Ricardo approached me, I was surprised to realize that I was already thinking of ways I could be of use in this role. I decided I should listen to that voice, and see what God does with this next stage of the journey. 

Janet Souza

Janet Souza

Vestry Member

From the moment I met with Fr. Ricardo in 2019 to inquire about the possibility of using the nursery room in the church to practice singing, I knew this was the eventual church home for me! Over the next few years I was blessed to have been invited to be a guest in the choir or to cantor while also attending St Andrew’s in Saratoga. In June 2023 I happily made St Luke’s my new church home and am truly excited to serve such a welcoming and wonderful community. 

As a little background, I was born in San Jose and spent most of my early years in Almaden and Saratoga, and attended Saratoga and Los Gatos High Schools. I began college as a piano major but after a semester switched schools and graduated from San Jose State University with a BS in Chemistry. I worked over 27 years at IBM in technology, management, and executive sales. Twenty of those years were spent living in New York and Connecticut (and a few months in Brazil!), where we (my ex- husband and I) raised four children that are now all grown—two step daughters (and seven step grandchildren) that still live in the northeast, and two sons. One of our sons, Tiago, lives in Vancouver, Washington, as an animator, and our other son, Nico, still lives at home with me and just graduated college in media and communications.

While living in Connecticut I was fortunate to be part of Trinity Episcopal Church in Southport where we raised our family. While there I served on the Vestry, sang in the choir (as did both boys), taught Sunday school for many years, was the director of the church’s Vacation Bible School (90-plus kids from all over town), and led several wonderful community outreach programs, including support for the local food pantry as well as to raise awareness of human trafficking. 

I currently work as a full-time Realtor at Christie’s International Real Estate Sereno in Los Gatos and am passionate about helping to improve the lives of my clients by helping them through their life transition to sell or buy a home. When I’m not selling real estate, you can find me singing, baking, trying new local restaurant spots, or enjoying time with my family! I love to bake cookies for my clients, family, and friends and adore classical music. I do all I can to participate in and volunteer my time and marketing expertise in supporting several non- profit music organizations. 

I am incredibly honored to have the opportunity to serve the wonderful people of St Luke’s, and look forward to continuing the good work of spreading loving kindness and support to our parish and throughout the local community. 

Delegates to Diocesan Convention

Lewis Pollard

Lewis Pollard

Delegate

I am married to Patricia Pensworth Pollard, with two adult children. We have lived in San Jose since 1965 having grown up in Tennessee. Patricia is now living in an Alzheimer’s care facility, and our son James is now living with me.

A lifelong practicing Episcopalian, I have sung in a boys choir and several adult choirs (including 17 years monthly in the prisoner choir in the Roman Catholic chapel in San Quentin Prison), been a long-time acolyte, lay reader, lay eucharistic minister, taken the sacrament to the sick, taught Sunday School, been a leader for middle school age youth group, and been on a vestry, We have been in the St. Luke’s parish since 1994, after over 20 years at St. Edward’s. In the 20 years since retirement I have volunteered in programs at the Santa Maria Urban Ministry.

My career was as a social worker and program supervisor in the County Mental Health system, with a specialty in crisis intervention, family therapy, family incest treatment, case management of the seriously mentally ill, and general social service and mental health programs.

I have been a number of years with our diocese’s backpacking program and have been a volunteer for our County Parks.

Mary McClain

Mary McClain

Delegate (Alternate)

Mary was born and raised in San Jose. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University. After living and teaching elementary school in San Francisco for almost ten years, Mary moved back to San Jose with her husband, Aaron Willis. She is now a stay-at-home Mom and spends her days with her three-year-old son, Owen. 

Mary and Aaron joined the St. Luke’s community when they moved to San Jose from San Francisco almost four years ago. They were drawn to the strong community and welcoming spirit that embodies St. Luke’s. When Mary and Owen are not attending one of their Mommy and Me classes (soccer, Spanish, and music), they can be found at home playing baseball in the backyard, watching the San Francisco Giants play on TV, or reading their favorite picture books.

Grady Jeter

Delegate

John Culwell

Delegate