The Reverend Samuel Alexander - Pastor
Rev. Sam Alexander is Pastor of Rockville Presbyterian Fellowship. He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, B.A., and Union Seminary in Virginia, M.Div. As a Presbyterian pastor for more than 20 years, Sam has served congregations in Maryland and in the San Francisco Bay area. He serves as an Adjunct Instructor in Homiletics at San Francisco Theological Seminary. What people call “his provocative sermons” have inspired, disturbed, and delighted congregations, while seeking to define a faith that deals with reality yet is intelligible to a modern world. He blogs at www.gracecomesfirst.net and is a popular speaker.
Mason Gizard - Youth Director
Mason is passionate about working with youth and connecting them to our loving God. He is a speaker and an author of two books, “Dad in a Day: When My Mom’s Kids Became My own” and “Discover Life Beyond Crisis: A Guide for Overcomers”. In those he tells of his family’s struggles with poverty, homelessness and abuse. He also tells how his family overcame those challenges. He has been working with youth for more than 10 years both in a ministry context and through a service based non-profit he started where he served unaccompanied youth and homeless transitional youth. Today, Mason is working on his M.Div. at Sioux Falls Seminary.
Carla Grokenberger — Interim Choir Director
Alexandra Hernandez - Office Manager
Alexandra (or Alex for short) joined the Rockville Presbyterian Fellowship staff as Office Manager in January 2022. She is mom to two children— her son Noah is 7 years old and her daughter Victoria is 12 years old. Alex loves reading, and spending her free time painting with her daughter and playing legos with her son. She also love bike rides with her fiancé and taking their kids to Disneyland as many times a year as they can.
Evangelina Perez-Bechtel - Pianist
Evangelina began her journey as many young children did – taking piano lessons. Her love for music quickly turned into a passion which led her to pick up and learn as many instruments as she could. As she entered college, her love of the clarinet led her to join the band and orchestra. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from La Sierra University in Vocal performance with her secondary instrument being the piano. She still enjoys playing the clarinet and percussion instruments, teaching, and leading choirs.
In 1980 she gave her life to God and decided to dedicate her music to Him. She entered a Christian Artist competition and won 1st prize which was the opportunity to make an album. She ended up making 5 albums in total as she traveled around the country in her ministry, singing in churches, for television and radio programs, and was a guest soloist for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Her travels were cut short by an injury she received to her lower back. Due to the pain she was in a wheelchair for 20 years. After many years of prayer God led her to a change in her lifestyle including becoming vegan and her life once again changed. In 2015 she was able to walk again and get off all medications which had taken away her life – including her music. She was so excited about the change in her life that she decided to go back to school – culinary school – and become a vegan chef. She started her own business “All in All Vegan,” and teaches what good choices can do to change health.