Leadership & Staff

Rev. Shannan Vance-Ocampo serves the Presbytery of Southern New England as General Presbyter. Previous to this call Shannan served as the Transitional Presbyter for Albany Presbytery in New York, Pastor/Head of Staff at Watchung Avenue Presbyterian Church in North Plainfield, NJ, and as the Associate Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Rumson, NJ. Shannan serves the national church as an Elected Member and co-chair of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, and a Director with the Presbyterian Foundation. Previously, she served as co-moderator of the Activist Council of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship following her extensive volunteer work on their accompaniment program for human rights in Colombia, South America in partnership with the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia.

She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies (honors) from The College of Wooster and a Master of Divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary. She spent an undergraduate semester at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and is currently working on her Doctor of Ministry at Memphis Theological Seminary in the Land, Food and Faith Formation program.

Her passions are for organizational change, prophetic leadership and congregational transformation. At home she is an avid gardener, with a gaggle of chickens, fish and frogs living in her yard-habitat alongside many plants, flowers and vegetables. Her husband, Juan Gabriel Ocampo Valle, is a native of Bogotá, Colombia, where they continue to maintain a home. They are the proud parents of their daughter, Sofia Elena and in late 2022 welcomed a granddaughter, Katalina Elena.

Shannan’s work-from-home assistant is Mila.

Rev. Kevin White has served as the pastor of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Cumberland, RI since 2015. He currently serves on the PSNE Anti-Racism Task Force, and has served on the Committee on Preparation for Ministry. He is also the part-time Protestant Chaplain with the Campus Ministry department at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI.

He holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and in Religious Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Master of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary. Kevin loves preaching, and is continually amazed that he has the honor and privilege to walk with so many through the ups and downs, questions and wrestlings of life. He hangs his hat on the fact that somehow and someway the life, death, and resurrection of Christ changes everything.

Prior to ordained ministry, Kevin has worked in the specialty outdoor retail industry, in non-ordained youth ministry, and as a group worker in a residential boys’ home.

Kevin is a self-avowed Star Wars geek and loves soccer (he practices the spiritual discipline of humility by being a fan of Everton FC). He enjoys being the number one fan of his wife, Rachel, a talented artist, and they are the proud parents of their son, Ezra, with whom Kevin enjoys riding bikes, playing board and card games, and (when his knees allow it) practicing karate. Kevin would much rather brag about Rachel and Ezra than write a bio about himself. They share their home with two cats, Albus and Jovi.  Kevin is no longer the tallest in his house.

Meet Albus and Jovi, who are probably up to something.

Rev. Erika Plank Hagan is a transitional Deacon in the Episcopal Church, and (God willing) will be ordained to the priesthood through that denomination in the next year. She began working with the Presbytery of Southern New England while a student at Hartford Seminary, pursuing a masters in inter-religious studies and preparing for her call to bi-vocational ministry. Erika has a strong communications background through her work in non-profit arts organizations, for church communities, and through freelance social media marketing and administration. For 2022-2023, she will continue to work with PSNE alongside her curacy at Christ Episcopal Church, Trumbull, CT, practicing her discerned call to have one foot in parish ministry and the other out in the broader ecumenical and interfaith world.

Erika lives in Ridgefield, CT with her husband and two sons (and office assistant, Mako the Dog), is a voracious reader, and teaches Jazzercise classes through local fitness studios. She is inspired by the possibilities of 21st-century technology and perspectives for communities of faith to communicate to and with the larger world of God’s creation, and is delighted to be working with the Presbytery of Southern New England.

Mako the Dog helps Erika get those newsletters out on time.