Colonel Evie Diaz has been appointed by the General as the Territorial Commander of the Central Territory. She will take up this appointment with the rank of commissioner on August 1, 2023. Colonel Diaz returns home to the Central Territory from being the Chief Secretary in the Canada and Bermuda Territory and will succeed Commissioner Bradford Bailey, who along with Commissioner Heidi Bailey, will be retiring from active service.
“I am excited, honored and privileged,” Colonel Diaz said in a video greeting to the territory upon the announcement. “What I want you to know is that I love Jesus and look forward to seeing how and where God is working in the territory.”
While the majority of her more than 40 years of officership has been spent in the Central Territory, her service also includes several overseas appointments. Prior to serving in Canada and Bermuda, she was the Assistant Chief Secretary for Administration and then Chief Secretary at International Headquarters (IHQ) in London, England, where she played a critical role and gained an in-depth knowledge of The Salvation Army globally.
From 2004 to 2007, she served in Northern Europe as the training officer in the Sweden and Latvia Territory. During her tenure, a training college was opened to allow Latvian cadets to train in their own country. Six Salvation Army officers were commissioned before she left that appointment.
Eleven years of her service in the Central Territory also focused on officer training work as she held multiple appointments at the College for Officer Training in Chicago, including being the Assistant Training Principal. Other appointments in the territory included a variety of corps, divisional and territorial positions.
She led both the Heartland and the Kansas and Western Missouri divisions before moving to London in 2016. Her passion and priority in both of those appointments was the pastoral care of officers, community development and innovative ministry.
The colonel also has a strong interest in urban and multiethnic ministry and Christian community development. She enjoys teaching and preaching and holds a practical ministries degree from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. She is a second-generation Salvationist, having grown up moving throughout the territory with officer parents.
In commending Colonel Diaz to the territory, Commissioner Brad Bailey said she is an excellent and capable leader with vast experience and is a beautiful woman of God, concluding, “Her heart beats for the things that are of the Lord.”
