South District Staff
District Superintendent
The Reverend Michael Pearson
The Reverend Michael Pearson is a graduate of Albion College, United Theological Seminary, and Michigan State University, where he received an M.F.A. in Ceramics. He was ordained Elder in the Detroit Annual Conference in 1978. He and his wife, Bethyl, and daughter, Kyla, moved to Arizona from Michigan in 1986. Kyla is a junior at Arizona State University.
Before his appointment as the South District Superintendent, he served as the Desert Southwest Conference Director of Connectional Ministries. Prior to that, he held several pastoral assignments, including Velda Rose UMC in Mesa, Arizona; Dove of the Desert UMC in Glendale, Arizona, where he was the founding pastor and served the first 13 years of its existence, from 1989 to 2002; and two appointments in the Detroit Annual Conference. Before that, he and his wife taught at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, Korea.
Many national and jurisdictional events have benefitted from Mike's expertise. He has spoken at a national training event on Church Planting sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries and the General Board of Discipleship. New Church Planting was the topic of similar events with the Amarillo District and the Arkansas area. In addition, Mike has presented several times in conjunction with the Western Jurisdiction Academy for New Church Pastors.
He was the Conference Preacher for the North Arkansas Annual Conference in 1998. In 1999 he and his family participated in the World Methodist Pastoral Exchange in Great Britain. His book Letters from Maybe was released in 2005 by CSS Publishing. He is an avid Bible collector and is currently learning bookbinding and restoration.
Administrative Assistant
Sally West
Sally is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a Master's Degree in Reading. She is married to David West and has two grown daughters, Sheri and Debra who have two wonderful husbands and between them, four grandchildren: Jasmine, Thadeus, Tabitha and Aaron.
Before coming to the South District Office, Sally was the Director of a church preschool for twenty years. Prior to her "preschool days", she was a full time mom and early in her marriage taught fourth and fifth grades in the Flowing Wells School District in Tucson.
In addition to her various responsibilities at Christ Church United Methodist, where she is a member, Sally has been involved in a number of district and conference sponsored events. Sally has served as the registrar for the Pine Canyon and Mingus Strength for the Journey Retreats (a retreat for HIV+/AIDS campers) for many years. She currently serves as the Secretary to the Secretary of the Annual Conference, Rev. Louie Lyon and certifies the Lay Delegate Membership to Annual Conference each year.
Sally was born and raised in Phoenix, but moved to Tucson to attend the U of A, where she met her husband. Sally loves to garden, read, and spend time in the mountains.