Staff & Leadership

Rev. Victoria Robb Powers, a Midland native raised in Lubbock, is a Baylor graduate with an M.Div. from Brite Divinity School, where she received awards for preaching and Baptist studies. Ordained in 2014, she has served as a hospital chaplain, ESL program director, associate pastor at Highland Park UMC, and executive pastor at University Park UMC. Rev. Robb Powers chairs the Baptist House of Studies board at SMU Perkins and serves on the board of Fellowship Southwest. She also serves on the peer advisory group for Parkland Hospital’s Clinical Pastoral Education program. Her ministry has been featured in The Dallas Morning News, Advocate Magazine, Preston Hollow People, and she has been interviewed on CNN regarding Baptist women in ministry. She was also recently honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from Baylor University. Rev. Robb Powers is the co-author of the 2023 children’s book My Love, God Is Everywhere, and she has two additional books forthcoming in 2027 - one with Penguin Random House and another with Tommy Nelson. She lives in Lake Highlands with her husband, Matt, their three children, and their golden retriever, Winston.

Harry Wooten began his ministry as Minister of Music & Worship at Royal Lane Baptist in 1998. He is also the conductor and Artistic Director of the Irving Chorale. A native of Arkansas, he holds degrees from William Jewell College, Vienna International Music Conservatory and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served churches in Tennessee and Alabama as Minister of Music and appeared as guest soloist, conductor and presenter for numerous workshops and music events. He has served as the Repertoire and Standards chair of Sacred Music for the Southwest Division of the American Choral Directors Association and has served on the boards for both the Dallas Chapter of Choristers Guild and the Greater Dallas Handbell Association. The Faith and Arts Foundation at Royal Lane Baptist Church, begun by Mr. Wooten, provides rehearsal and performance space at no charge to many musical groups in the Dallas area and curates the Box-Hawkins art gallery which features ongoing exhibitions by local artists and a semi-annual juried art festival. He is the recipient of the “Award of Distinction” by the National Religious Music Week Alliance, 2004. His choirs have participated in the International Church Music Festival at Coventry Cathedral and Bern, Switzerland and the Manhattan Festival of Sacred Music. He has led concert tours through Italy, Ireland and Switzerland, and most recently to Barcelona, Spain to sing under the direction of celebrated conductor Craig Hella-Johnson in La Sagrada Famillia Cathedral.

Beth Johnson grew up in Tampa and Flower Mound and graduated from Baylor University before earning her M.Div. from Truett Seminary in 2012. She has served in youth, college, and family ministry for more than a decade, including ten years at Central UMC in Waco and seven years as Minister of Families and Youth at University Park UMC. Beth also partners with Perkins School of Theology to teach and coach in their youth ministry programs and continued her professional development with a Level 1 coaching certificate from the Youth Cartel. She and her husband, Philip, live with their two children, Jonah and Juniper, and enjoy the outdoors, fitness, documentaries, and time with friends. Beth enjoys getting to know kids, youth, and parents individually, as well as developing a communal culture of support, curiosity, love, and growth.

Mara Richards Bim is a writer, spiritual director, and was ordained by Royal Lane on November 1, 2025. Previously, she had a 20-year career as an award-winning theatre artist and was the founder of the nationally-acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company which operated in Dallas from 2014-2023. In 2020 Mara received the Holloway Family Foundation’s Visionary Leadership Award and in 2021 she was named one of D Magazine’s “78 Women Changing the Face of Dallas.” After watching the rise of Christian nationalism for years, in 2021 Mara enrolled at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology. She completed her third-year internship with Faith Commons under the mentorship of Rev. Dr. George Mason (retired, Wilshire Baptist Church) and Rabbi Nancy Kasten. Mara graduated with the degree of Master of Divinity (MDiv) and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction in 2024. Mara After graduation, Mara was the Program Director at Faith Commons. She is a Clemons Fellow at Baptist News Global where she regularly writes on the intersection of religion and politics, with a particular focus on the threats posed by Christofascism. She is also an active volunteer with Christians Against Christian Nationalism and Texas Impact. She is the first Justice & Advocacy Fellow in the newly-launched Prophetic Leadership Program. Mara and her family reside in Plano, Texas