Mandi Hirsch worked at Knox as a preschool teacher from 2001-2005. She found her way back to Knox in 2011 as a parent. After staying home with her children for a few years, she returned as a preschool teacher in 2016. She became Knox Preschool Director in 2026.

Mandi earned her degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Cincinnati.

She resides in Montgomery with her husband Matt and their three children. Her free time is spent cheering her children on in softball, baseball, basketball and volleyball.

Kevin Leary is a skilled handyman. Prior to coming to Knox in 2019, he was in maintenance management at a large apartment complex.

Kevin is a native of Cincinnati and presently lives on the West Side.

Mary Jo joined the staff at Knox in December of 2023, bringing over thirty years of experience in people, office, and building management to her role including six years as the Parish Administrator down the street at Redeemer Church. A Cincinnati native, she has a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. She has also worked in health insurance sales, media production, in the service industry, and as a Librarian. She loves reading, writing, cooking, making art, history and current affairs, watching movies and television, discovering new and old music, and spending time with family and her 9-year-old Gordon Setter, Abbi Lou.

mschottelkotte@knox.org

Adam Hayden is all about bringing people together with a desire to facilitate friendships. Born to a large Catholic family in Evansville, IN, Adam quickly noticed his favorite part of any religious ceremony was when people were able to talk and mingle. Adam was also enthralled by Hip-Hop music and culture at a young age and developed an affinity for community particularly grounded in social justice and music. After graduating from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in communications with an emphasis in broadcast journalism, he continued to explore music and community. He independently booked four music tours that took him all across the United States, meeting all kinds of interesting and beautiful people. In the midst of these tours he left his first stable job and a life in the suburbs to live in an intentional community in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati. Around the same time, he met the love of his life and got married. Together, they have 2 kids and no pets. Although they tried a dog a few times, it just wasn’t for them. Maybe they will explore a pet cat someday. When they are not enjoying their home in College Hill, they love to travel and be with family.

Through all of Adam’s travels and relationships he has come to realize two closely held beliefs: it is good to love others and it is good to be loved.

ahayden@knox.org

Coming soon. Until then you can know that Mark is a great guy all around:)

Lisa Love Holtman served as the controller for Busken Bakery, where she oversaw all accounting operations. Her responsibilities included preparing and reviewing financial statements, implementing metrics to monitor business performance, and establishing processes for prepayment of custom cake and cookie orders. Additionally, she managed bi-weekly payroll processing for 150 employees, developed protocols to ensure proper cash handling in retail locations, and administered the company’s 401(k) plan.

Before joining Busken, Lisa held positions as controller at 3z.net and office manager at Widmer’s Dry Cleaning. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Lisa currently resides in Goshen with her husband, Tom. Though their children are grown and out of the house, they have four dogs—Fritz, Gretta, Karl, and Annie—who have become their new Belgian and German Shepherd ‘children’. In her leisure time, Lisa enjoys outdoor activities, particularly camping. She and Tom are avid music enthusiasts and often plan vacations around attending concerts in different cities.

TP4Lisa@knox.org

Conductor and tenor Alberto de la Paz has built a multifaceted career as a performer and conductor across a wide range of musical genres. He currently serves as Director of the Cabaret Singers and is pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he also earned his Master of Music in Choral Conducting.

Previously, Alberto served as Director of the tenor-bass choir Juncta Juvant and as Assistant Conductor for the Young Professionals Choral Collective. For four seasons, he was Artistic Co-Director and tenor with Cantus, the acclaimed professional vocal ensemble based in Minnesota. During his tenure with the group, he performed in prominent venues including The Kennedy Center, The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, The Barns at Wolf Trap, the Boston Celebrity Series, and the Tanglewood Music Festival. He collaborated with distinguished artists such as pianist Emanuel Ax, Lorelei Ensemble, and The Bach Society of Minnesota, and appeared in broadcasts and features on SiriusXM Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, and American Public Media. He recorded and released four albums with Cantus.

Alberto’s dedication to the creation of new music is reflected in commissions and premieres by composers including Melissa Dunphy, Mari Esabel Valverde, Yosvany Estepe, and Mariana Sadovska. A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, he is deeply committed to the performance and promotion of Latin American music. This passion was most recently showcased in a concert collaboration between Cantus and two-time Grammy Award winner and Cuban jazz pianist Nachito Herrera, featuring a vibrant program of art songs, choral works, and solo piano pieces from Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, and Argentina.

He holds a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Illinois.

adelapaz@knox.org

Earl Rivers, Knox Director of Music Emeritus, served Knox as Director of Music for 51 years, from September 1, 1974 – September 1, 2025. During his Knox tenure, he developed the Knox Choir into a highly skilled ensemble and initiated the Knox Music Series, a Knox community outreach featuring public programs of sacred choral/orchestral masterworks and organ concertos. Several of the twice annual Knox Music Series programs offered Cincinnati premieres of masterworks, to include J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, and Vaughan Williams’ Hodie. Knox established the Earl Rivers Commissioning Fund in his honor to recognize and continue the Knox tradition of commissioning new works of sacred music. (Between 1995 and 2025, Knox commissioned 17 new works of sacred music.)

Earl is also Professor Emeritus of Conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) where he served for 25 years as Director of Choral Studies. Over a 47-year career at CCM, he conducted staged productions of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake, and acclaimed regional premieres of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls and El Niño, Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew, Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5 -Requiem, Bardo and Nirmanakaya, and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo. For 20 seasons (1998-2008), Earl was music director and conductor of Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble, Cincinnati’s premier professional vocal ensemble. Earl has received Choral America’s Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Choral Art, honoring a lifetime of significant contributions to the professional choral art.