wfn.org | Drachler to join UMCom as public information officer

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 22, 2002 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71BP{373}

NOTE: A photograph of Stephen E. Drachler is available with this report.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Stephen E. Drachler, a veteran journalist and
communications strategist, has been named public information officer for
United Methodist Communications, a role that will include directing media
relations for the denomination.

Drachler, 52, of Dauphin, Pa., will join Nashville-based UMCom Sept. 16.

"Stephen Drachler is known throughout the church and across Pennsylvania as
a common-sense communicator who achieves real-world solutions to
communications challenges," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top staff executive
of the agency. "He will add a new dimension to how the United Methodist
Church communicates in a rapidly changing, fast-paced, news environment." 

Drachler will also carry out a public relations strategy for the
denomination, in keeping with UMCom's mandate, Hollon said.

"I'm very excited with the opportunity," Drachler said. "It shows the
awareness of the denomination of the importance of communicating in the
broader world, recognizing the need to raise the level of discussion, to
seek out opportunities to tell our stories, and to understand that the
people who sit in our pews are the same people who watch TV news and read
newspapers and listen to the radio. And we have a very important obligation
to spread the love of Christ throughout the world."

For seven and a half years, Drachler was spokesman and communications
strategist for the majority leader and speaker of the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives in Harrisburg. He was on the senior staff team that
developed the House's legislative agenda and was responsible for crisis
communications strategies. He left that post in June.

Before entering public service in 1995, Drachler was director of
communications for the Central Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference for
three and a half years. In the early 1990s, he was the chief aide for Bishop
Felton Edwin May on the Council of Bishops' Special Initiative on Drugs and
Violence in Washington.

Drachler also was a delegate to the 1992 and '96 general and jurisdictional
conferences, and served on the United Methodist Publishing House board of
directors for more than 10 years. Other church roles have included stints as
chairman of Central Pennsylvania's committees on leadership development and
communications.

His journalism career included six years as Harrisburg bureau chief for the
Allentown, Pa., Morning Call, where his work garnered two Pulitzer Prize
nominations. He also served in Harrisburg and Washington as a bureau chief
and reporter for Ottaway Newspapers, a national newspaper group based in
Campbell Hall, N.Y. He was local news editor for Ottaway's Pocono Record in
Stroudsburg, Pa., and was a reporter for papers in Reading, Pa., and the
suburbs of Rochester, N.Y.

Drachler has provided leadership to numerous community organizations, most
recently serving on the Pennsylvania Association of Non-Profit
Organizations' board of directors. 

A native of Bainbridge, N.Y., he holds an associate's degree in journalism
from State University of New York at Morrisville. 

Drachler belongs to Harris Street United Methodist Church in Harrisburg. He
and his wife, Michelle, have a daughter, Stephanie, a junior at Lock Haven
(Pa.) University.

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United Methodist News Service
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