Nicole Lamarche is an ordained minister in the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximately 4 ...

(UCC) and a

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

titleholder who was crowned

Miss California The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition. The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the Mi ...

2003. Competing in the Miss San Francisco Pageant in 2003, she won the title and went on to win

2003 and became the Fourth runner up to the title of

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

2004. She was the swimsuit winner and although she decided to wear high heels during this segment of the competition it was erroneously reported by an ESPN columnist that she competed barefoot. This is most likely due to pictures of her competing in the Miss California swimsuit segment not wearing high heels, as the contestants normally do. She earned over $26,000 in scholarships. She earned an MA in theology from the

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...

in Berkeley, California, and a Master of Divinity from the

Pacific School of Religion The Pacific School of Religion (PSR) is a private Protestant seminary in Berkeley, California. It maintains covenantal relationships with the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the Disciples of Christ, ensuring the schoo ...

. Lamarche spoke publicly about

Miss California USA Miss California USA is the beauty pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. The pageant is directed by Crown Diva Productions. California's most ...

Carrie Prejean Caroline Michelle "Carrie" Prejean Boller (; born 1987) is an American model, former Miss California USA 2009, and Miss USA 2009 first runner-up. Prejean was stripped of her Miss California USA crown for alleged breaches of contract. Litigation ...

's controversial answer regarding gay marriage. Lamarche was featured on ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles s ...

'' to discuss the topic. Lamarche served as pastor for the Cotuit Federated Church on Cape Cod from 2007 until 2010. She subsequently relocated to Northern California, where she founded a new UCC congregation, the Silicon Valley Progressive Faith Community, in San Jose, now calle
Urban Sanctuary
She served as the congregation's Founding Pastor until 2018. In 2019 she became minister o
Community UCC
in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

. In 2008, Lamarche married Jeremy Nickel, whom she had met in divinity school. In July, 2011, the couple had their first child, a baby daughter.

References

External links

Miss San FranciscoMiss CaliforniaMiss America ScholarshipsThe Cotuit Federated Church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamarche, Nicole Miss America 2004 delegates Living people 1978 births Miss America Preliminary Swimsuit winners