Members of the Vestry
Gregg Wentzell, Senior Warden
Born in Salem, NJ, Gregg was raised in the Presbyterian church. He moved to Oxford in 1986 and earned his Ph.D. in English at Miami University. Gregg and his wife Amy met at Miami and are a “Miami Merger.” They have 3 children—two Miami grads and one who’s about to begin college there. Since 1997 Gregg has been on the staff of Miami’s Center for Teaching Excellence, where he supports faculty members’ teaching, directs the Lilly Conference on College Teaching, and is editor-in-chief of the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. Gregg is active with music and is president of the Oxford Community Band; he enjoys performing trumpet occasionally at Holy Trinity. Gregg and Amy were drawn to Holy Trinity by the wonderful music, the spirit of inclusion and community engagement, and the warmth of the parish community. Gregg is honored to learn and serve through the Vestry.
John Schaefer, Junior Warden
John has been worshiping at Holy Trinity since 2021 and currently serves with We Pick Up Litter, attends Adult Forum, and sings in the Choir. He served on the Vestry in 2023. John was raised by missionary parents in Ghana, West Africa, in a broad range of churches that centered on Baptist and Pentecostal congre-gations. He has taught Anthropology at Miami Regionals since 2012, where he has focused most recently on courses in human biological evolution, as well as refugees and the Middle East, although his narrower training is in Moroccan pop culture, with graduate training at Arkansas and Texas. At Miami, John has been involved in the Faculty Alliance union organizing effort (AAUP/AFT).
Prior to coming to Ohio, the family lived in Egypt for three years, where John taught Anthropology at the American University in Cairo. John's siblings continue to live in Ghana off and on with their families, doing Bible translation and church planting. John is married to Rachel, who teaches language arts and literature at the HS/college level. They have two teenage boys, Elijah and Noah, who are active in the marching band at Talawanda High. John and Rachel enjoy gardening together and accumulating books
Michael Reardon 2028
Michael Reardon has been the Executive Director of the Open Door Food Pantry on Front Street in Hamilton's second ward since his retirement from the University of Cincinnati in 2015. He taught psychology at UC for thirty years. He also frequently worked with social service agencies such as Talbert House and Tender Mercies in Over-the-Rhine dealing mainly with the severely mentally ill and with those seeking to recover from addictions.
At Holy Trinity, he serves as lector, eucharistic minister and as an enthusiastic member of the choir. He is proud to say that both his sons have earned doctorates. Nathan has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice and works in the ICU at St. Elizabeth in northern Kentucky. Patrick is an Orthopaedic Surgeon in St. Louis.
He regrets that at 70 he can no longer handle the 50-mile bicycle rides which took him throughout Ohio and Indiana and to Vermont, the eastern shore of Maryland and Canada.
Anne Galluzzo 2028
Anne grew up on a small farm in northern Indiana where her mother was her kindergarten teacher and her father was her high school principal! She attended the Lutheran Church of her German grandmother and sang in the choir, a tradition that has lasted over fifty years in various congregations. Anne graduated from Miami University with a degree in Psychology, and from The Ohio State University with a Masters of Social Work. Her clinical degree led to several positions in counseling, most notably as a custody investigator and divorce mediator with the Hamilton County Court of Domestic Relations. Most recently she provided victim support for the District Attorney’s office in Breckenridge, Colorado. Most of Anne’s adult life has been spent in Cincinnati where she joined the Episcopal Church 35 years ago. She has previously served on vestry and on many other church ministries, including a Theology Circle dedicated to immersing ourselves in books, film, poetry, and other arts culled from our wider culture. At Holy Trinity she has served as a delegate to Diocesan Convention, a member of the choir, and a eucharistic minister. Anne and her husband Charlie, an Episcopal priest, were married at the Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati in 2003. In the summer of 2023, they retired to Ohio after spending seven years in Colorado at St. John the Baptist in Breckenridge, Colorado. Having both attended Miami at the same time (but only in eyesight once), they have returned to their old college town and pretend they are still starry-eyed undergraduates! They enjoy a blended family of six adult children and eight grandchildren, with a ninth on the way. “Gigi” babysits weekly in Cincinnati. In addition, she loves singing and playing music, reading novels, and walking her Portuguese Water Dog, Josie.
Emilie Ratterman 2028
Emilie is a new Vestry member. She was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1948. In 1970 she graduated from Miami University in Sociology, since they didn't have a Social Work major at the time. She also received a Masters of Arts in Teaching in 1974. She met her husband, Bob, in 1969 at Miami. They married in 1972. Emilie retired from Life Span in 2018 as an Elderly Services Program Intake employee. Now she volunteers answering the phone at Oxford Seniors on Friday afternoons. They have 3 adult children, and 2 grandchildren. She and Bob started attending Holy Trinity in April of 2023. Shortly after they began attending Holy Trinity, Emilie volunteered to be a lector. She very much enjoys reading the Word to the congregation. Bob and Emilie also enjoy attending Adult Forum. Emilie likes to go to the In the Loop group two Thursdays each month, and the Episcopal Church Women gathering the first Tuesday of the month. She and Bob were Received into the Episcopal Church on March 2, 2025.
Jeffrey Wayne Ittel 2026
Jeff was raised and currently resides near College Corner in Preble County. He has always attended church, was brought up in the Church of Christ and Christian Churches. He has always been active in the churches he attended.
Jeff earned an Associate’s Degree in Agricultural Business from Clark State Community College. He is currently the manager of the family business, Green Prairie Turf, Inc. located in College Corner and operating since 1982.
Jeff is active in many organizations: the College Corner Community Club, Talawanda FFA Alumni, Oxford Museum Association, Oxford Chamber of Commerce, Oxford Men’s Club, and Oxford Lions Club. He also serves on the Bath State Bank Board of Directors.
He and his wife Michele, a registered nurse, have been married since 1988. They are the parents of four children and enjoy four grandchildren. Michele wanted more from church than she had found. Through her search, Jeff found that he also was looking for more in a church. They found it here at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, where they have both been active in a variety of ways.
Hugo Olaiz 2026
Hugo Olaiz was born in La Plata, Argentina. From an early age he was interested in foreign languages and cultures, and by age 11 he was studying English and French. At age 17 he started college, pursuing a 5-year program in Language, Literature, and Classics. After graduation, he served a 2-year mission in Paraguay. In 1990 he moved to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in Hispanic Linguistics. He also became an accredited translator and served as a volunteer interpreter at the Primary Children’s Hospital of Salt Lake City.
Hugo works as an assistant editor for Latino/Hispanic ministries at Forward Movement, and in that capacity has written, edited and translated books and pamphlets for the Episcopal Church. In 2022 he completed a new Spanish translation of the Book of Common Prayer.
Hugo has served in many committees in the church at the churchwide, diocesan, and parish levels, including two previous stints as a vestry member and one as Junior Warden.
Hugo enjoys classical music, opera, and foreign films. He lives in Oxford with his husband John-Charles and their son Cristóbal. The three of them spend a lot of time in the woods walking their dogs, Percy and Peluchín.
Runcie C.W. Chidebe 2026
Runcie is a Ph.D. student of Social Gerontology and a research assistant at the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University. His research interests include aging and access to cancer care, workforce issues of older adults, and veterans’ health. He is an external academic board member of the Birmingham and Lewisham African and Caribbean Health Inequalities Review, United Kingdom, and a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Graduate Student Advisory Board, Miami University. Prior to Miami, Chidebe was founder and executive director of Project PINK BLUE—a nonprofit focused on cancer prevention, policy advocacy, oncology training and research in Nigeria. Chidebe holds a diploma in Social Work and BSc in Psychology/Sociology & Anthropology from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MSc in Transforming and Leading in Health Care from Birmingham City University, United Kingdom.
Runcie and his wife Sunshine are the proud parents of daughter Chinua, who was born in Oxford and baptized at Holy Trinity in 2022.
Bob Benson 2027
Bob grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, graduated from the University of Kansas and attended graduate school at the University of Michigan. Bob, his wife Rosalyn, and their son Michael came to Oxford from Ann Arbor in 1985. Bob taught history and theory of architecture in the Department of Architecture and Interior Design at Miami, and was appointed chair 1992-2006. He served as interim Dean of the College of Creative Arts 2006-7. He retired from full-time teaching in 2015.
Bob is an avocational composer with some 100 pieces of sacred music in print from six publishers. His music has been performed locally, regionally, and internationally. He is past Dean of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and an active member of the Association of Anglican Musicians. He has served as interim organist and choir director at Holy Trinity and other churches in the area.
At Holy Trinity, Bob has served four terms on the Vestry, has been a convention delegate and served as Senior Warden twice, is a member of the choir and coordinator of Eucharistic ministers. He has served on several committees, most recently on the Arts Committee and the Rector Interview Committee. He designed and maintains the parish website. He served the Diocese of Southern Ohio as a member of the Commission on Ministry 2004-7. He looks forward to helping Vestry realize our triune goals: worship, learn, and serve.
Elaine Brandner 2027
Elaine Brandner has been worshipping at Holy Trinity for more than 40 years. This is her third term on Vestry. She has also served as Junior Warden and currently is known as the “building lady” attending to building-related systems and maintenance. She serves as the organizer of the ushers, is a lector and has twice been a delegate to convention. She was on the Rector Search Committee and the Interview Committee for Priest-in-Charge. She retired from Miami University after 26 years as the Sr. Interior Designer for Housing, Dining, Recreation and Business Services. She is proud Mom to Whitney and Kirsten who between the two of them were either baptized, confirmed or married at Holy Trinity, and Grandma E to four grandchildren. She enjoys long walks, reading, plein air painting and attending art workshops.
Bolaji Ayeseni 2027
Omobolaji (bolaji) Ayeseni, originally from Ogun, Nigeria, born in Lagos, had a diverse upbringing across several states in Nigeria including Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, and Abuja. It was during her return to Lagos to stay with her grandmother that she met her husband. Their friendship blossomed into a decade-long courtship before they tied the knot on July 14, 2022. Following their marriage, Bolaji embarked on a new journey to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Chemistry at Miami University.
Raised in the Anglican church, she has been actively involved in various roles within her religious community. During her undergraduate years, she served as the welfare coordinator for the youth parish and was a member of the ushering unit. Additionally, she held the position of financial secretary for the Obafemi Awolowo University Chemistry Student Christian Fellowship.
Currently at Holy T, she is an integral part of the choir, despite never having sung in public before. She finds great joy in being a member of the choir and has recently taken on the role of lector. Furthermore, she obtained an AED certification through Holy Trinity. Engaging in these activities has not only allowed her to connect with others in new ways but has also helped her overcome any nervousness stemming from language barriers.
