2025 Vestry Candidate Profiles
Scott Baxter
My wife, Betsy, and I joined St. Luke’s about 6 years ago after a year long search for a church home in our new city of San Antonio. After 37 years in Houston in various roles in Commercial & Private Banking, my employer, Frost Bank, asked that I move to San Antonio to lead a team and expand the services they provided across Texas.
This move, while a great career opportunity, meant moving from Houston where Betsy grew up and where we had started our lives together. We would be leaving our family, friends, doctors and church, St. John the Divine Episcopal. Betsy had grown up in St. John’s, and I joined after we were married there in1983. While members of St. John’s, I served on the Associate Vestry for 5 years, including as the Junior Warden, and the Outreach Committee for over 13 years, including as Chair for over 10 years.
Since joining the St. Luke’s family, I have enjoyed growing friendships at the church through my time on the Finance Committee and participating in the quarterly Men’s Dinners. I retired in October and look forward to increasing involvement with St. Luke’s, focusing on parishioner growth through deeper engagement and expanded opportunities.
Victoria Bruns
My family and I began attending St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in 2019, discovering a welcoming community shortly after relocating to San Antonio. A lifelong Episcopalian, I was baptized at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Duluth, MN. After graduation from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, I moved to Pennsylvania for graduate study at Bryn Mawr College. My professional background includes being a docent at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, director of operations for fine dining restaurants in Vermont, and commercial property asset management in Washington, DC.
Since 2021, I have served actively in St. Luke’s Children Ministries, assisting with Godly Play and Vacation Bible School. I recently joined both the Altar Guild and the Green Door Giving Board. My dedication to serving God and the Parish is unwavering, and I am honored to be on the Vestry slate.
In addition I am the proud mother of two boys, both baptized at St. Luke’s and attending St. Luke’s Episcopal School. St. Luke’s is a bedrock for my family and like a second home for the children. I am grateful for the strong community I have found at St. Luke’s and am committed to contributing to the success its mission.
James Dickson
I first moved to San Antonio in 1988 to attend medical school at UT Health Center. After graduation I did a residency in psychiatry and then a fellowship as well. For approximately the last 25 years I have been involved in the private practice of psychiatry. During the first 1-2 years here I struggled to find a church home. I finally was able to become active at another Episcopal parish here and worshiped there about 10 years and was able to manage singing in the choir for about a year. During Lent of 2000 I visited St. Luke’s a couple of times when a former psychiatry professor of mine was substituting as organist.
Later during Holy Week services I was sitting in the north chapel when I was approached by Elizabeth Turner about the possibility of singing in the choir. Tim Smith was organist and choirmaster at the time, so I joined the choir in the summer of 2000 and have been singing in that capacity since that time. I often relate to my patients that singing in the choir is a tripartite experience.
Firstly it is a musical experience, secondly a spiritual experience, and finally a social experience. Each of these separate parts enhances the quality of the overall endeavor. I have been asked to serve on the Vestry at St. Luke’s which will expand my involvement in the life of the church. I see some exciting possibilities for our parish and would like to explore opportunities for expanding our capabilities for grief ministry as this is an area of life which is common to us all.
Elizabeth Engelke
I have attended St. Luke’s most of my life starting at 5 or 6. During those initial years, attendance was spotty. However, after college graduation, that changed and I have attended regularly ever since.
The various ministries I have served in here at St. Luke’s range from being a pre-school Sunday school teacher to leading small groups. I was a Stephen Minister when the program was active at St. Luke’s. Currently I am a Lay Eucharistic Minister and Lay Reader and enjoy participating in our adult formation classes here at St. Luke’s.
Most of my career I worked in Human Resources for a short line railroad company based in San Antonio. Currently I am a Benefits manager of a non-profit.
What are my hopes for St. Luke’s Church? I hope that people of different ages and backgrounds will feel the bond of Christian community here at St. Luke’s. I hope that our worship brings us closer to God and energizes us to do what God is calling us to do. I hope that we do not become complacent but are challenged to deepen our faith and seek to serve.
Carol McGanity
I was brought to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church by my parents in 1957 at the age of 3 when they moved home to San Antonio and St. Luke’s from New Orleans. They left a little church on Cloverleaf to return to a large church on St. Luke’s Lane. We moved away again in 1967, an 8 year trip in my eyes, returning in 1975 when I was in college. These family moves were work related. I have attended St. Luke’s for a total of 58 years.
My education started at St. Luke’s Episcopal School when it was a nursery school. I attended Pre-K and Kindergarten before going on to public schools. I attended the University of Texas, receiving a degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in Reading.
I taught Kindergarten and then 2nd grade at the San Antonio Academy for 5 years before my husband, Peter and I had children. I then became busy with volunteering in our daughters’ schools and for non-profits in various capacities from stuffing envelopes to serving on their boards and chairing their fund raisers.
My service in various ministries has included volunteering at VBS, teaching Sunday School and helping with 1st Communion classes, being president of the Women of St. Luke’s and being the lead for receptions for various church events. Currently I volunteer at the Green Door, St. Mary’s Altar Guild, St. Francis Guild and the Bethany Guild.
I have watched the congregation that is St. Luke’s over the last 50+ years go through highs and deep lows. The church is in a very healthy place at this time. My hope for St. Luke’s is that everyone who attends feels needed and can find a way to share their gift through various ministries; when a community need arises, we contribute without hesitation; that we never aspire to be the biggest church but the most compassionate; and that we never forget that everyone is a child of God.
