Leadership & Staff


  • Pastor Weston & Karen Brooks

    Weston is the lead pastor here at River of Life. His wife Karen is a pastor and a member of the River of Life Leadership Team. Weston spent almost 15 years in the investment management field when the Lord called him and Karen to pastor River of Life in 2003. Their passion is to make known one of the greatest mysteries of God – which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. They desire to inspire and impart a longing to hear the voice of the Lord more clearly, an addiction to the presence of the Lord and a life overflowing with the love and power of God.

    Karen is the Director of Children's Ministries. Weston and Karen live in Tolland, CT and have four awesome adult children.

  • Pastor Jamie Stoddard

    Pastor Jamie Stoddard and her late husband Pastor Gerry LaFond, along with her children Dana and Jeremy, established the River of Life church in May of 2000. She oversees Pastoral Care, Connect Ministries and Intercessory Prayer. Her passion is to help others hear the voice of God and experience His presence. Motivated to Equip believers to become fruitful in every area of their lives.  

  • Pastor Kevin & Kat MacDonald

    Pastors Kevin and Kat were ordained in June 2014. Kevin is zealous about the Gospel message and preaches it powerfully both in the church and on the streets. Kevin oversees church technology, Life Groups and SundayServe ministries. He has a passion to reach the lost, disciple the found and build the church. He brings a shepherd's heart and gifts of faith, healing and the prophetic to this ministry.


    Kat is one of our Worship leaders and began leading worship in 1987, when she became a cantor for the Catholic church. In 1994, she began leading worship services in the non-denominational church, and has been leading worship ever since. Kat's personal mission is to identify and equip future worship leaders and to build worship teams with a focus on honoring the Lord by giving Him the most costly, extravagant worship. Kat and Kev are honored to call River of Life their home church, along with their children adult, Christianna and Brody.

  • Pastor Veronica Trudel

    Pastor Veronica and her husband, Robert, live in Coventry with 3 of their 4 children. Pastor Veronica oversees a broad range of Missions, Outreach, and Evangelism teams at River of Life. She has a particular passion to minister to the orphan, the widow, the poor and the marginalized and has done so both locally and in Africa.


    She is on the planning team for The Hartford Project – an outreach that brings youth from numerous churches together who bring God’s love to the city of Hartford through service and prayer. Veronica and her teams works with several homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the region. She was the founder of “Restoring Hope”, a ministry geared to restoring the men in transitional living at South Park Inn Homeless Shelter and is currently planning another program to provide transitional life services for people who are homeless or could become homeless.


    She is part of The American Red Cross’s Disaster Action Team, and a member of the Community Emergency Response Team in Coventry.

  • Shannon Bacon

    Shannon is the assistant to the lead pastor and manages the church office. She serves on our leadership team and is actively involved in our church community. She has a passion for prayer and carries the compassions of the Lord where ever she goes. 

  • Pastor Kelly Ross

    Pastor Kelly is our Children's Pastor. She oversees our Kingdom Kids ministry – our Sunday morning classes for ages infant to 12 years. She also oversees a Co-op to supplement homeschool education.