Meet our Team

At SUMC everyone on our staff values hospitality and service.  We are committed to helping you connect to God and connect to each other through works of justice and mercy providing many ways for you to get involved in the work of building the kin-dom of God.

Rev. Alison (Ali) DeLeo  
Lead Pastor

  Pastor Ali was appointed as our pastor on July 1, 2022, after serving as pastor at National United Methodist Church (Washington DC) and Faith-Community Cooperative Parrish (Pasadena MD). She served on the pastoral staff at Pleasant Green UMC (Durham NC), North UMC (Indianapolis, Indiana), Hillcrest Methodist Church Clerpine Circuit (Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa), and as a chaplain at Duke Medical Center (Durham, NC). Pastor Ali is an ordained elder in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. She earned a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School and a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree (her former vocation) from Temple University. Pastor Ali has a passion for creative worship experiences that inspire us to share God’s love and transforming grace with others. In her spare time, Ali enjoys Broadway musicals, gardening, running, and playing with her dog, Violet. She also loves to sing, paint, travel, cook, and study history. 

Rev. Joanne Miles
Deacon

       Pastor Joanne is an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist church serving at Swarthmore since December of 2021. She also is a senior financial leader at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Joanne, a lifetime Methodist, felt God’s call to ministries of social justice and to bring her gifts of financial advisory to the church. She has an Mdiv from Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia (now called United Lutheran Seminary) and has an MBA in Healthcare Administration from St. Joseph’s University. As a Deacon she sees the importance of connecting the hurts of the world to the church and the church to those needs. She serves on the South District Committee on Ordained Ministry as Registrar; provides lends her financial consultation services to local churches and social justices agencies in creating future sustainability. Joanne has previously served as the Co-Finance Chair for national board of Methodist Federation for Social Action and currently serves as co-convenor for the local regional office of both MFSA Methodist Federation for Social Action and Reconciling Ministries Network; a member of the EPA Regional Council DelVal JFON and serves on several boards. Here at Swarthmore, she serves in the worship service and lends her gifts in creative ways to experience God into our worship, in social justice ministries, congregational care, and support of our growing Young Adult and Family Ministries. She also preaches occasionally throughout the year.
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Shayla A. Jordan 
Church Administrator

Matthew J. English
Director of Music and Worship

     Matthew is a graduate of West Chester University with a degree in music and minor in dance. He is currently pursing a masters in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania.  Matthew loves to do music of all kinds and has extensive experience leading choirs, orchestras and compasses and arranges his own material both for theatre and for special worship services. Matthew in involved in community theatre as one of the founding member of Viviana Theatre. He is committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming, spirit filled space of worship where we can all be challenged to become the people God has called us to be.

JohnPaul Beattie
Audio/Visual/Sound Engineer

    JohnPaul Beattie is a Spatial Music Composer, Adjunct Assistant Professor, and Master Sound Engineer in the School of Music at University of the Arts. He earned his MFA in Music Composition from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2018.  Beattie has received a research grant exploring the Emotional Impact of Spatial Audio, from the Center for Immersive Media and the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at UArts.  Beattie also received the President’s Award for Excellence – a microgrant to build a spatial audio controller prototype, of his own design, to aid his research. Beattie is currently teaching Binaural Recording, Spatial Audio Composition, Introduction to Acoustics, and Live Sound Production 1, 2, and 3 at University of the Arts.

Herman Edward Jacobs
Church Sexton

       Herman Edward Jacobs was born in Taylor Hospital in 1950. He was one of seven children – 5 boys and 2 girls. He dealt with the “middle child syndrome” among the boys. There always seemed to be things for the oldest and things for the youngest and then there was Herman. He grew up in South Media during the civil rights era. He watched black people struggling on the TV news and he didn’t understand what was going on. Living in a family of 7 was also a struggle. His mother took care of the children and worked as a domestic, cleaning people’s homes. His father traveled back and forth to Lansdale every day where he worked for Merck.
     It was from his father that Herman learned the value of work. Work is essential his father said. His father delivered groceries part time for the Wallingford Market and he would take young Herman with him to help. That was his start on the road to many jobs. When he became a teenager, Herman got a job at the Court Diner as a dish washer. He had to tell a little white lie about his age, but he was able to handle the job.
He is not ready to retire. He heard about a job with the Phillies from a friend. He interviewed for the position of host in the premium seating section just behind home plate. It’s a miracle he ever got the job because he wore his New York Yankees hat to the interview! It’s still talked about in the Phillies' family.
     Herman came to SUMC about 4 years ago. He likes working with Pastor Lydia because she is a listener – a skill he obviously values – and she’s easy to talk to. His biggest challenges at the moment seem to be ending the flooding in Fellowship Hall and correcting some dysfunctional thermostats. But I’m sure he’s up to it.