Rev. Phyllis M. Bowers
Executive Director

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Phyllis M. Bowers was appointed as The Foundation’s Executive Director in November, 2005.  Prior to that, she served for eighteen years as Director of Planned Giving and Stewardship Services for The United Methodist Stewardship Foundation of Central Pennsylvania, the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.  She has conducted more than 1,000 seminars over the past twenty-two years on wills, planned giving, Christian money management, stewardship development and related topics.  She serves as clergy consultant and personal financial expert.

In 1999, she was consecrated as a Diaconal Minister and certified as a Christian Educator and in 2004, ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church.  She is a graduate of York College of Pennsylvania, The National Institute of Planned Giving at the College of William and Mary and is a member of the American Association of Fund Raising Professionals.  She graduated 1999 as Deacon/Diaconal Minister from Wesley Theological Seminary.

Her responsibilities within the United Methodist Church include serving as Delegate to General Conference and Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.  She is member of the Board of Directors of the United Methodist Church Foundation, member of the North American Conference on Christian Philanthropy Planning Committee, member of Gary Moore and Company Board of Advisors, Consultant to the Student Aid Board of Managers, Daystar Center for Spiritual Recovery Board of Directors, United Methodist Development Fund Board of Directors (GBOGM), York County Council of Churches Board of Directors, past member of the Board of Pensions and Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, and for twelve years served as member of the York College Alumni Board.

In 2002, Phyllis was privileged to represent the General Board of Discipleship in an educational trip to Malawi, Central Africa where she preached and taught pastors on the subject of  Stewardship.  She served as Keynote Speaker for the United Methodist Church’s North Central New York Annual Conference sessions in 2004, and in 2004 and 2005 conducted five district-wide Stewardship Development Seminars, reaching more than 500 pastors in that Annual Conference.  Phyllis previously served as Chair the Estate and Planned Giving Forum for the Ecumenical Stewardship Center 2005-2006, serves on the Planning Committee for the North American Conference of Christian Philanthropy and member of the Board of Directors of Mission Central.  She served as Keynote Speaker for the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference Clergy Gathering in 2007 and in 2005, she was Keynote Speaker of the Ecumenical Worship Service for the York County Council of Churches.  She led a United Methodist Teach-In at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, and spoke at Old Otterbein Church in Baltimore.  She and her husband, Rev. Richard L. Bowers, have two adult sons and one granddaughter.