Dot Leach, chair of the diocesan Program Group on Ecumenical and Interreligious Life, is the recipient of the 2024 Sandra Hutchens Interfaith Community Service Award, conferred at a Nov. 14 luncheon by Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.
“Dot Leach was selected to be our 2024 Honoree because of her unwavering commitment as an interfaith leader in Orange County for more than a decade,” Barnes said. “Throughout the years she has hosted safe spaces for individuals from different backgrounds to discuss issues and concerns. She fosters relationships and connections across various faith traditions. She is a peacemaker with a passion for building greater understanding between diverse faith communities.”
Leach, a longtime interfaith advocate, community activist and lay leader at St. John Chrysostom Church in Rancho Santa Margarita, told The Episcopal News she felt honored but said the award came as a surprise.
She credited Bishop John Harvey Taylor, her former vicar, with “introducing me, in some respects, to interfaith work,” after recognizing the need for interfaith collaboration in the wake of the Dec. 2, 2015, terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, in which 14 people were killed and another 22 were injured. The alleged perpetrators were Muslim.
While serving as president of the Interfaith Council of Greater Rancho Santa Margarita, Leach was instrumental in creating the annual Longest Night Candlelight Vigil, honoring unhoused people who die on the streets of Orange County each year. This year’s remembrance, planned for 6 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 21, at St. John’s, Rancho Santa Margarita and will feature the playing of Taps, she said.
“We have had some who died who had served in the military. Taps will be played by someone in the honor guard of the Sheriff’s Department.”
In September 2024, Leach, a former broadcast journalist, organized and moderated a two-part diocesan online webinar series, “Losing Truth: The Critical Cost to Our Lives and Future,” exploring the roles of media, the legal system, and the psychological effects of misinformation and dishonesty in public discourse.
The Sept. 15, session featured consumer affairs reporter Jill Castellano, Emmy-winning documentary producer and war correspondent Farrah Fazal and cyber liaison officer Dr. Lance Larson.
The second session featured retired federal district judge Andrew Guilford, psychologist Lois M. Sprague, and the Very Rev. Paul Daniels, dean of the Episcopal Theological School at Los Angeles or Bloy House.
During Leach’s tenure as president, the Interfaith Council of Greater Rancho Santa Margarita hosted faith and issues gatherings at area churches, tackling such topics as “Bigotry, Bullying and Bravery” teen forums in local schools, and “Combating Bias, Intolerance and Hate”, in local communities. She was also instrumental in creating the “Women Drivers Interfaith Group”, an Orange County gathering of women community activists. Leach has also been involved with Global 365, a nonprofit organization focused on ending underage child marriages; as well as many other community organizations.
The Sandra Hutchens Interfaith Community Service Award was created in 2021 in honor of the late Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, who passed away after a long battle with breast cancer. Sheriff Hutchens in 2015 had founded the OC Sheriff’s Interfaith Advisory Council, which brings together members of diverse faith communities to engage with the OCSD to impact policy, improve mutual understanding, and develop relationships.