Allyship: The Sacred Space

Religion and the Queer Community

Join us as local religious leaders shed light on how our faith intersects with identity in this thought provoking discussion and audience Q&A.

Panelists:

The Reverend Lauren T. McLeavey (Mother Lauren) is the Rector of St. Stephen’s.

A native of Massachusetts, Mother Lauren was heavily involved in church youth activities. After high school, she attended Syracuse University and was the president of the Episcopal Campus Ministry there.

After graduating from college, she moved to Queens and joined Zion Episcopal Church in Douglaston, where she taught Sunday School, was on the Vestry, and became Senior Warden at age 25. She attended General Theological Seminary, graduating in 2013. She was ordained in that year, and also married. She served on Long Island for three years as Priest in Charge of Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Great River, and Curate at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Islip. In 2016, she and Frank moved back to Massachusetts and she became the Rector of St. Anne’s in North Billerica, MA. In 2019, Mo. Lauren moved back to L.I. to be the Rector of St. Stephen’s. Over the last 7 years, she has been active in the community and bringing God’s love to all people.

Eric Schulmiller has served as Cantor of the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore (RSNS) in Plandome since 1999. After earning a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano from the University of Miami and performing across New York City venues, he earned a Master’s degree in Sacred Music and was ordained in 1999 from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion. In addition to leading innovative youth and social justice programs at RSNS, Schulmiller is an active culture writer and satirist whose humor writing and essays examining the intersection of Jewish heritage, popular culture, and history have appeared in The Forward, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The New Yorker, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

Moderated by:

Melissa Palazzo-Hart is the founder of Hart Holdings, where she advises and coaches CEOs, founders, senior executives, and leadership teams navigating growth, conflict, change, and high-stakes decisions. She brings more than 25 years of experience as a former CFO, COO, and CEO across media, technology, and professional services.

At the center of her work is Heart Work™ — an approach she created around the deeply human work of listening, questioning assumptions, building trust, and having the conversations that create meaningful change. Melissa believes that much of what separates us begins with what we think we already know about one another, and that real connection requires curiosity, courage, and a willingness to listen beyond our own experience.

Melissa holds a Master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology, serves on the Leadership Development Board of YPO, and speaks on leadership, human performance, collective intelligence, and the future of work. She lives in Port Washington with her family.