CST Welcomes Alumnus as Interim VP of Communications

CST welcomes alumnus Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston in his new role as Interim Vice President of Communications!

Steve graduated from CST with a Master of Divinity degree in 1989 and brings a rich and varied wealth of communications experience to the position. “This is the way that I can give back,” said Steve.

Steve, an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church (UMC), has served as a pastor in two Los Angeles-area churches and as Director of Communications at the UMC California-Pacific Conference. He created the Western Jurisdiction Where Love Lives campaign which, for the past eight months, has been calling Methodists to recommit to “creating, protecting, and sustaining a United Methodist Church that welcomes all, in Christ.” In addition to his new role at CST, Steve continues to serve as the Chief Communications Officer at the UMC Discipleship Ministries.

Steve has more than 30 years of experience as a television/film director, producer, radio broadcaster, and communications executive in Los Angeles and Nashville. He has won five Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and received the UMC’s top Communicator of the Year award from the United Methodist Association of Communicators in 2006. He was also the creative architect and executive director of Igniting Ministry, the denomination’s first broadcast network television advertising campaign at United Methodist Communications (UMCom), the first and largest Protestant effort of its kind.

Through the years, Steve has remained connected to CST as a regular donor and by serving on the Board of Trustees. He was chosen as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1999 and 2019. In Steve’s new interim role at CST, he seeks to further strengthen and bring increased clarity to CST’s communications with alumni/ae and friends as we continue navigating transition and discovering how life at CST will look in the coming decades. In a time of change and, at times, anxiety, Steve emphasized what has and will stay the same—the impact that CST, as a progressive, Christian-rooted, interreligious institution, continues to have on this world:

“Wherever CST is located, it will continue its mission. And it will continue on after we’re all gone.”

Steve is the owner and chief aviator of Nashville Aerial, a company specializing in aerial cinematography and production. You can learn more about his films here.