In late July 2020, Evan, Kate, their children, Eliana and David, and their cat moved to Elmira, New York, for Evan to begin his call as the pastor and Head of Staff at North Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Elmira. The son of an American Baptist minister, when Evan graduated from Carroll College in Helena, Montana, he went law school at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon, where he and Kate met.
They eventually settled in the small city of Pendleton, Oregon, in the eastern (and very dry) side of Oregon, where Evan practiced law as a matrimonial and family law attorney and Kate primarily practiced law as a prosecutor in the local district attorney’s office. In 2017, almost 14 years after moving to Pendleton, they decided to move their family to Princeton, New Jersey so that Evan could attend Princeton Theological Seminary. Evan graduated from seminary in May 2020. While at Princeton, Evan was fortunate to be able to have two internships in the Philadelphia area, one with Broad Street Ministry in Center City, Philadelphia, and one with Tree of Life Church (PCUSA) in Springfield, PA, which is where he began to learn the art of Zoom worship.
His most formative internship was as a chaplain intern at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, a long-term, state psychiatric hospital, in Trenton, New Jersey. He enjoyed his time there so much that during the couple of months between graduation, accepting the call to North Presbyterian, and moving to Elmira, Evan briefly returned as a part-time assistant chaplain to work with the patients at Trenton Psych.
