Rev. Jesse B. Garner

Immediate Past Chair

 

Rev. Jesse Garner was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and attended high school there. He later received his undergraduate education at Yale University and his seminary training at Harvard Divinity School.  An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Rev. Garner served churches in Tennessee and Alabama before moving in 2001 to First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia where he was pastor until his retirement in 2018.

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Jesse joined the board of Interfaith Philadelphia in 2009, and during his tenure has served as board secretary, treasurer, and since 2018 as board chair.  He also serves on the boards of the Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s Village.   His wife Allen is a teacher at the Russell Byers Charter School in Center City.  Their daughters Allen and Lela now live and work elsewhere.   Allen teaches Latin and coaches swimming at the Robert Louis Stevenson School in California, and Lela works in the Office for Sustainability at the University of Virginia.