Rev. Dr. deborah porras (She/Her/Hers)
pastor

Rev. Deborah D. Porras has served as Pastor of Beverley Hills since June 2016. Deborah grew up at Cave Spring UMC in Roanoke, Virginia where she was active in missions and music throughout her life. She studied criminal justice and psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Western Connecticut State University earning a Bachelor of Science. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary. She completed her Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary in 2023 where she studied trauma informed leadership and created tools for communal transformation.

Prior to serving at Beverley Hills, Deborah served at St. Thomas UMC in Manassas, VA; St. Luke’s UMC in Falls Church, VA; Burke UMC in Burke, VA; and was ordained as an Elder in the Virginia Conference of the UMC in 2014. She works in community organizing with VOICE as part of her communal pastoral ministry.

Deborah loves anything active, especially latin dancing and weightlifting. She is passionate about justice issues, fundraising for cancer treatments with LLS, and learning new things. She has two beautiful children: Gabriel, a 16 year-old 11th grader, and Hannah, an 15 year-old 9th grader. They also have two rescue dogs: Chamo and Buffy.

Ruth Tapp (She/Her/Hers)
Director of family ministries

Ruth is a Northern Virginia native and a long time member of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church. She graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Community Health. For the past twelve years she has worked as an early childhood educator. Ruth is the Red and Yellow class teacher at Beverley Hills Church Preschool.

Steven A. Honley (He/Him/His)
Director of music

Steve has been Director of Music at Beverley Hills Community UMC since July 1994. An accomplished pianist, organist, singer, conductor, composer, arranger, and teacher, he has also sung with and/or accompanied Carmina, the Ron Freeman Chorale and the Friday Morning Music Club Chorale, among many other local ensembles. Born in Shreveport, La., Steve came to Washington, D.C. to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs at The George Washington University. He was a Foreign Service officer from 1985 to 1997, serving in Mexico City, Mexico, and Wellington, New Zealand. In 2001 he became editor of The Foreign Service Journal, the American Foreign Service Association’s monthly magazine, a position he held until 2014.

In 2017 Steve published a book, FSI at 70: Future Forward—A History of the Foreign Service Institute, and continues to freelance as an editor, proofreader, writer, and musician.

Cathryn Schmidt (She/Her/Hers)
Cherub Choir Director

Cathy combines her love of music and the joy of working with young children as Cherub Choir Director. She worked for 14 years as a teacher of four year olds at Grace Episcopal School. Before that she taught music classes for preschoolers in Gymboree music and Kindermusic classes.

Cathy has three grown children, a retired husband, seven grandchildren, and several cats and a dog.

Linda Hiebert (She/Her/Hers)
Glory Choir Director

Linda Hiebert combines her love of music with teaching through directing the children's Glory Choir. Linda is recently retired from USAID where she was the Senior Adviser for the Global Book Alliance. The GBA is a partnership of public and private stakeholders working to ensure that all children, particularly in developing countries, have high quality books and the ability to effectively use them. Linda joined the GBA in 2016.  Previously, she was the Vice President for Education at World Vision International. Linda has had extensive experience working in Africa, Asia, Latin American, and the Middle East. She has lived in Southeast Asia working for Save the Children UK and the Mennonite Central Committee. Linda graduated from the Kennedy School, Harvard University with an MPA.