First Unitarian is happy to welcome new members Daughon Langner, Virginia Pace, Ross Blythe, and Karen Brooker, who joined in December, 2021.
We are featuring our new members with their bios in the weekly email so the you can get to know them. Today we introduce you to Daughon Langner and Karen Brooker. Daughon and her family have attended First U for awhile and you may know them. Karen began attending First U on zoom during the past year. Be sure to say hello when we return in person!
Daughon Langner grew up in Texas and moved to Chicago for grad school almost 20 years ago. She and her husband live in the South Loop raising their twin boys. Daughon works as a clinical psychologist providing therapy and neurofeedback at her private practice. You might see Daughon and her family biking to church or around the city. Their family enjoys hiking, camping, and will try any adventurous sport. Daughon enjoys creative recipe-free cooking, jogging, and yoga.
Daughon grew up within an eclectic community celebrating religious differences and enjoyed exploring different faith traditions. She volunteered teaching children’s RE at Second Unitarian when she first moved to Chicago, and later found a home for her family at First U. The church’s Religious Education program drew Daughon to the church. Her career helping people build healthy relationships and cultivate self-esteem made the UU RE program a great fit for her family.
Daughon loves that her kids get a rich and varied religious education that encourages continued learning and acceptance. She also feels energized by the church’s social justice work to make the world more equitable and safe for everyone.
Karen Brooker learned about Unitarian Universalism in the early 90s and attended the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church on and off while her kids were young. More recently, when the pandemic suddenly grounded her to her home, she decided to use her newfound free time to “virtually” visit UU churches outside the Western Suburbs. Karen began attending First U services late in 2020. She always looks forward to attending the semi-monthly First Unitarian Humanist Group meetings, and has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know members from all corners of the First U community.
Karen currently works full-time, has two adult kids, and lives with her daughter (and daughter’s partner) in Batavia. For the time being she is also serving as legal guardian for her dad who unfortunately suffered a severe stroke early in 2021. Issues that are very important to Karen include democracy, diversity-equity-inclusion-representation, LGBTQ pride and acceptance, immigration rights, anti-racism, voting rights, 1st Amendment rights, and separation of church-and-state. She also enjoys attending live stand-up, improv, and theater performances and exploring different cities.