Pastor Jon came to Hodges in the summer of 2019. He has served in ordained ministry since 1996 in different positions. Most recently he came from a ten-year calling in Miami as a Senior Pastor and Instructor at University of Miami. He grew up in the Washington, DC area and holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD from Baylor University. Pastor Jon enjoys running, reading, teaching, and caring for others.

JoAnne comes to Hodges with 16 years of Christian Education ministry under her belt. She was ordained in 1999 as a Ruling Elder in her church of growing up where she served as chair of Christian Education, taught Sunday School, was Moderator of PW, as well as Bible moderator, youth advisor and Youth Director. She completed her certification as a Christian Educator in August of 2023, a journey that started in 2011. During her time, she has served churches in South Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia (3 different congregations), Colorado and now Florida. Her experience includes time serving an ELCA congregation and a United Methodist congregation. Her passion is educational ministry, especially intergenerational ministry.

She calls the Carolinas home, as she lived most of her life in North Carolina, but her parents were from South Carolina so where family is, is home. JoAnne has 2 children, Trey who lives in northern Virginia with her 2 grandchildren and 3 of her grandpups. Saye lives in South Carolina with JoAnne's other 4 grandpups. She collects turtles of all kinds. In the evenings you can find her knitting with Casper her 12 year old rescue kitty laying beside her.

JoAnne serves on the national level of the PC(USA) as an elected member of the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender Justice. She also serves on the PC(USA), a corporation Board of Directors, currently she is chairing the Finance, Operations and Budget committee. She has helped craft the Child, Youth and Vulnerable Adult Protection policies for the PC(USA); as well as helping to craft and advocate for the passage of the Family Leave policy. She has served on the Presbytery level in some way over the years.

Yes, she is a polity geek as well as a liturgical nerd! Her office is decorated in organized chaos, and you are welcome to drop by and visit during office hours. Friday is her Sabbath day and she doesn't answer emails until she comes in on Sunday morning 🙂

Hello! My name is Jaimie Shires. I am so excited to meet all the youth of the church. I have been a church nerd since I was a child. At 16 I was in leadership positions already. I was certain I would be a church professional someday. After college, I worked as the Director of Christian Education for Highlands United Presbyterian Church for 7 years, then as the Children’s Ministry Director for Palms Presbyterian Church before coming home to be a full-time mother over the last 9 years. I am happily married to CJ and have two beautiful children, Hunter and Hayden . My passions and strengths lie in building and forming community, energizing and motivating groups and individuals to live more intentionally and authentically, finding humor and meaning in everyday life. She is driven by the need to find the sacred in the ordinary and has a deep appreciation for the power of story.

Jenni Braden Cole is our Nursery and Early Childhood Coordinator. Jenni has been a member of Hodges since she was 2.5 years old and thinks of Hodges as her second home. Jenni was baptized and confirmed here and now her daughter is following in her footsteps. Jenni is proud Hodges offers the love of God to her daughter and to all children.

Jenni is also Assistant Director of a local preschool. She has a passion to help build strong fundamentals in children’s education and strongly believes, “It takes a big heart of help shape little minds.” Jenni’s goal is to one day own her own preschool.

Kimberly grew up in Ohio and attended the University of Akron in Early Childhood Education and American Sign Language. She has been in Early Childhood Ed for more than 30 years. She met her husband Scott during college and have four children together, Victoria, Jordan, Haley and Zach. She is also the proud grandma (Neena) of 4 grandchildren Lincoln, Elliana, Scarlett and Finnian.

Kim started at the preschool in 2002 as the Assistant teacher in the HBPC PMO program. She taught the 3’s class and started teaching VPK in 2005. During that time, she received her National Directors Credential, then went on to serve as the Assistant Director and now the Director in 2020.

In her free time, she loves to read, craft and garden. But most especially loves when her whole family can be together.