Cynthia Bryant
My name is Cynthia Bryant and I am a mother, wife, sister, and aunt. Born and raised in Oakland, California, I am a first generation college student, who is proud to have spent the past 23 years serving as a higher educator at Southern University, a historically black university. I have had many roles at Southern, from English Professor to Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, but my current position as Dean of the College of Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies has been my most challenging role yet.
I have no religious foundations beyond the gospel choir in which my mother sang during my childhood. Neither my parents nor my grandparents attended church, so I was never forced to choose a religious path. In my early twenties, I decided to join Baton Rouge’s Greater King David Baptist Church. While there, I became extremely involved. I served as a junior minister, and sang alto in an excellent gospel choir. Unfortunately, I was turned off by some of the theological concepts presented, as well as the contradictory behaviors that accompanied them.
I joined the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge about 14 years ago. I found a space where my spiritual questions were not immediately answered for me. Instead, I have been encouraged to seek answers in my own way, at my own pace, in which ever direction my quest leads me. I continue to serve on the Worship Guild, as I have for a number of years. Additionally, I have facilitated a Beloved Conversations series, I serve on the Beloved Conversations Advisory Committee, and I served as a UCBR board member for 5 years. I am not significantly active within the Baton Rouge community. Most of my work for our community is an extension of my service to our church and my work at Southern University. After everything that I give gratefully and generously to my husband, children, workplace, and church, I don’t have much time left for frequent civic engagement. Nevertheless, I know that my contributions within the Baton Rouge community have made a difference in the lives of many and I look forward to giving more in the coming years.
Dawn Collins
Dawn Chanet Collins, Esquire is a lifelong public servant. She began advocacy work, first in the political arena in 2008. She began running issue based and political campaigns and was eventually elected at the chairwoman of her local Democratic Party and also onto the Executive Committee of Louisiana’s Democratic State Central Committee. She was honored to be a member of the Electoral College in 2016 which was also the same year she had the pleasure of being elected to serve on the local school board to champion critical issues for public education. In 2022, she graduated from Southern University Law Center and began practicing law as an Assistant Public Defender shortly thereafter.
Dawn is the mother of two sons, Daylin and Chauncey Collins, and GiGi to two of the most amazing grandchildren on this side of heaven, Edin and Adalyn. She is a human to Tyler the Orange Mischievous Tabby and Cookie, just plain ol’ Cookie. She’s been attending services at the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge since 2004.
E Hughes
My name is E. Hughes. I was born and raised in South Louisiana. I am a recently out trans man, spouse and parent. After leaving home at the age of 17, I worked my way up the typical corporate ladder for over 2 decades. In my late 30s, I decided to pursue higher education. Earlier this year, I completed my Associate’s degree and currently am a student at Louisiana State University. I also work full time in the logistics and transportation industry. In my spare time, I like to upcycle and repurpose old furniture and spend time with my family. I attended church as child with my grandmother, but I was truly only in it for the goldfish, juice and lunch after church. Beyond that, I have never had any sort of spiritual interest. My wife and I agreed to raise our family without religion, allowing my daughter to choose when she was older. I began attending Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge in May of 2023 when my daughter began asking questions due to her friends’ influence at school. I had no answers for her as I know next to nothing about religion in any sort of way. My wife was a dutiful Southern Baptist who has read the entire Bible and answered all of her questions in a neutral way. This in turn ,lead to more questions. We decided to attend UCBR in an effort to allow her to safely explore religious questions without worrying about condemnation because of our queer family. My family officially joined the church in October of 2023. As new members, we are encouraged to wait a year or so to truly dive in to joining committees and groups within the church. However, the community and acceptance I have found here inspired me to volunteer and help coordinate the first inaugural QUUeerfete in October. Becoming a member of this church has given me the spiritual community I never knew I needed. I am forever grateful for the opportunity and it is my honor to serve on this search committee.
Megan Sheehan-Dean
My name is Megan Sheehan-Dean. I’m originally from the Midwest, the youngest of a large Irish Catholic family. I met my husband in college, married a few years after graduation and in the last 30 years together we’ve lived in Washington DC, Virginia, Florida, West Virginia and Louisiana. During this time we raised our two wonderful children who are 25 and 22.
My husband, Aaron, wasn’t raised with any religion and considered himself agnostic. I wanted to raise our kids Catholic because of my upbringing yet at the same time I grew increasingly disaffected with Catholicism. Each time we moved I tried another Catholic church. I would read the church bulletins to see what was important to the parish, what type of actions they engaged in, what was their messaging, I knew I couldn’t send my kids to religious ed at a place where there was more I disagreed with than agreed with, so we stopped going. It wasn’t until after the awful (in Baton Rouge) summer of 2016 that I felt the pull to find a faith community. I needed a place that supported my wrestling with the simultaneous sorrows and joys of life. By that point we had been in Baton Rouge three years. I had met Bobby Thompson (longtime UCBR member) through Dialogue on Race Louisiana, and I had heard Nathan Ryan speak at a vigil. I appreciated their perspectives so we decided to check out UCBR in the fall of 2016.
Aaron joined UCBR not long after we completed a Roots class. Although I liked everything I was experiencing at the church, it took me a few years to make my leap to Unitarianism official. Shortly after I did, Nathan asked me, along with Abel Thompson, to assume leadership of the Social Justice Team. Facilitating monthly meetings related to social justice action, connecting with local organizations for our shared offering program, attending weekly service, and participating in special events are the ways I’m involved in the church
When I’m not doing things at UCBR, I work as an IEP Coach, helping families of neurodivergent children navigate the special education system (I’m a former early childhood educator). I also love spending time in my flower garden, walking my old dog, having game night with family and friends, reading, and knitting. I am honored to be a part of the team to find a good ministerial match for the wonderful congregation that is the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge.
Leslie Taylor-Grover
Leslie T. Grover, PhD is a writer, activist, mother, and truthteller. A womanist in theology and practice, Leslie grew up a child of the Mississippi Delta’s religious community — Missionary Baptist — choir singing, Sunday School going, community-serving, and Bible bee winning. She’s been a UU for over a decade now, first coming to the faith in 2012, when a chance visit to the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge turned into an active membership. Since joining the congregation, Leslie has served on the Worship Guild, Church Board, Nominating Committee, three search committees, and Social Justice Committee.
In her day job, Leslie is Managing Editor for PushBlack, the nation’s largest nonprofit media foundation. There she uses the power of storytelling to inspire readers with Black History, social justice issues, and spiritual self-care. She is also CEO and founder of Assisi House Inc, which uses storytelling, indigenous research methods, and community-centered research to evaluate programs, create local and state-level programming, and support the community organizing of marginalized communities. Her novella, The Benefits of Eating White Folks (Jaded Ibis Press 2022) was a finalist in the African American Fiction Category for American Book Fest’s Best Books award. Her short stories have appeared in Waxing and Waning Literary Journal, SWING Magazine, Testimony, and as the winning entry in Owl Hollow Press’ The Takeback Anthology. In 2024 she won Amazon Kindle Vella’s Grand Prize. Her second book, Rootbound, will be released later this year by Black Odyssey Media.
Leslie currently lives in Baton Rouge with her handsome, brilliant, kind, and uber talented son, Ethan. They are servants to three members of cat royalty: Menou Earle, Mrs. G., and Nicodemus Luka.
Angus Woodward
Although I have lived in Louisiana since 1987, I was raised in Michigan by southern parents and six older siblings. Our household was secular, except that Mama went to church every Sunday just to sing in the choir and get a break from parenting. I began attending the Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge in 2000 and became a dedicated regular several years later. I have taught religious education for the church for about fifteen years, and since the end of the epidemic I have gotten more deeply involved in church activities, helping to plan men’s retreats and working on the Naming Project, which aims to honor the indigenous and enslaved people who resided on land the church now occupies.
I have four twenty-somethng daughters, one of whom, Nina, enthusiastically attended UCBR religious education classes throughout grade school and still maintains ties to the church. My wife, Susan Brigman, is a relatively new member of the church. I am a writer and a professor of writing at Franciscan University, a small Catholic institution in Baton Rouge, where I have taught since 1998. From 1990 until 1998, I lived in New Orleans, teaching at Delgado Community College. I am fortunate that three of my books of fiction have been published by small presses, and that my writing has appeared in a wide variety of journals and magazines. In recent years I have turned to writing and illustrating graphic literature and recently completed a graphic history based on slavery narratives written by Black schoolteachers in the 1930s.
I love spending time outside to commune with nature, catch fish, and mess around in small boats, and I love our church for providing a warm, tolerant community and for giving me opportunities to work with others to make the world a better place.