Welcome to the Florida Conference of United Women in Faith

Rev. Emily Denmark McGee was born in Tampa, Florida and grew up all over the state. She attended Candler School of Theology at Emory University and graduated in 2002 with a Masters of Divinity.  

In 2004, she became a probationary elder and was appointed to Saint Paul’s UMC in Tallahassee and Simpson Memorial UMC in Riviera Beach a year later.  She left that church in the spring of 2007 to go on family leave when her daughter was born. 

In 2012, Emily was appointed to St. Peter’s UMC in Wellington and served there until February of 2018. Emily is currently in her 5th year as the pastor at Oceanview UMC in Juno Beach.  

Emily and her husband, Shawn were married in 2005 and call Jupiter their home.  In 2007, they welcomed to their family a daughter, Mary Virginia.  

Danny Davis was born in St Joseph, MO.  He graduated from High School in Lansing, Kansas, and went to Baker University, a United Methodist-related college in Baldwin City, KS. 

In 1976, Davis joined the United State Navy and throughout his naval career, served in several capacities. 

After the Navy, Davis completed his degree studies in Organizational Theory and Management at the Davis School of Business, Jacksonville University. 

Davis served as a pastor in the United Methodist church and in 1996 Davis left pastoral ministry and took a position with Church World Service in Miami supervising a legal services program for immigrants. 

In 2005 Davis obtained his teaching credentials in the state of Florida as an ESE Teacher. 

In 2009 he received an endorsement in Autism. He retired as a teacher in a self-contained autism classroom in the Broward public school system.

Davis is married to Pamela. They have two grown children, three grandchildren. Danny and Pam have been married for 41 years. 

Both Paulet’s parents were Methodist ministers and so she didn’t miss a gathering at her local church and the surrounding areas where they preached. Paulet states that choosing a career to become a Registered Nurse was not by chance. God has directed her path to serving the underserved community in one of The Safety Net Hospitals of Broward County. 

Though she knew God was calling her to be in ministry with people, she was not sure about where to begin. She started to gain some clarity about the office of Deaconess and Home Missioners when she attended a Spiritual Retreat led by Deaconess Nan Gordon in Leesburg, Florida, and later a discerning session led by Deaconess Cindy Johnson at Mission u, Bethune Cookman University in 2015. In 2020, she was commissioned as a Deaconess to the Florida Conference.

She worships and serves in many areas of ministry at Village UMC in North Lauderdale, Florida and is currently the President of Village UMW unit. 

Paulet Royes-Neale currently resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with her husband Phillip. She and her husband have lived there for many years since migrating from Jamaica, West Indies. 

She is the mother of two adult children and the proud grandmother of granddaughter, Mikayla. 

Deaconess Ester Kim grew up in the United Methodist Church and is currently a member of Tampa Korean UMC in the Gulf Central District.  

She has taught bible studies for decades, has held various leadership roles at her current church, and currently serves as Chair on the Conference Committee on Nominations.  

Ester is a retired attorney who specialized in corporate and securities law.  She and her husband have one daughter who just graduated from college.

 Dr. Lorraine Mayfield-Brown has been the President of Oakhurst United Methodist Women in Seminole, FL, and has held various other local unit offices.  She is a life-long member of the United Methodist Church.    

Prior to holding positions in her local organization, she served as Mission Coordinator for Membership, Nurture and Outreach for the Gulf Central District.  

As a long-time member and enthusiastic Mission u participant, she served as a youth study leader for the “Food and Faith” study, adult study leader for the “What About our Money?”, and “Living as a Covenant Community”, mission studies, as well as many other adult mission studies.   

Dr. Mayfield-Brown is a sociologist, receiving her Ph.D. in Sociology from the City University of New York-Graduate Center and is currently teaching at St. Petersburg College. 

She is a mother of a wonderful adult daughter.   

Being a member of United Methodist Women and its predecessor organizations has been the most formative aspect of Jackie's life. 

Currently serving as President of her local unit at Christ UMC, Leesburg, her enthusiasm for UMW has never waned. 

For 35 years, Jackie has been a licensed mental health counselor in private practice.  She is also the choir director/pianist at her church. 

Since March, 2020, she has been live-streaming a daily devotion through the church's Facebook page, a new adventure that has no end in sight. Jackie has been married to David for 23 years. 

She is the proud mom of Amy Marcinkus and Emily Hutchings, has five grandchildren, and continues to parent 7 cats and 2 greyhounds.

A deaconess and a longtime member of United Methodist Women, Dr. Judith Pierre-Okerson  is currently serving as  the President of the Florida  Conference United Women in Faith. She has served in leadership positions at the local, district, conference, and national levels of the organization. She is a frequent Mission u formerly School of Christian Mission study leader. 

Dr. Pierre-Okerson’s involvement in The United Methodist Church at the National level includes board member of The General Commission on Religion and Race, The General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Committee on Relief, The Women’s Division where she served as the chair of the Committee on Nominations, and the United Methodist Women National Organization where she chaired the Governance Committee. She served as delegate to several General and Jurisdictional Conferences and  is a delegate to the next General  and Jurisdictional conferences. 

A member at Miramar UMC, Judith is the South East District Lay Leader and she co-chairs the Training and Accountability Team of the Bishop’s Task Force to eradicate and dismantle racism in the Florida Conference. 

Deaconess Dr. Pierre-Okerson  is an educator; she oversees the Exceptional Students  Education Program at a Middle School in Miami Dade County Public Schools. 

Vidalis T. Lopez is pastor of the United Methodist Church in Coral Springs. 

She was born in Puerto Rico, but spent most of her young life in Panama because her parents were both Methodist missionaries.  It was in Panama that God began to mold her to eventually answer the pastoral call.  

Her roots in the church were planted in Hispanic Churches. She got her first English Bible the week before she started her seminary classes at Asbury Theological Seminary.     

Her years as a Youth Pastor and Praise Director was in a Hispanic church. She stated how much she loved praise and worship in Spanish and misses it!  Vidalis says, “this beautiful country of the United States continues to develop with more and more Latinos. We have unique experiences from our Latin American countries.”  She says that our children and grandchildren will take the baton, as long as we pledge, "What can we do together?”  

She and her husband, David Lopez have been married for 18 years and have two daughters, 15 and 7.  

Cathy is a life-long United Methodist and followed her mother into United Methodist Women.    

She has served as Conference Membership Chair, Treasurer and Membership Chair in the North West District and Deerlake UMW President.      

Cathy has served the church in a variety of committees, as well as the Children’s Nursery Supervisor and Sunday school teacher.    

She is a retired teacher, certified in exceptional student education, elementary education, middle school integrated curriculum.    

Cathy is married to her husband Rich.  They have three children and five grandchildren. 

 Marcus Zillman became Senior Pastor of Cypress Lake UMC in July 2021. Rev. Zillman was last appointed at First UMC of Boca Raton, where he served for seven years. His diverse ministry experience includes local church settings in northwest, central and southeastern Florida. He also led the United Methodist campus ministry at University of Miami for six years. His ministry experience has also included work with new church starts and the conference committee on new church development.   

Pastor Marcus received his Bachelors in Business Administration from Florida Southern College and his Masters of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University.   

Born in Illinois, he grew up in Naples, and is a fan of the Chicago Cubs. He and his wife Rebecca have two daughters, Marissa and Marilyn.

Norla Cruz was born in Cuba and moved to Miami at a young age. She is a life-long United Methodist who is member at Kendall United Methodist Church in the Southeast District, and she has been a United Methodist Women member since 1980. 

Norla is a graduate from Florida International University with a BA in Spanish Literature and Modern Languages and has a K-12 teaching degree. She pursued a Masters degree in Linguistics with a minor in French and Portuguese. 

Norla is a retired teacher.  She has worked with children in her local church and on several mission trips to Jamaica teaching VBS. 

She has taught the children’s study class at Mission u for many years, coordinated and taught programs for the Hispanic Family Camps for 34 years.  

Norla  has served as District Chairperson on the Committee on Nominations, Secretary, Education and Interpretation and Hispanic Coordinator for the Southeast District.  

She and her husband David have been married for 37 years and have one son and one daugher.

Jasmine hails from Orlando, Florida and graduated from Jones High School in 2015.  

She immediately started college at THEE GREAT Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University majoring in Elementary Education and graduated in the Spring of 2021.

Jasmine has been attending Mission u since she was little, and also has had  the opportunity to serve as an assistant teacher with the infant group. 

She has always had a passion for children, and she looks forward to working with the 3rd-5th graders!

Paulette is a native of Newport News Virginia.  She attended Grammar, High School, and College in Hampton, Virginia, and in Florida.   

She retired from the public-school systems of 30 years, in addition to being employed at.  Lake City Community College and The University of Florida.     

The organization of United Methodist Women became a sanctuary for her; she has been inspired by the mission work of United Methodist Women, its advocacy work for Women, Children and Youth, and its supportive community to not only her, but to her family. 

Paulette has served the organization in many leadership roles as Past Florida Conference President of the United Methodist Women, Southeastern Jurisdiction Leadership Team, Committee on Nominations, Coordinator for Children and Youth for Mission u, Dean of Mission U and as a Study Group Leader. In addition to serving the organization, she was privileged to have had the opportunity of serving as a Past Conference Lay Leader of the United Methodist Church. 

She enjoys working with children and youth within the local church and the public school system. Her passion and aspiration for children and youth is a call beyond measure; it is a gift, and she is excited about the message that will be learned at Mission u this summer “learning and understanding what it means to Become a Peacemakers in a Culture of Violence during our time together.” 

Derrick Scott III is the Executive Director and United Methodist Campus Minister for the Campus to City Wesley Foundation in Jacksonville and St. Augustine, Fl. 

He has been leading ministry to college students and young adults for more than 18 years. He is passionate about raising up a new generation of leaders and laborers who will live as disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world. 

He has an undergraduate degree in history, is a Cicerone Certified Beer Server, and a textbook introvert. He loves eating sushi, flying on Delta, pouring craft beer, talking church history, nerding out over accounting, and taking care of his Chihuahua-mix dog Winston and Bengal cat Julian. 

Most importantly, he hates mayonnaise.