Our Staff

DMH portrait 2016David M. Horst is the Minister at the Central Unitarian Church, where he has served since August 2013. David has nearly 40 years of experience in congregational and transitional ministry, organizing and advocacy, arts administration, community service, pastoral care, advertising and public relations, and event management. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Harvard Divinity School and entered into the ordained ministry upon graduation in 1999, serving four Unitarian Universalist congregations in Massachusetts before relocating with his family to New Jersey. He currently serves on the Bergen County Human Services Advisory Council, the Bergen County Interfaith Brotherhood/Sisterhood Committee, and the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of New Jersey. David and his spouse, Alyson Gaylord-Loy, are the parents of two teenage children, Domnica and Darly. Domnica is a 10th grade student at the River Dell High School, and Darly is a 6th grade class at the Green Meadow Waldorf School. Both children attend Sunday School at Central Unitarian. The Horst-Loy family lives in Oradell in the church parsonage with their beloved greyhound Winston. David is the father of two children from a previous marriage, Rachel Klein, who lives in Utah, and Katie Coady, who lives in Maine with her husband Tom. David can be reached at revhorst@cucparamus.org or 201-262-6300, ext. 2. David’s office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a break for lunch.

Lynn Sodora joined Central Unitarian Church as Director of Religious Education (DRE) in August 2017. Lynn has 13 years of experience as a Director of Religious Education, formerly serving the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Sussex County in Newton. She also has 14 years of experience as an educational assistant for children with special needs in both public and private schools. Lynn holds a B.S. in Economics and Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Prior to entering the field of education, she was a paralegal for more than 10 years and has found the organizational and planning skills she acquired in that field to be quite useful in her vocation as a Unitarian Universalist religious educator. Though she currently resides in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, Lynn is a native of Bergen County having attended high school and college here and residing in the county for many years. In her spare time Lynn is an avid reader and book collector and enjoys visiting historical sites and museums. In addition to working with children, she is passionate about social justice issues and caring for the environment. She is very excited to join the Central Unitarian family in their dedication to nurturing the spiritual lives of our children and youth. Lynn looks forward to relocating to the area to be closer to family and Central Unitarian Church. Lynn can be reached at lynnsodora@cucparamus.org or 201-262-6300, ext. 3. Lynn’s office hours are Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a break for lunch.

unnamed-6Marie Bustamante joined our Church Staff as part-time Office Administrator in October 2016. Ms. Bustamante moved to North Jersey from Miami were she was General Manager in retail companies Michael Kors, American Eagle, and The Gap. She has three children and her passion and devotion to them is what drove her decision to alter her career path. Ms. Bustamante currently attends Felician University seeking her MBA with a focus on human resources. She is not all study and work, however! She enjoys yoga and leads a healthy eating group in social media. Ms. Bustamante is fond of chocolate and coffee, but is trying to kick this addiction. Her family comes from Mexico and she speaks fluent Spanish. Marie can be reached at mariebustamante@cucparamus.org  or 201-262-6300, ext. 1. Marie’s office hours are Sunday and Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Matt Anderson is a professional musician, composer and educator living in North Arlington.  In addition to being the music director at Central Unitarian Church, Matt is the music director at the Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft where he serves as the director of the jazz band, men’s chorus, string chamber music program, musical director for the musical theater program and music director for the liturgies.  Matt also works as an adjunct professor at Felician University, with campuses in Lodi and Rutherford, teaching music theory, keyboarding skills, and accompanying the Felician choir under the direction of Dr. Barbara Gordon.  Matt also works as a freelance musician primarily doing instrumental and vocal accompanying.  Matt works with Central Unitarian’s own Choral Director, René Galvan accompanying René’s NYC-based chorus Peace of Heart Choir. As a composer Matt has written production music for TV including MTV, Lifetime and for independent films. He has had his original classical and musical theater compositions performed at Carnegie Hall, La Poisson Rouge, the Barrow Group Theater, the Theatre at St. Clements, and HERE Arts Center. Matt is presently working on a new hymnal for congregational singing entitled “From The Old Unfold The New.” This hymnal takes traditional hymn texts and sets them to contemporary American popular music styles.  Some of Matt’s original music compositions can be viewed on his youtube channel Matt Anderson Original Music. Matt has two sons, Nicholas who attends Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY and Christopher  who attends St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City. He can be reached at manderson@cucparamus.org.

Robert René Galván is a conductor and educator with a long list of credits and associations from all over North America, ranging from small churches to the highest echelons of music. He is equally at home in orchestral, choral, operatic repertoire and musical theater, and is known for his extraordinary professionalism, precise communication and directing skills. In addition to Central Unitarian Church, Maestro Galván is Conductor of the Bronx Concert Singers, Peace of Heart Choir and Manhattan Sinfonia in New York City. He currently serves as Professor of Conducting at the Long Island Conservatory of Music. He was also Music Director of Highbridge Voices Youth Chorus, and Professor of Conducting & Choral Studies at the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music where he trained young conductors and directed the conservatory chorale. He was guest conductor of Florilegium Chamber Choir in Manhattan and Cappella Festiva in upstate New York. For four seasons he was conductor of the Springfield Symphony Chorus in Massachusetts. In Texas, Galván held positions as conductor of the Austin Philharmonic, Associate Conductor of the Austin Choral Union, and as director of both the University Chorus and the Longhorn Singers at the University of Texas. He is married to the playwright Holly Hepp and has a daughter, Gina.  He can be reached at rgalvan@cucparamus.org.

James ForrestJames Forrest, Youth Coordinator, works with staff, teachers, and families to coordinate the combined Paramus-Ridgewood Youth Group program.  He joined us in 2015. Since 2011 he has served as a religious educator in three congregations in California and Virginia, most recently as the Youth Ministry Coordinator at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, Virginia. In addition to his staff work, he spent many years working with high school youth as an adult advisor at his home congregation in Phoenix, Arizona, and also volunteering at youth cons and camps. From 2011-2013 he served as the adult dean of Senior High Camps at Camp Debenneville Pines, a week-long camp for Unitarian Universalist teens in Angelus Oaks, California. James earned his B.S. in applied psychology at Arizona State. He is a lifelong Unitarian Universalist and was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. When he’s not developing youth programming and empowering youth, he enjoys watching basketball at home with his cats. You can reach James at cucusryouthgroup@gmail.com.

Jim Karabin, Sunday Morning Coordinator

Dan Kurek, Bookkeeper

Jim Daly and Charlie Kazimierz, Custodial Staff