MEET OUR STAFF
REV. ELIZABETH RILEY
Rector
Rev. Elizabeth Riley joined Emmanuel in July of 2018. She was born in Wasilla, Alaska and spent most of her formative years in Anchorage. She found the Episcopal Church in middle school and felt her calling to the priesthood at fifteen. She moved to the Bay Area to attend college at Saint Mary’s College of California, where she studied theology and English. After receiving her BA, she attended seminary at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, where she received a Master of Divinity. She served as a deacon at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in San Francisco. For five years she served as the Associate Rector at Trinity Church in Menlo Park, California. Elizabeth previously served as a board member of Young Clergy Women International, overseeing fundraising and development. She also served on the board of Stanford's Episcopal Campus Ministry, also working on fundraising and development. She serves on the Diocesan Council for the Diocese of Olympia. Rev. Elizabeth received the diocesan preaching award in 2022. Her poem "After" was published in Ode to Our Undoing in 2022. She is a contributor to "I Love Jesus, But..." coming from Chalice Press in 2023. Elizabeth lives on Mercer Island with her three children: Eleanor, Amelia, and Peter.
Associate Rector
FRED MCILROY
Music Director
Fred joined the staff of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in June of 2021. A native of the south Seattle area, he found church music at a very young age and has been active in it ever since. He attended Central Washington University and received the Bachelor of Music Education degree in 2004. Fred found the Episcopal Church on a cold February afternoon in Manhattan when he wandered into St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Fifth Avenue for a life-changing Wednesday Choral Eucharist (the setting was Vaughan-Williams in g minor) and has never looked back. Congregations he has served include Grace Episcopal Church in Ellensburg and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Lakewood. He has also been active as a music educator in school settings having taught two-year-old pre-schoolers through high school students. As a performer, Fred is active in the Seattle area choral music scene. He is a fifteen year-plus member of The Compline Choir as well as a member of the award-winning ensemble Choral Arts Northwest. Fred and his wife, Heidi are the proud parents of two beautiful daughters.
JULENE LEVIN
Office Administrator
Julene Levin joined the Emmanuel staff in 2017. Among many other duties, she manages the flow of information between parishioners and staff, maintains the church calendar, coordinates facility use, property oversight, maintains the website, and generally keeps the office operating like a well-oiled machine.
Julene is a Seattle native, and now resides in Mercer Island with her daughter and son. Julene formerly worked in marketing communications for various software companies. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her kids, reading and traveling to warm weather.
Rev. Brian Gregory is a native of Seattle and the Diocese of Olympia. He served for six years as the Associate for Youth Ministries at St.Thomas, Medina and two years as Curate at Good Samaritan, Sammamish. After leaving Good Samaritan in 2019, he lived in Guatemala, serving with the Episcopal Diocese of Guatemala and a nonprofit in community around the Guatemala City garbage dump. He currently works for LifeCenter Northwest, the organ donation organization for this region of the country, coordinating with and supporting families at the end of their loved one’s life.
Brian lives in the Seattle area with his wife, Kelly, and his two children, Ellsley (6) and Westin (4).