On Thursday night, October 15, a joint coalition of the Oregon Conference nominating and executive committees elected Jonathan Russell to serve as the new Vice President for Administration, filling the role vacated by Dr. Kara Johnsson.

Jonathan has ministered in the Oregon Conference for over 20 years, his experience spanning local church ministry, hospital chaplaincy, communications leadership, and serving as Assistant to the President since 2023. Jonathan’s leadership has had a notable impact on the Oregon Conference over the years. In his work with camp meeting planning, he oversaw the implementation of a 25% reduction in cost while maintaining a comparable experience to previous years. In his work as Assistant to the President for Communication, Jonathan built and streamlined the Media and Communication departments into a coordinated service team in order to meet the needs of local churches, departmental teams, and Oregon Conference administration. As Assistant to the President, he served a leading role in pastoral placement and in aiding congregations in conflict. Across multiple roles, Jonathan has developed and executed vital strategic and communication strategies in order to increase transparency during multiple crises and pivotal senior leadership changes.

In addition, the joint committees elected to eliminate the role of Assistant to the President at this time. Though there are still details to be sorted, many of the current duties of the Assistant to the President role will be redistributed among conference staff. Among his other new duties, Jonathan will step in to continue the preparations for Oregon Conference constituency session, which is scheduled for September 2027.

“Jonathan Russell’s leadership abilities have benefited the Oregon Conference sisterhood of churches in many ways, including in responding with creativity and clarity to the crisis experienced in 2024,” said Dr. John McVay, Oregon Conference President. “I am pleased that Jonathan is willing to step into yet another leadership role in service to us all and to our shared mission.”