Willow Hills Staff

Dr. Jesse Liles
Senior Pastor

Jesse Liles has served as the Senior Pastor at Willow Hills Baptist Church since February, 2002. He has been married to Gayla for 37 years. Together they have a daughter, Deana, and a son David. Jesse and Gayla have two grandsons, ages 8 and 2 whom they enjoy spending time with every week.
A village in eastern New Mexico, San Jon is where he was raised and went to public school. He married Gayla from Tucumcari after he served a tour of duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in Vietnam. They both graduated from Wayland Baptist College. Jesse graduated from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Prior pastoral experience has been at First Baptist Church of Lordsburg, New Mexico (5 years); First Baptist Church of Silver City, New Mexico (16 years) and now in Prescott (8 Years). Prior to being a pastor Jesse worked as a County Western radio announcer in Tucumcari, New Mexico and in Farmington, New Mexico.
What are his passions? Jesse loves to read, play sports and travel. He has been to India once a year for the past 8 years on short term mission trips. MORE PHOTOS

Dan Chandler - Classic Worship Leader

Dan has served as Worship Leader and Choir Director since October, 2006. Dan served churches in California and Georgia before coming to Prescott and taught in school music programs for 11 years. He is a PK (Preacher’s Kid) and spent his childhood on the road in his family’s evangelistic crusades. One of the highlights of Dan’s years as a director was leading the premiere choir for the Gaither’s Easter musical “In the Gardens”. Dan is married to Suzy and they have three daughters, Katy, Emily and Elisabeth.

Russ Womack - Contemporary Worship Leader

Russ serves as Contemporary Worship Leader for the 11 AM Worship Service. He has been involved with music most of his life, and wrote his first song at the age of 10. When he is not leading worship, he enjoys spending time with family, writing songs, and performing benefit concerts throughout the state. Russ was the keyboardist at the Ridge Baptist Church for 3 years prior to joining the Willow Hills staff. He has a bachelor’s degree in English, and has worked for over 7 years for Yavapai County. He and his wife Leslie have 4 sons who enjoy sports, movies hiking and of course music.

Jennifer Myers

Jennifer serves as director of Children’s Ministry. She oversees all the children’s activities and events. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a minor in psychology and an emphasis in counseling from Grand Canyon University. She has taught in the public schools for 7 years. She and her husband Steve have been married 16 years and have 2 daughters, Shelbyrae-- 10 and Riley --6. They enjoy camping and riding quads together as a family.

Justin Pressnall

Youth Director Justin Pressnall, shown here with wife Becki, oversees the Middle School and High School ministry at Willow Hills Church, which includes bi-weekly meetings, monthly events, camp and more. Justin grew up in the Prescott area and has several years of Youth Ministry experience. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Liberty University in May, 2009. Justin and Becki have been married since 2006 and have one child, Kaden, who was born in December of 2007.

Teri Riester

Teri Riester is the Team leader of our small group ministry. Teri was born on the Navajo Reservation at Tuba City, Arizona and was schooled at Coconino High School (Flagstaff) Rio Salado Community College and Grand Canyon University. She has been married to Dan Riester since July 23, 2008. They have a passion for the country of India and are praying for direction concerning serving there once Dan retires from law enforcement. Her vision for the Small Groups (Sunday School) is that it will be a primary method of moving guests to enroll in a class; moving members to maturity; moving active members to ministry and moving ministers to missionaries. She prays that that God will bring together a unified team of Holy Spirit led, diverse people from various ages groups and life experiences to be on the Small Group team.

Sherry Shadle

Sherry is the Office Manager at Willow Hills. Her responsibilities include support for the Senior Pastor, other Pastoral staff members, and ministry leaders. She trains and supervises the staff and volunteers who work in the office, maintains records for all church groups, and the church membership files. Sherry coordinates the many activities that take place on campus and maintains the church calendar.

Cindy Gathe

Cindy serves as the Receptionist/Secretary for Willow Hills. Her responsibilities include: greeting people who come into the office, answering phones, creating the monthly newsletter, preparing profiles for Tuesday Outreach, preparing the Wednesday Prayer Sheet, copying weekly music for choir and orchestra, other clerical duties as needed. She and her husband, Leo, have been married 2 ½ years and live in Prescott. Together they have 5 daughters, 11 grandchildren and 1 great-grandson.

Alisa Petty

Alisa serves as our bookkeeper taking care of our financial reporting needs. Alisa has a bachelor of science in accounting and finance from Florida State University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Minnesota. Alisa is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Florida. She is active in Boy Scouts with her son and enjoys reading and hiking. Alisa resides in Prescott with her husband and son. She also has two daughters, a granddaughter and grandson.

Dr. Jesse Liles Senior Pastor