Ophelia graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in Marketing and History. She has worn various hats including technical recruiter, college student minister, full-time mom, and personal wardrobe stylist. She loves meeting new people, discovering their unique gifts and personalities, and enfolding them into our Providence community. Ophelia has been married to Marat for 14 years and they have two young boys. You will usually find Ophelia spending time with her family outside (baseball diamond, soccer field, swimming pool), working out at the gym, or connecting with friends over good food and drink.
Willie Cochran
Willie and his wife, Tatum, got connected to Providence after moving back to Austin in 2014. Willie loves watching God at work among the people of Providence to grow their understanding of the Gospel in a transformative way. Willie has a heart for the well-being of our local church body and a vision for a congregation whose needs are known and met. He deeply enjoys getting to serve together with Tatum as a Deacon of Congregational Care.
Willie is from San Antonio. He came to Austin for college at UT and then left briefly for law school at Stanford. He’s a lawyer by trade but a taco enthusiast at heart. He and Tatum have two boys, William and Drees.
Tatum Cochran
Tatum and her husband, Willie, got connected to Providence after moving back to Austin in 2014. Tatum loves the local church and has seen God use Providence’s biblical teaching and community of believers to change her and to spread the gospel in the city of Austin and beyond. As a Deacon, Tatum focuses on Congregational Care. She is passionate about the transforming power of the gospel in and through the body of Christ.
Originally from Houston, Tatum graduated with a Finance degree from The University of Texas at Austin. She and Willie have two sons, William and Drees.
Will Fowler
Will grew up in Austin and is interested in caring for the city’s underserved population and restoring and conserving nature. As a deacon Will focuses on benevolence and finance. Will graduated from the University of Texas at Austin where he met his wife, Katie. Will and Katie are kept busy by their four children, William, Winn, Virginia and Charles.
Thom Gibson
Thom comes from a military family and grew up in various parts of the world but spent most of his life in Texas. He and his wife Sara got connected to Providence in 2014 after they moved to the city for Sara’s pediatric residency at Dell Children’s Hospital. As deacon of local partnerships, his passion for filmmaking and storytelling allows him to share the stories of Providence and it’s local partnerships through digital media. Thom and his wife Sara have a daughter, Audrey.
Susan Hunt
Susan claims Texas by birth but spent the majority of her childhood in Central Arizona and then her young adult years in West Tennessee, where she attended Union University. In 2014, she moved to the Austin area and got connected to Providence. Susan has worked for over fifteen years in the social work field serving vulnerable populations through counseling, coaching, program and staff development. She loves engaging meaningfully through the intersection of faith in practice within the workplace. As a deacon at Providence, her area of focus is hospitality as it is her joy to welcome and enter in with others wherever they may be along their journey and witness the Lord’s transformative work in the lives of His people.
Stephanie Lucke
Stephanie grew up in Austin when it was a sleepy college town. She graduated from Texas A&M and since then has worked in finance and accounting. Though Stephanie grew up in the Church, she came to understand the Gospel in a deeper, clearer way during and after college.
Going through her church’s rigorous Bible overview opened Stephanie’s eyes to a fuller understanding of the Bible and how the parts fit together. Coming to love the Scriptures through this experience ignited a passion for teaching an overview of the Bible and individual books of the Bible. Stephanie’s deacon responsibilities center on women’s ministry.
With three other families they started Austin Classical School, which has grown to over 200 students, and at ACS she serves on the executive staff. Stephanie is married to Glenn and they have two sons, Elliott and Caleb.
Jenn Miller
Jenn is the deacon of hospitality at Providence and moved from Nebraska to Texas in 2010 to be a part of the church plant. She was impacted by how she experienced God’s love through church family and wanted others to have the same. Jenn hopes that each person walking into Providence feels seen and known by God through church community. Jenn works with individuals with autism at a local clinic. She and her husband Sean like to go on hikes, take road trips, and create healthy recipes.
Heather Reimer
Heather moved to Texas 10 years ago from Omaha, Nebraska as part of the core team of Providence Church. As a social worker, she finds joy in her role as deacon of benevolence and loves to see the church come together to meet needs across the city of Austin. Heather works as the director of programming for a national healthcare nonprofit and enjoys teaching piano lessons in her spare time.
Baird Smith
Baird was raised in Denton, Texas. After attending college at Baylor, he served on staff with a college campus ministry at the University of Arkansas for eight years. Baird returned to Texas in 2009 to go to law school. Baird’s focus as a deacon is on local partnerships. He is particularly excited about watching God work through Providence in partnership with others to try to help meet the adoption and foster care needs in our community. Baird and his wife Monica have two sons and a daughter: Isaac, Elle, and Sena.