Amy Thaggard

Administrative Assistant for Families Ministries

Email | amy@bostonvineyard.org

In 2002, Amy came to Boston to attend the only master's program that was willing to pay her way through school.  The master's program ended up being a disappointment, but she grew to love the Greater Boston Vineyard.  She began attending and soon after, she and her husband David were helping to lead the legendary Thaggard & Jaggard small group, which is still talked about fondly to this day...mostly because of the name.  In 2004, Amy and her husband decided to return to Tennessee to pursue more education and to get an additional helping of good ol' southern living.  Recently, they moved to Boston again and Amy took a position as the Administrative Assistant in the Families Department at the Vineyard.  This time they plan to stay indefinitely.

Amy was born in Tennessee and grew up in a suburb outside Atlanta.  She attended a small Christian college in Cleveland, Tennessee, at which she managed to both major in English and catch the eye of her future husband, David. Over the past several years, she has become quite the world traveler, treating her friends and family to postcards from New Zealand, Finland, Russia, Thailand, Ecuador, and all over Europe. And the glamour doesn't end there.  When not taking in orphaned strays (her most recent include a kitty and a bunny), she does brief stints of modeling and acts as guinea pig for a hairstylist friend. She works hard to maintain the lasting friendships she's made across the miles, enjoys a good talk over a hot cup of coffee, and hopes to one day write children's chapter books.

Angelica Brown

Staff Accountant

Email | angel@bostonvineyard.org

Angel grew up in Florida and graduated from Emory University with a degree in Finance. She is currently preparing for her real dream job by taking M.Div. classes at Gordon Conwell's urban ministry campus. Truth be told, she can add 6 figure numbers without a ten-key - a feat Chi-Ray says is impossible - but we've all seen it. Angel is married to Chris, an architect who helped us design the fabulous new sanctuary and who also has cool hair and plays drums on the worship team. Angel and Chris remodeled an old warehouse loft into a fabulous artsy and contemporary and functional living space, and finally let us all come to it. Some day Angel may update this bio, but for now we think these are the important and cool things to know about the gal who single-handedly saved our accounting process from engineers and humanities majors!

Esther Cho

Administrative Assistant for Worship, Arts, Pastoral Care, and Healing Ministries

Email | esther@bostonvineyard.org

Esther joined the staff in the fall of 2004 and is excited to be at the Greater Boston Vineyard, having come to plug into all of the resources available to help her grow in her healing journey, develop as a worship leader, and learn more about doing ministry in general.

Esther is originally from Philadelphia, where she lived for almost fifteen years. In 1997, she moved to Los Angeles, where she attended Occidental College and majored in American Studies, with a special focus on Asian-American Studies. After graduating in 2001, Esther returned to her hometown, where she joined her first Vineyard church.

Esther enjoys playing the guitar and drums, and is even an amateur deejay on the side! She also likes watching movies, spending time with friends & family, and cracking (what some might call corny) jokes.

Kate Jaggard Tyo

Assistant to the Executive Pastor

Email | kate@bostonvineyard.org

Kate Jaggard Tyo started working at Vineyard in 2003 while on "sabbatical" from her film studies. Two years later she returned to school to pursue social psychology.  Round Two of Vineyard employment began in the spring of 2006, shortly before her long-awaited graduation.

Kate loves to cook and eat, things she assumes are dominant traits her parents passed on.  One of her favorite restaurants in the Boston area is Punjab, where she and her co-workers go to exchange their work for naanwiches and korma.  Kate's love of cooking got her in way over her head when she catered a wedding reception for friends.  The high point was when Kate locked herself outside the house, simultaneously locking all the wine inside the house.

Kate loves to have fun, and promotes this sentiment around the office.  She was responsible for the 1st-ever Staff Tacky Christmas Party, and headed up the office "Biggest Loser" weight-loss competition.  Some say Kate is the funniest person they know; Kate has learned there's a sobering difference between "funnest" and "funniest."    

Kate lives in Cambridge with her husband, Keith, who knew he wanted to be a scientist since he was five.  He is handsome and brilliant, and wooed Kate with his talk of synechocystis- we mean, his expression of creativity.  All too soon, he and Kate will temporarily exchange Boston for Copenhagen, where Keith will help save the world.  Kate doesn't know what she'll do as an ex-pat, but she's not really worried about it.  Things always seem to work out.

Kristina Kaiser

Administrative Assistant for Business Operations

Email | kristina@bostonvineyard.org

Kristina has been on staff at the Greater Boston Vineyard since July of 2006. She and her husband, Dominic, began attending the Vineyard in the spring of 2002 when she graduated from New England Conservatory with a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. Since coming to the Vineyard, she and her husband have really enjoyed growing in their leadership skills and taking advantage of all of the education that is offered here. They both feel that they have never before been on such a springboard into what God has for them, and the church has been a huge part of that. Kristina currently co-leads a small group, a cluster, and Move Mountains Prayer with Dominic.  She also helps lead worship, co-directs the gospel choir, and assists with the arts portion of Community Offerings.

When Kristina isn't at church, she can be found teaching voice or piano lessons, cooking, watching movies, cleaning (to be honest,) organizing a social event, or attending a social event. Life is never boring, and she doesn't intend that it will become so anytime soon.

Before moving to the greater Boston area, Kristina and Dominic lived in Wisconsin where they attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She was born in Wisconsin, and lived there throughout her adolescent years, but she spent many of her elementary school years in Indiana.

Bob Bilodeau

Custodian

I was born and raised in North Cambridge just down the street from the Vineyard.This qualifies me as the unofficial historian of the Cambridge site  : )  as well as being the caretaker of the property. After high school I entered the building trades and have worked as such for the last forty or so years. I have a beautiful wife, Denise, five wonderful children, eleven grandchildren who are more fun than I could ever have imagined and one absolutely precious great-grandson.
 
My association with the Vineyard has been nothing but a blessing. I have never met, as a group , such nice people.They are loving and compassionate.They are so willing to understand and help anyone, in any way that they can. And they are so full of life and endless energy that just being around them makes your face and your soul smile. God willing, I hope to be here for a very long time.