Donna Wilkinson
Director of the JAM Band and Vocal Team
Donna Wilkinson, Director of the JAM Band and Vocal Team, is responsible for the music for our Fresh Bread Contemporary Worship.
Donna has a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music with an emphasis in piano performance.
Donna founded the Joyful Voices Choir here at First Church in 1998 that provided special music for worship including Advent and Easter Cantatas. In 2003 she founded the JAM Band and Vocal Team to provide the music for Fresh Bread when it was begun. And she was Director of Music Ministries from 2005 to 2009.
Donna is a private piano teacher and served on the music staff of the Young Artist Workshops (YAW) for children and youth with disabilities at St. Norbert College. She taught K-8 music in a Catholic school in Green Bay for six years. Donna has served on the music staff of a number of churches over the years in Wisconsin and Ohio. She also teaches a Learn to Read Music Class through Learning in Retirement (LIR) at UWGB. Donna is a licensed KiddyKeys instructor, and teaches that in our First Preschool and Daycare.
Donna is a Certified Lay Speaker and serves on the Board of Lay Ministry for the Wisconsin Conference of the UMC. She is the District Director of Lay Servant Ministry. She also has a heart for Bible study and spiritual growth groups.
She is married to Rev. Dave Wilkinson. The Wilkinsons have three children. Their son, Ryan, is a certified athletic trainer and assistant professor on the faculty at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ryan and his wife, Kate, live in Franklin, Wisconsin with their daughter, Michaela. Dave and Donna's daughter, Lindsay, lives and works in Grand Rapids, Michigan in residential real estate leasing. Their son, Dustin, passed away in 1998 at age 16 as a result of a brain tumor.
Donna and Dave founded a local chapter of The Compassionate Friends, a national self-help support group for bereaved parents. Donna currently serves as Chapter Leader.