...a welcoming spiritual community

North Parish Staff

Rev. Lee Bluemel, Senior Minister

Lee Bluemel was installed as the seventeenth called minister of The North Parish on October 24, 1999, exactly 354 years from the date of the founding of the church in 1645. Before settling here, she served the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland from 1995 to 1999. She earned her bachelor's degree from Amherst College and her Master of Divinity degreefrom Harvard Divinity School. A life-long UU, she grew up in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, MA and completed student ministries and an internship at the First and Second Church of Boston and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills. She was ordained by the Wellesley Hills congregation on Mother's Day, 1995. She is married to Terry Buchanan, a family doctor practicing in South Nashua, New Hampshire, and they have a son, Andrew. They share their home with three cats.

Rev. Frank Clarkson, Assistant Minister

Frank Clarkson joined the North Parish as the Assistant Minister on August 15, 2005. He grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In his previous career, he was a freelance commercial photographer, first in Washington, DC, and then in Portsmouth, NH. Following his wife Tracey’s lead, he joined the UU church in Portsmouth in the early 1990’s, a move that eventually let him to close his photography business and enter divinity school. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge in 2004. Frank was the student minister at the First Religious Society of Newburyport, UU, in 2002-03, and the intern at the First Parish in Lincoln (UU and UCC) in 2004-05. The congregation of South Church in Portsmouth, NH, ordained Frank to the UU ministry on September 10, 2005, the day before his first Sunday at The North Parish. Frank and Tracey live in Portsmouth with their children Will and Emma.

Contact information

Staff hours: see

contact/directions page

Gail Forsyth-Vail, Director of Religious Education

Gail Forsyth-Vail became the Director of Religious Education at the North Parish in July of 1993, after having served the Haverhill congregation for seven years. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a Master of Arts in French of Rivier College before leaving public school teaching to become a religious educator. Based on both a portfolio of professional experience and courses at Andover Newton Theological School, she was awarded her professional religious education credential from the Unitarian Universalist Association in 2000. She lives in Georgetown with husband Steve Vail and son Owen; daughters Stephanie and Heather are in college.

Congregational Administrator - Dawn Appel

Dawn's bio coming soon!

Pam Guerrieo, Administrative Assistant

Pam Guerrieo started working at the North Parish in the fall of 2002 as the RE Assistant to Gail Forsyth-Vail.  She now works as the administrative assistant and is in the office three days a week.  She lives in North Andover with her husband Paul and her three sons – two at Sargent, and one at the Middle School.

Richard Beaudoin, Sexton

Richard Beaudoin has worked as the sexton of the North Parish since July of 1995. Richard also works full-time as a sheet metal mechanic at a local defense plant. He has been there for over 30 years. Prior to that, Richard served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam conflict. He and his wife, Linda, have been married and have lived in North Andover for over 25 years and have two sons and two daughters.

Carolyn Zimmer, Early Childhood Coordinator

Carolyn Zimmer began working at the North Parish in September, 2004. As Early Childhood Coordinator, Carolyn oversees the nursery on Sunday mornings and assists the Director of Religious Education with church school preparations. Carolyn received her B.S. from Cornell University and her M.B.A. from Boston University. She worked in the financial services industry for 14 years before turning her focus to early childhood education. She lives in North Andover with her husband, James, and their two daughters, Anna and Zoë.

Erica Fanuele, Nursery Supervisor

Erica is the mother of two boys (ages 4 and 2), a Board member of the Community Cooperative
Preschool and a design engineer by trade.

Jack Christoforo, Nursery Aide

Jack joins returning Nursery Aides Amanda Weldin and Abbi Massey. Jack has already been a
substitute in the nursery and is a graduate of the North Parish religious education program. He has worked for the past two summers as a junior counselor at the MSPCA Children’s Camp working with their six and seven-year olds and “little ones”. His “down on the floor” style of engaging with children makes him a great addition to our nursery staff!

Amanda Weldin, Nursery Aide

Abbi Massey, Nursery Aide

Welcoming Congregation

North Parish is a Welcoming Congregation, consistent with the guidelines of the Unitarian Universalist Association. We actively welcome lesbian, gay. bisexual, transgender, and intersex people as full participants in the life of the church. For more information, see our Welcoming Congregation page, or contact our Interweave chapter.