Meet the DDM Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees for Developmental Disabilities Ministries has the ultimate authority over the organization - setting policy and directions, overseeing the finances, and hiring the president/CEO. The board can have up to 15 members, all of whom are committed to DDM as a Christian ministry. It is self-perpetuating and uses a rotation system of five year terms, with new members rotating on each year. The full Board meets three times a year with other committee meetings added as necessary.

2011 Officers

• Mr. Dennis Hendrix, Board Chair
• Hon. Joe Booth, Vice Chair
• Mrs. Denel James, Church Services Committee Chair
• Mr. Weyman Johnson, Personnel Committee Chair
• Mr. Ronnie Jowers, Finance Committee Chair
• Mrs. Gloria Patterson, Residential Services Committee Chair
• Mr. David Matheny, Operations/Development Committee Chair
• Mrs. Ann Drew, Ministry Board Liaison

Honorable Joe Booth is a Superior Court judge for the Piedmont Judicial Circuit. He lives in Commerce with his wife, Susan, and they have a daughter in Vanderbilt Divinity School. Joe is a graduate of North Georgia College and received his law degree from Atlanta Law School. Joe has a special heart for persons with disabilities having to personally overcome many obstacles as a result of an accident while he was a college student that left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair. He is a member of Commerce Presbyterian Church.

Denel James is minister to children at First Baptist Church of Griffin, where she coordinates an outstanding program for children with disabilities. Before joining the church staff in 2000, she served for 17 years as a special education teacher, notably at Griffin High School. James has a master's degree in special education from West Georgia State University. She and her husband, Dennis, have three children. Denel is very active in community affairs, serving as president of Griffin Ballet Theatre, president of Carver Road Middle School Council, and a member of both the Griffin Downtown Council and the Griffin Area Resource Center Board. Her interest in DDM has been influenced by her brother who has disabilities.

Ann Drew is the parent of two daughters, and one of them is a resident in the DDM program. Ann is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and served as a paralegal before becoming a full-time parent. She now lives in Beaufort, S.C., but spends a good bit of time in Augusta, where she is an active member of Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal). She also serves on the Parent Advisory Board for Lynndale, Inc. in Augusta and is an active volunteer in the historic community of Beaufort. She has been instrumental in the development of our newest group home in Augusta.

Weyman Johnson, Jr. is a partner with Paul Hastings LLP in Atlanta, where he specializes in labor and employment law, representing major employers throughout the United States. A member of many professional legal associations, Weyman has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than ten years. He is a frequent speaker on legal, business and community affairs, is a contributing editor to various publications, and has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, Emory University School of Law, and at the College of Law of Georgia State University. A graduate of Mercer University and the University of Georgia, Johnson lives with his wife, Allison, on a farm outside Athens, and they are members of Emmanuel Church (Episcopal) in Athens. The Johnsons have two grown daughters. Weyman currently serves as chair of the board of directors of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, headquartered in New York City, and is secretary of the board of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, based in London.

Dennis Hendrix is a financial advisor and stockbroker with HRBlock Financial Advisors in Columbus. A graduate of Columbus State and the University of Georgia, Dennis is an active member of First Baptist Church of Columbus, where he serves as a deacon, Sunday School teacher, chaperone for the youth group, and participant in the missions program. He has served as president of the Columbus State Athletic Board and is a member of the CSU Tower Society. He and his wife, Carol, are the parents of two college students.

Elaine Harris. RN, is associate Professor of Nursing at the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, Mercer University. She is a graduate of the Grady Memorial Hospital School of Nursing. She has taught at the school for 30 years and received many awards for excellence in nursing. Elane and her husband, David, have six children and three grandchildren. Elaine is a member of First Baptist Church of Tucker where she has served for 22 years as director of the Randolph Special Education Department. In 2010 Elaine received the Mary Frances Duren Teacher of the Year Award, presented yearly by DDM to an outstanding special education teacher in the local church. She and David also serve as respite volunteers for Focus (Families of Children Under Stress).

David Matheny is the principal architect with Armentrout, Roebuck and Matheny Consulting Group in Athens and previously served as a staff architect at the University of Georgia. He has served as president of the American Institute of Architects (NE Georgia), president of the board of Friends of Georgia Museum of Art, president of the board of advisors of Georgia Children's Chorus, and president of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation. He and his wife, Becky, are members of Athens First Baptist Church, where David has served as a deacon and Sunday School teacher. David is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and the father of two daughters.

Rev. Robert F. (Bob) Browning is senior pastor of Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain. He is a graduate of Western Kentucky University and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, where he earned the Doctor of Ministry degree. Prior to coming to Georgia in 1999, Bob served several pastorates in Kentucky, most notably at First Baptist Church of Somerset, and has been president of the Kentucky Baptist Pastors Conference and the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and trustee of Cumberland College. In Georgia he has served as moderator of Atlanta Baptist Association; chairman of the Board of Visitors for the McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University; and board member for the Stone Mountain Cooperative Ministry.  Bob has been a mission volunteer in places all over the world, including Mexico, Honduras, Russia, Brazil, and Kenya. He and his wife, Jackie, live in Lilburn and they have three grown children and four grandchildren.

Rev. Jimmy Lewis is Senior Minister at First Baptist Church of Jasper. He is a graduate of Shorter College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, where he earned the Doctor of Ministry Degree. Prior to going to Jasper, Jimmy served as pastor of churches in Kentucky and Georgia and was Missions Coordinator for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia. He has been involved in a number of local civic organizations and with numerous mission projects, including service on the boards for Habitat for Humanity in Pickens County, the national Coordinating Council for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the Georgia Free Clinic Network. He and his wife, Sandra, live in Jasper, have two married sons and grandchildren.

Ronnie Jowers is vice president for health affairs and chief financial officer for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University. A graduate of both Furman University and Clemson University, Ronnie is a resident of Atlanta and member of Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, where he has served as a Sunday school teacher and chairman of the Finance Committee and Budget Preparation Committee.  He and his wife, Kay, live in Atlanta, near their two married children and three grandchildren. Ronnie serves as a trustee for Emory Adventist Hospital, Emory Eastside Hospital, and Johns Creek Hospital. When not involved in professional, community, and philanthropic causes, Ronnie enjoys hobbies including reading, magic, and music. He has also had a long-time interest in collecting celebrity autographs and has developed an extensive autograph collection.

Gloria M. Patterson is retired from the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Family and Children’s Services. A graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA, and Atlanta University, she has divided her career between public education and social work. A resident of Atlanta, she is an active member of The Fellowship Group Baptist Church in East Point where she is co-leader of the Woman’s Missionary Union. She is married to Curtis Patterson, a well-known Atlanta artist, and they have three children. Gloria is passionate about ministries to the disabled. She grew up with a loving, nurturing mother who was deaf, and now Gloria is the mother of a daughter with Down syndrome.

Quentin R. Pirkle, M.D.,is vice president and chief medical officer for Piedmont MedicalCareCorporation in Atlanta, and also serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Piedmont Clinic. Before taking his current administrative positions, he was in the private practice of internal medicine at Piedmont Hospital. Quentin is a graduate of Emory University and the Emory University School of Medicine. He is a member of numerous professional organizations and has served as a clinical instructor in medicine at Emory. Quentin lives in Atlanta with his wife, Linda, and they are active members of Wieuca Road Baptist Church. The Pirkles have two grown daughters. He has been active in community service through Atlanta Baptist Association as a missions volunteer at Wieuca Church, where he has served as Sunday School teacher and Missions Committee chairman.

Herman Cody has served as executive pastor at Green Forest Community Church in Decatur since 1999. A graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Cody holds the M.Div degree from Interdenominational Theological Center at Morehouse School of Religion. He served as pastor of several churches in Tennessee before moving to Atlanta, and has served in the United States Air Force in Japan. He has worked as an engineer at Scientific-Atlanta and M.I. Technologies, and is a lifetime member of the NAACP. Cody serves as unofficial Chaplain for "Sassy," an organization that provides social and recreational outlets for disabled persons. He also serves as moderator of Atlanta Baptist Association. Cody, and his wife, Jeanette, have two adult children, one of whom is disabled.

John Spear is an advertising executive with an Atlanta advertising firm. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech and the University of South Carolina, where he earned a masters degree in international business. John has a sister with developmental diabilities and comes from a family with a long association with DDM. John and his wife, Wendi, are the parents of two young children, and they are members of First Baptist Church of Decatur.