Board of Directors (2024-2025)

President: Lyn Loewi

Lyn H. Loewi has been a church musician, teacher, and recitalist for forty years. Her interest in women composers began in 1983 with a DMA dissertation on women composers for the organ. She is a member of the AGO IDEA Committee (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility,) President of the Women's Sacred Music Project, and a contributor to the database of sacred choral music by women, A Great Host of Composers. Her leading role in creating our 2023 Resounding Voices hymnal was born of a desire to honor the founders of our 2003 hymnal Voices Found. She is glad that the project has focused our understanding of what women (those who identify as women) bring to sacred song: the deconstruction of an exclusively White male view of God and a more complete vision of The Holy One. Loewi is Director of Music at Christ Church Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. She has held positions at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, (Washington, DC), St. John's Cathedral in Denver, Colorado, St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and First Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon, and Webster Groves Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. She has taught at Portland State University and the University of Minnesota and played recitals at Notre Dame in Paris, in Japan, and in Germany.

Vice President: Tonya Taylor-Dorsey, Director, Archdiocese of      Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir

Tonya Taylor-Dorsey is currently the Director of the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir, Archdiocese of Philadelphia—Office for Black Catholics, and the Minister of Music at St. Martin de Porres Church, in Philadelphia, PA. Her vocal compositions have been performed at various venues around the United States, including Juilliard, and she is noted for creating the musical score for the stage play ManShop that debuted on Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts. She has held workshops and webinars on such subjects as The Importance of Reading Music, Increasing the Music Ministry, and Music in the Catholic Church from an African American and Hispanic Perspective. Tonya was the first woman to serve as Musical Director of the National Black Catholic Congress, for its twelfth meeting. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio. For more information about Tonya visit her website: www.TonyaDorsey.net

Treasurer: Susan Stern, Self-Employed (Radnor, PA)

Susan Stern currently owns an executive services company, working in the Philadelphia region.  She began her career as a registered nurse, taking time to raise her family.  Upon return to the workforce she spent 15 years as a Business Manager of a local church.  Susan has spent over 30 years volunteering for a variety of organizations, using her financial acumen skills to support the mission of the organization.  She is currently serving on the Radnor Township School District Board of School Directors.  First elected in 2013, she served as President for three years during the challenges posed by the pandemic.  She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Rosa Abrahams – Associate Professor of Music Theory, Ursinus College

Dr. Rosa Abrahams (she/her/hers) is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Music Theory at Ursinus College. Her research, informed by music cognition and music philosophy, focuses primarily on embodied musical experiences in Jewish liturgical settings and on curriculum expansion and reform in music theory pedagogy. Rosa holds a Ph.D. and an M.Mus. in music theory and cognition from Northwestern University, and a B.Mus. in music theory from the Eastman School of Music. She has served on the Women’s Sacred Music Project board since 2020.

Rev. Sarah Akes-Cardwell – Associate Rector for Parish Life and Family, St. John’s Episcopal Church

The Rev. Sarah Akes-Cardwell, Associate Rector for Parish  Life and Family Ministry at St. John's Episcopal Church on Lafayette Square in Washington, DC, grew up in East Tennessee and moved to the DC area in 2013 to begin her studies at Virginia Theological Seminary. As an undergraduate at Sewanee, Sarah studied U.S. History and International and Global Studies. Sarah served as the Assistant Rector at Middleham & St. Peter’s Parish in Lusby, MD where much of her ministry focused on children, youth, and intergenerational formation. Most recently, Sarah served as the Episcopal Chaplain at the University of Maryland (College Park). While serving at St. John’s, Sarah continues to serve in a part-time capacity as Chaplain to students at Holy Trinity Episcopal School in Bowie, MD. Sarah’s wife, Amanda, is also an Episcopal priest, and together they have a son, Samuel, who brings them immense joy and new learning each day. You can often find them exploring local parks, breweries, and historic sites in their downtime.

  Michelle Kardos – Assistant Organist, Pasadena Presbyterian   Church (Pasadena, CA)

Dr. Michelle Kardos, DMA, MT-BC, CAGO is the newly appointed Director of Education for the American Guild of Organists. Alongside this, she is the Assistant Organist at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. She obtained her Doctor of Musical Arts in Sacred Music at the University of Southern California, a Master of Music in Sacred Music at Duquesne University, and a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy along with the Sacred Music Certificate, Pastoral Ministry Certificate, and a Psychology minor at Seton Hall University.

Louise Mundinger – Music Director, Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Boston, MA)

Louise Mundinger is the Music Director at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston and the Diocese of Massachusetts.  She won the Frank Huntington Beebe award for musicians, for organ study in Germany, and is a prize winner in the San Anselmo Organ Improvisation Competition. She has been commissioned to write new music by the American Guild of Organists, The American Composers Forum, and the Diocese of Massachusetts.  Her articles have appeared in The American Organist and Musforum. Louise Mundinger was awarded the Talbot Baker Teaching Award at Milton Academy.  She is a past Dean of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (BAGO),  and was director of the AGO National New Music committee.

Rev. Jack Reiffer – Pastor (ret.); Treasurer, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC

Jack Reiffer is a retired pastor and current member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, in Washington, DC. He served for ten years on a denominational hymnal revision committee in the ‘80s and chaired the text subcommittee of that project. Jack has served as organist and choir member in several congregations. He is also a longtime singer and leader in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC. At St. John’s Church Jack teaches an adult Bible study, chairs the pastoral care ministry team, and fills several roles in worship leadership.

Rev. Victoria Sirota – Chaplain and Canon

  Victoria R. Sirota, an Episcopal priest, organist and author, has degrees from

  Oberlin College, Boston University, and the Harvard University Divinity School.

  She has served congregations in Baltimore, Yonkers and the Cathedral of Saint

  John the Divine in New York City. Former National Chaplain for the American 

 Guild of  Organists and the Association of Anglican Musicians, Rev. Dr. Sirota is 

 the author of articles, reviews and texts for hymns, cantatas and song cycles. She

 has played  recitals in the United States and Europe, and is recorded on 

 Northeastern, Gasparo, and Albany Records. Her book Preaching to the Choir:

 Claiming the Role of Sacred Musician is available from Church Publishing. 

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Lisa Neufeld Thomas – Founder and President Emerita of the Board

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