Heart of the Region

Each year, Unity Great Lakes Region recognizes leaders whose dedication has shaped our region with the Heart of the Region Award - a handmade "Heart of the Great Lakes" pillow of satin, lace, and embroidery, commissioned uniquely for each recipient. Honorees are announced at our annual conference.

Know someone whose service should be recognized?
Send your suggestions to President@UnityGreatLakesRegion.org

Rev. Judy Grimes

  • Rev. Judy Grimes found Unity in 1964 at Unity of Hawaii on Diamond Head Circle, where ministers Dorothy and Phil Pierson saw something in her and welcomed her onto the Youth Ed. Team from the very beginning. From 1975 to 1980 she served Great Lakes, earning her Licensed Teacher certification, and during those years helped start Unity churches in Chicago, St. Charles/Batavia, and Crystal Lake while writing Youth Ed. materials and serving as the region's Y.E. Facilitator. She was ordained in 1984 while serving as Associate Minister in Seattle, where she also helped start Unity on Bainbridge Island. In 1985 she served the Association of Unity Churches as Chair of Ministry Studies, returning to field ministry in 1989 in Santa Barbara, CA, and in 1991 in Maui, HI, before coming home to Great Lakes in April 2000 to lead Unity of Traverse City, Michigan, while continuing to serve on the AUC Board of Trustees. Though she "retired" on December 31, 2004, her service never really stopped: through Transition Consulting she worked with ministries and ministers across Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, became Minister of Record for Traverse City during the Covid years, and continues today as a guest speaker and adviser to the Board of Trustees. Among many highlights in a wonderful, fulfilling journey, she was awarded the Myrtle Fillmore Award on June 17, 2016.

Rev. Ray Nelson

  • Rev. Ray Nelson earned his MDiv from United Theological Seminary in 2008 and graduated and was ordained from Unity Institute in 2011. He has served churches in Minneapolis and Louisville and currently leads Unity in the Heart of St. Paul. He has served on the GLR Conference Team and on the Board as President, Vice President, and Treasurer, and currently serves on the Finance Team. Alongside his Unity work, he is spiritual leader and chaplain of the Benedictine Living Community in Minneapolis, a long-term skilled nursing facility.

2026 Recipients

Rev. Ernestine Griffin

  • Rev. Ernestine Griffin founded and leads the Unity On Campus Ministry at the University of Michigan, established in 1998. A civil and human rights activist, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1969, graduated from the Unity Urban Ministerial School in 1995 and Unity School of Religious Studies in 1996, and was ordained by the Association of Unity Churches that year. She served as associate minister at Detroit Unity Temple from 1996 to 1998, then on the Great Lakes Unity Regional Conference Board of Directors as liaison for its Youth Education Service, as well as on the AUC's Youth Education Services ministry team, the AUC/Unity Worldwide Ministries' Leadership Recruitment and Development team, and the UUMS Board of Directors. In 2006 she received the Embrace the Dream Spiritual Pioneer Award, and in 2010 the Reverend Ruth Mosley Award for Outstanding Achievement in Urban Ministry. On July 21, 2026, Ernestine and her husband, Stoney Griffin, celebrated 64 years of marriage; their oldest son, Brian Drafton-Griffin, is also an ordained Unity minister. Her intention is "to live as an example of God's possibility for humanity," and her affirmation is "God is the activity of Truth in my consciousness."

Rev. Ric Schumacher

  • Rev. Ric Schumacher's service to the movement began in the mid-1970s through the early 1980s in Silent Unity, where he trained ministerial students in the Silent Unity method of prayer. He became a Licensed Unity Teacher in 2003, a Licensed Unity Minister in 2009, and was ordained a Unity Minister in 2011. He co-chaired, with then-AUC president Clare Austin, an ad hoc ministry team on Licensed Unity Teachers charged with exploring how LUTs might best apply skills from the secular world, and served as a member of the former Credentialed Leader Ministry Review Team. Regionally, he served a term as board liaison to the Youth Education Consultants, during which the board restructured the consultants' program from three part-time consultants to two full-time professionals, and in a second term as treasurer he worked closely with the president and board to address changes to the regional consultant/regional representative structure, a difficult but ultimately peaceful transition guided by a spiritually centered, insightful board.

Rev. Deb Hill-Davis

  • Rev. Deb Hill-Davis of Unity of Ames, Iowa, graduated and was ordained in 2012 and has served Unity of Ames from August 2012 to the present, 14 years and counting. She joined the Great Lakes Board in summer 2017, appointed to complete a term, and became Conference Team Liaison after six years of experience as a YOU sponsor had her hoping for Youth Ed. Her tenure carried the region through the move from Lake Pokegon to Stoney Creek Inn in Moline, Illinois, the pivot to WHOVA during the 2020 Covid conference, and the distinction of being the only region to hold its conference that year. Most recently she has led the Dream Seed Team, raising funds to help youth, sponsors, and churches send people to rallies. Her guiding belief: a sense of humor is the first thing you bring to service, may it be unholy and wholly fun.

Festus A. Umeojiego

  • Festus A. Umeojiego's Unity journey began at Detroit Unity Temple after Ford Motor Company brought him to Detroit from New York following his engineering education, a bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Manhattan University and a master's in Nuclear Engineering from New York University. Glenn Mosley was his first minister, followed by David Williamson. In Detroit he earned a master's in Mechanical Engineering and was working toward his doctorate when a visit to Unity Village changed the direction of his life; he graduated from Unity Ministerial School and was ordained in 1983. He served six years in Houston, Texas, learning from Sig Paulson and Howard Caesar; 13 years in Woodbury, Minnesota, where the congregation converted a group home into a $1.2 million church building and helped launch and sustain a study group in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, into its first ministry; and six years at Unity of Evanston, Illinois, during which he served a term as Great Lakes Regional Board Chair and was invited three or four times as a guest to give the Invocation at the opening of the Illinois General Assembly sessions, including one visit recognizing the region's Y.O.U. and Uniteens for their service trip to Costa Rica. He then served six years at Unity South in Bloomington, Minnesota. He gave 10 to 15 years of service on the Licensing and Ordination (Credentialing) Committee, and for years worked alongside his wife facilitating Alternatives to Violence Project workshops in prisons, churches, communities, and schools. Currently Festus also serves on the Regional Advisory Council as the African Region representative.

Rev. Phil Smedstad

2025 Recipients

Rev. Phillip Smedstad has been a Unity minister for 49 years and is a Certified Unity Worldwide Ministries Transitional Ministry Specialist. Over his ministerial career, he has served Unity ministries in several states and founded two — Windward Unity Church in Hawaii and Unity of Clear Lake in Houston, TX. He is the author of the prosperity book Real Wealth and the My Next Step cards, a self-guided study in personal transformation. Rev. Phil has served as a Transition Specialist in several Unity ministries and is currently the Minister of Record for Unity of Santa Barbara, CA.

Rev. Pat Williamson

Rev. Pat Williamson is committed to supporting individuals in growth and transformation through Unity principles. Before coming to Unity Minneapolis, he served congregations in Kansas City, MO; Evanston, IL; and Cincinnati, OH. He is a former board member of the Association of Unity Churches, past chair of Unity Worldwide Ministries, and past chair of Unity World Headquarters at Unity Village.