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Bishop David Alan Bard is currently serving as Bishop of the Michigan Area and interim Bishop of the Minnesota Area of The United Methodist Church. A United Methodist pastor for over thirty years he has served congregations in Minnesota, and was from 1998-2005, the Northwest District Superintendent for The United Methodist Church in Minnesota. Just prior to coming to Michigan, Bard was pastor of First United Methodist Church Duluth, Minnesota, the community he grew up in. He served on a number of regional and denomination-wide boards and committees and was elected to represent the Minnesota Conference at five General Conferences (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016). He was elected to the episcopacy in 2016. He is currently serving as the president of the North Central Jurisdiction College of Bishops.

Bard is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth (B.A. cum laude, philosophy and psychology), United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (M.Div.) and has a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, with a concentration in Christian Ethics from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He has taught courses at The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN. and United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities as an adjunct faculty member. Among the courses he taught are United Methodist History and Polity, Religious Perspectives in Living, Dying and Grieving and Religious Perspectives on Health Care Ethics. He has served on various civic boards, including the Board of Directors for Life House, an outreach program for homeless youth and the St. Louis County Heading Home Governance Board.