Hollywood United Methodist Church
Staff & Leaders

Kathy Cooper-Ledesma

The Rev. Kathy Cooper-Ledesma, an elder in the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church, is the Senior Pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church. Appointed to this position in July, 2006, Kathy has worked to intentionally grow this urban congregation, located at one of the two busiest intersections in all of Los Angeles, into a vibrant, progressive, reconciling United Methodist community in the heart of Hollywood. In a little over five years, the worshipping congregation has grown by over 60% and the number of children in Sunday school has increased to over 100. With a dedicated, talented staff, and a tireless Governance Board, the church’s vision of reaching the mildly churched and families with young children, young urban professionals and progressives, is being realized. Through intentional outreach, advocacy efforts for justice, andmission opportunities – including five teams sent to Camp Gulfside in Mississippi and two to Haiti -- Hollywood UMC is growing in numbers and in faith while welcoming all God’s children into the congregation. To God be the glory. Rev. Cooper-Ledesma serves as vice-chair of the board of Housing Works and served on the Los Angeles County Bring LA HOME! Blue Ribbon Panel on Ending Homelessness. Kathy also currently serves on the board of Faith Matters – an interfaith advisory group to People Assisting the Homeless. She is the former chair of the Community Advisory Panel of the LAUSD HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention Unit. In addition, Kathy served on the Los Angeles County’s Safe Surrender Task Force, resulting in the creation of effective public policies encouraging women to not abandon, but safely surrender, unwanted babies at local hospitals and fire stations. Kathy is the past co-chair of the Bishop’s Task Force on Children and Poverty and the Board of Church and Society for the Cal-Pac UM Conference. She also served for many years as the chair of the Conference Hunger Task Force. From 1994-2005, Rev. Cooper-Ledesma served the California Council of Churches, the public policy and education arm of the mainline Protestant community in California, as Board Chair and later as program staff. She directed statewide projects on interfaith relations, public/private partnerships, welfare reform implementation, and faith based child care. From 2005-2006 she worked as a project specialist at the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture on issues relating to communities of faith and preschool for all, her strong expertise. During her tenure with the Council Kathy authored First Fruits for California’s Working Poor, a study guide for congregations, about the lives and conditions of those participating in the state’s CalWORKs programs. In 2005, Kathy received the Boutilier Award for Distinguished Ecumenical Service from the Southern California Ecumenical Council. Kathy received her A.B. degree from Occidental College and the M. Div. from the Claremont School of Theology. She and her family reside in Los Angeles, California. Fun fact: When she was in seminary, Kathy did a year-long internship at Hollywood UMC.