Heather-Dawn Small

Director

Heather-Dawn Small presently holds the position of director for Women's Ministries at the General Conference of SDA. Heather-Dawn is the wife of Pastor Joseph Small and the mother of a daughter Dalonne and a son Jerard.

Prior to coming to the General Conference in 2001 she held the position of Children's and Women's Ministries Director for the Caribbean Union Conference located on the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago for five years.

Heather-Dawn loves air travel, reading, embroidery, scrapbooking, and stamp collecting and she enjoys ministry to women. As she travels the world she has three passions - to see more women involved in evangelism, to encourage women to be involved in ministry to others – especially young women, and to share the joy that God has given her in spite of life's many challenges. Her favorite word is "JOY" and her favorite saying is "Don't let anyone steal your joy."

Raquel Arrais

Associate Director

Raquel Queiroz da Costa Arrais presently holds the position of Associate Director for Women's Ministries at the General Conference of SDA. Raquel Arrais is the wife of Pastor Jonas Arrais and the mother of two sons: Tiago,and Andre.

Prior to coming to the General Conference she was Women's Ministries and Shepherdess associate director for the South American Division (2000-2003) and Children's Ministries director (2004 – 2005).

Raquel loves reading, walking, playing the piano and collecting pictures of women's faces. She enjoys spending time with women, ministering to them, and learning from them.

She has a desire to see more women accepting God's call and being involved with the mission of the church, reaching out to say, "What can I do to help you along?"

Her favorite word is courage and her favorite Bible text is Joshua 1:9.

Melanie Ossandon

Melanie Ossandon enthusiastically joined the Women's Ministries Department in April 2004. After attending Highland View Academy she went on to Columbia Union College and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in English.

In the Women's Ministries department she is the administrative assistant to the Director and the assistant editor for the monthly newsletter, Mosaic.

Melanie is active at her local church (Spencerville Church) in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she is a youth ministries leader, teaches a young adult Bible study, and coordinator of the annual Young Women's Spiritual Retreat for Women's Ministries.

In her spare time, Melanie enjoys reading, knitting, playing the piano, and studying the Bible.

Judith Mwansa

Judith Mwansa recently joined Women's Ministries as departmental Secretary in February 2006. Before coming here Judith worked in the South Africa-Indian Ocean Division with the Treasury Department and was Shepherdess Sponsor.

Judith comes from Zambia and is married to Pastor Pardon Mwansa, vice president of the General Conference. She is the proud mother of three: two sons, Paul and David, and daughter Maggie.

She enjoys traveling, gardening, baking, collecting sea shells, spending time and praying with pastor's wives, and loves working with orphans. One of her favorite texts in the Bible is Philippians 4:8

Judith is good natured, soft spoken, a willing worker, and it is a joy to have her join our team.