The Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, National Council of Churches (NCC) program director for women’s ministries, has been named the council’s interim associate general secretary for Joint Action and Advocacy, effective Oct. 1.

Tiemeyer, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) pastor, was unanimously elected to the position by the NCC Governing Board at its Sept. 23-24 meeting here.

In her new position, Tiemeyer will provide staff leadership for the NCC’s table for Joint Action and Advocacy on Issues of Justice and Peace. She will divide her time between the council’s offices in Washington and New York.

One of four tables established to advance the newly reorganized council’s primary ministries, the Joint Action and Advocacy table will work with NCC member communions and other partners to build a “new, egalitarian consensus,” especially on racial justice, and “model meaningful advocacy and public witness on the issue.”

Tiemeyer, whose responsibilities include the NCC’s Justice for Women Working Group, has had long experience in public advocacy. She has guided programs in domestic violence, human trafficking, poverty, and the use of language in ways that recognize and affirm all members of society.

For the past three years she has helped plan Ecumenical Advocacy Days, an annual gathering that brings together thousands of persons of faith to address justice issues and witness to U.S. government leaders on the need to seek remedies for persons suffering the consequences of poverty and discrimination.

Tiemeyer has also been key in development of the NCC Young Women’s Leadership Experience program, Fistula Stories (www.fistulastories.org), Words Matter (www.wordsmatter.org) and Circles of Names Campaign (www.circlesofnames.org). 

She was ordained in the ELCA and has served as a parish pastor in three urban congregations in New Jersey, California and New York.

Tiemeyer served a specialized ministry in disaster response in New York City following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

She has served as the chair of the Commission for Women in the ELCA and has served on the leadership team of Ecumenical Women at the UN (www.ecumenicalwomen.org) and Church Women United (www.churchwomen.org). 

Tiemeyer holds a B.A. degree in theater and sociology from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Her M.Div. degree was earned at Yale Divinity School, where she also received an excellence in preaching award. 

She resides in New York City with her spouse, the Rev. Thomas Taylor, who serves as a pastoral psychotherapist for the Lutheran Counseling Center.