SOUTHSIDE STAFF
Ministers All Members of Southside
Pastor The Reverend Alison J. Harrington
The Reverend Alison J. Harrington became Southside's Pastor in January, 2009 bringing with her a passion for Christ and for social justice. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies with an emphasis in U. S. Race Relations. After graduation, she became a community organizer in the San Francisco Bay Area organizing around issues such as the prison industrial complex and the criminalization of youth of color. Seeking to approach issues of social concern from a faith perspective she left community organizing to attend San Francisco Theological Seminary, where she was a Presidential Scholar. While attending SFTS she began to volunteer at San Quentin State Prison where she worked with the San Quentin Giants Baseball Team and in the Protestant Chapel leading Bible Studies and teaching theology. After graduating with her Master's of Divinity, she served Covenant Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, California and served as a facility chaplain in the Santa Clara County Jail system. Alison has served the denomination as a Global Youth Intern in 1994 to Ethiopia, a Young Adult Volunteer to Belfast Northern Ireland in 1996, and has traveled on peace and justice delegations to Chiapas, Colombia, and Cuba. In 2010 she was named one of Tucson’s 40 under 40 and in 2011 she was awarded the Beatitudes Society Brave Preacher Award. In 2013-2014, Alison was a Beatitudes Society Fellow. In the Fall of 2014, Alison was named by the Center for American Progress as one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2015, she was honored as the 2016 Distinguished Alumna for SFTS, and most recently was recognized as one of the "10 Women of Faith Leading the Charge Ahead" by Sojourners.
Click here to read Pastor Alison's blog on Huffington Post
Contact information: Email
Phone: 520-623-6857
Click here to read Pastor Alison's blog on Huffington Post
Contact information: Email
Phone: 520-623-6857
Director of Music Mrs. Dorothy Reid
Dorothy Reid was born in Fayette, AL. She showed a love of music at a very early age, and began taking piano lessons when she was five years old, lessons that were arranged by her grandfather, the late Rev. J. H. Thompson, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Fayette. Dorothy began playing for services at her grandfather's church when she was nine years old. At the age of 13, Dorothy enrolled in music classes at the Cincinnati University Conservatory of Music. She studied music formally for 16 years, but has been involved with music, particularly gospel music, hymns, and spirituals for almost her whole life.
Dorothy moved to Tucson in 1983. In the time since she moved to Tucson, she has variously served as Director of Music for Southside Presbyterian Church, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Prince Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ideal Baptist Church, and the Davis-Monthan IGS Service. She currently serves as Director of Music for Southside Presbyterian Church, where she leads the choir and plays for services, and for the Tucson Arizona Mass Choir, a group she founded, which grew out of a music theory class she taught during the summer of 1999. Dorothy's latest musical endeavor is to organize a Gospel Jazz Ensemble, which played most recently during a concert at Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley, AZ.
Dorothy moved to Tucson in 1983. In the time since she moved to Tucson, she has variously served as Director of Music for Southside Presbyterian Church, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, Prince Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Ideal Baptist Church, and the Davis-Monthan IGS Service. She currently serves as Director of Music for Southside Presbyterian Church, where she leads the choir and plays for services, and for the Tucson Arizona Mass Choir, a group she founded, which grew out of a music theory class she taught during the summer of 1999. Dorothy's latest musical endeavor is to organize a Gospel Jazz Ensemble, which played most recently during a concert at Valley Presbyterian Church in Green Valley, AZ.
Director of Children & Youth AmyBeth Willis
AmyBeth Willis is thrilled to be the new Director of Children and Youth Ministries at Southside! She first fell in love with the Southside community when she served here as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) through the PC(USA) from 2013 to 2014. She was raised in Murfreesboro, TN, outside of Nashville, and graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from Emory University in May of 2013. After leaving Tucson, she moved to Washington, D.C. for a second YAV Year, where she served at the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness on Capitol Hill, learning the in’s-and-out’s of faith-based advocacy. She moved back to Tucson in February of this year to work as an organizer with the National Sanctuary Movement, in which Southside plays a crucial role. Now, she splits her time as organizer and as director of all-things children and youth. Apart from work, she sings in Tucson’s distinguished Helios ensemble, plays the guitar and writes music. She loves to watch movies with her friends and view Tucson’s glorious sunsets. She is passionate about her role as an ally in migrant, racial, and queer justice movements, with her Christian faith at the center of her work. Southside is a special faith community, whose children and youth represent the beautiful diversity of the Southwest. She is blessed to be able to share in God’s love with them!
Contact:Email
Phone: 520-623-6857
Contact:Email
Phone: 520-623-6857
Office Manager Jean Marie Smart
Jean came to Arizona from the East Coast in 1996. It took several years to fully appreciate the Southwest, but finally, without hesitation, she now considers it home. She adores the desert and has made getting out in it as much as possible a priority in her life. The daughter of a priest, Jean is a cradle Episcopalian, and though a great admirer of the Presbyterian Church and of the community of Southside, could never abandon the tradition that has shaped her sense of being in this world. She earned master's degrees in Art History and Information Resources and Library Science, and enjoyed working as a curator of visual resources for the School of Art at the University of Arizona, but finally gave in to her relentless desire to work for a church. She is very grateful to have found an opportunity to support a congregation with such a rich history of welcoming all, of commitment to social justice ministries, and of joyful service as they live into the words of the Southside mission statement, seeking "to be the body of Christ in our barrio, in the borderlands, and in our world.
Contact: Email
Phone: 520-623-6857
Contact: Email
Phone: 520-623-6857
Custodian Juan Alvarez
Juan performs cleaning duties in the church buildings and facilities as well as performs minor grounds keeping and related activities.
Pastor Emeritus The Reverend John Fife
John Fife was a member of the original Sanctuary Movement and was a co-founder of the immigrant rights group No More Deaths. He served as a minister for 35 years at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson. In 1992 Fife was elected General Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is now pastor emeritus at Southside Presbyterian. In the 1980s John Fife co-founded the Sanctuary Movement in the United States. The movement organized over 500 churches to help the refugees cross the border and find sanctuary in the U.S. In 2004 a group of religious leaders in Tucson formed a coalition called No More Deaths to attempt to end the deaths of immigrants along the US/Mexico border. John Fife was among the leaders of that effort and continues to work closely with No More Deaths.
