VJN19: Speaker Bios
Bob Ekblad | VJN Plenary Speaker
Director of Tierra Nueva and The People’s Seminary, WA.
Email: bob@tierra-nueva.org
Office: 360-755-5299
Author, The Guerrilla Gospel, Reading the Bible With the Damned, and A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God
Bob and Gracie Ekblad are founders and co-directors of Tierra Nueva (New Earth) in Burlington, Washington. Together they minister at Tierra Nueva and at their home-based retreat center New Earth Refuge in the Skagit Valley. They have three adult children. Bob is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He holds a ThD in Old Testament and is known internationally for his courses and workshops on reading the Bible. As Directors of Tierra Nueva, Bob and Gracie work together with a team of staff and volunteers to serve immigrants from Latin America, inmates, homeless people and people struggling with addictions.
Training current pastoral workers and future leaders to minister to people on the margins of society is one of the Ekblads’ highest priorities. One of the Ekblads’ core values is that theological reflection and teaching be rooted in hands-on ministry to the poor and marginalized.
Bob and wife Gracie founded Tierra Nueva in Honduras in 1982, which began as a sustainable farming, preventive health program and grassroots Bible study movement.
Donnell Wyche | VJN Plenary Speaker
Senior Pastor, Ann Arbor Vineyard, MI.
donnell.wyche@annarborvineyard.org
The Reverend Donnell Wyche serves full-time as the Senior Pastor and the Head of Staff. He grew up in Washington, DC and received his B.A. in computer science from The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio and is a graduate of Vineyard Leadership Institute. Passionate about the intersections of race, faith, politics, and technology, Pastor Donnell started out as a Solution Architect at IBM in Southfield, MI. Since then, Pastor Donnell has served as a national task force leader for youth ministry and multi-ethnicity within VineyardUSA. He has led seminars and trainings on becoming culturally competent, transitioning your church to a multi-ethnic church, and has served as a part-time instructor in web technologies at Washtenaw Community College.
Pastor Donnell is the president of the board of the InterFaith Council for Peace and Justice and has pursued issues of affordable, fair, and accessible housing as a board member of the Religious Action for Affordable Housing. His latest technology project is Community Center for Churches, a software tool to help pastors better care for and shepherd their congregants. Pastor Donnell is married to Maria, an early childhood advocate and speech-language pathologist, and together, they are raising three multi-ethnic, spiritually engaged, peace loving, politically aware, woke activists!
Raj Lewis | VJN Panel Participant
Director of the Men’s Program, City Team-Chester
Website: www.cityteam.org
Raj Lewis currently serves as the men’s program director at City Team in Chester, Pa working with men in early recovery from addiction, homelessness, and in need of emergency shelter. He also oversees City Team’s transitional housing community; a housing community of Christian families living and residing in solidarity with men transitioning out of City Team’s faith-based recovery program. Raj has directed workforce development programs for adjudicated youth and formerly incarcerated men in Chester County and North Philadelphia as well as led leadership development programs with inmates in the Chester State Correctional Institution. Raj studied comparative religion at Miami University, urban ministry at Westminster Theological Seminary, and counseling at Biblical Theological Seminary. He received his clinical training in addiction counseling at Malvern Institute and pastoral training at Germantown Hope Community Church in Philadelphia. He and his wife, Rebecca, have been living and doing ministry in Chester together for 11 years. They have a 5-year-old daughter named Mazzaroth, and a 3-year-old son named Israel.
Kwinn Tucker | VJN Panel Participant
Director, City Team-Chester
Kwinn Tucker serves as the Executive Director of CityTeam Chester, a faith-based non-profit 501 (c) 3 located in Chester, Pennsylvania. She has served in a variety roles with CityTeam since 2002 before stepping into her current leadership role in 2012. CityTeam is an organization committed to meeting immediate needs and offering lasting solutions for individuals facing homelessness, addiction, food insecurity, and other poverty-related needs. Kwinn studied Business Administration at Williams Baptist University and earned a minor in Religious Education. She has a passion for leading her team to live, act, and speak like Jesus Christ while incorporating good business practices and standards. She is also married and a mother of two children.
Rev. Clay Katongo | VJN Panel Participant
Pastor, Philadelphia International Alliance Church
Pastor Clay Katongo and his wife Michealina came to the United States as refugees from Angola. With their two children Clay Jr and Elisha, they live in the community near the church. The Upper Darby community is home to 100+ languages that are spoken within a 10 block radius of the church. They have a heart to help in both the physical needs and spiritual needs of the community. FOCUS: Sustainable Agriculture / Clean Water, Immigration, Teaching English
Phone: 610-352-6040
Email: clayeba@yahoo.fr
Viviana Arce | VJN Panel Participant
Director, Philadelphia Alliance Church Daycare Center
viviannavv@gmail.com https://www.amoveogroup.org/69th-st-alliance-day-care-center/
Viviana is a native of Costa Rica who immigrated to the United States in 1995. She is a wife and a home-schooling mom to two lovely girls ages 12 and 8. Her greatest passion has always been to be a teacher and surrounded by kids. During her more than 20 years of teaching experience, she has held various positions.
In the fall of 2018, Viviana was contacted by Pastor Clay to become the Director of Alliance DayCare Center. Alliance DayCare Center opened its doors in the summer 2018 for the first time. Her hard work at Alliance DayCare Center, along with her staff and Pastor’s Clay support has allowed her to create a high-quality, nurturing, academic and Christian environment that offers the participating families peace of mind knowing that their kids are at a safe place while being equipped and taught to the highest of their capability.
During her 18 months since opening for Alliance DayCare Center, Viviana has been able to welcome all the children that need care; regardless of the families’ ability to pay tuition. Viviana works with low-income families of diverse: nationalities, socio-economic, socio-cultural, ethnic and spiritual backgrounds. Most of these families have settled in the Upper Darby community. The children’s’ emotional and socio-economic factors have to be taken into consideration on an individual basis.
Immersion Site Community Leaders, Worship
Caz Tod-Pearson | Immersion Site Community Partner
Director, The Simple Way
Website: https://www.thesimpleway.org/
I am a New Zealander who came to the US to participate in Mission Year back in 2004. Through my work with Mission Year I was introduced to The Simple Way and I moved to Kensington to pursue community with friends and neighbors in 2008.
I love the energy that comes when we come together for celebrations and events, as much as I love quiet contemplative moments.
Tina Colon Williams | VJN Worship Leader (New Haven, CT)
Worship Pastor & Immigration Lawyer
Elm City Vineyard
Website: https://tinacolon.bandcamp.com/
Tina is a Jacksonville, FL native and ‘09 grad who has made New Haven her home. She is a young attorney practicing immigration law, a minister and pastor’s wife who is passionate about cross-cultural community, and a musician who believes in the power of songs to change the world.
Sarah Elmer | VJN Worship Leader & Coordinator (Emmaus, PA)
Vineyard Eastern Region Worship Coordinator & Worship Pastor
Chester Springs Vineyard, PA
Sarah Elmer is a vocalist, recording artist, worship leader, and mother of three. Featured on Vineyard Worship projects Kyrie Eleison and Wear The Crown, Sarah is a key leader and influencer in the Eastern U.S.
Andy Squyres | VJN Songwriter Track Leader (Charlotte, NC)
Worship Pastor & Songwriter
Queen City Church
Website: https://andysquyres.com
Facebook: andysquyresmusic
Andy Squyres is an independent singer songwriter born and raised in Northern California but born and raised again in the suburbs of Charlotte North Carolina. He has served in local church ministry for many years and currently leads the worship ministry at Queen City Church. You can hear the South in his songs. His album Cherry Blossoms is the true story of his family and community walking through tragedy and into redemption. With all the honesty of a Flannery O’Connor short story Andy Squyres has presented his heart like a savage car accident in the middle of the highway, the devastation too brutal to look at, but, even harder to look away.
Elvis Rosado | Immersion Site Community Partner (Philadelphia, PA)
Education and Community Outreach Coordinator
Elvis has been working with Prevention Point for over 20 years. He teaches most of the overdose reversal trainings for Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. He also runs an HIV education program for Spanish-speaking folks. In addition to teaching and mentoring, Elvis wears many hats around Prevention Point.
Email: elvis@ppponline.org
Jeremy Avellino | Immersion Site Community Partner (Philadelphia, PA)
Bright Common
Principle & Design Director
My name is Jeremy Avellino. I am a South Philly Italian-American settler, born in Philadelphia, raised in Delaware County in the traditional lands of the Lenni Lenape. I own and operate Bright Common, a sustainable architecture practice in Philadelphia. We have a simple slogan: High Concept, Low Carbon. We design buildings in the hope and belief that we can play a role in the de-carbonization of the built environment, actively participating in fossil fuel divestment and poverty eradication through our passive house and affordable housing work.
Bright Common Architecture & Design provides a full array of professional architectural services from early stage programming, visualization and feasibility studies to schematic conceptualization, construction documentation, interior design, and construction phase support. Our work is rooted in research, place, and continuous collaboration. As experts in Passive House design and implementation, we revel in exploring what’s mutually beneficial for our clients, the communities we serve, and a thriving planet. In the past nine years Bright Common has implemented a building biology based approach to both renovation and new-construction projects including residential, commercial and mixed-use Passive House level deep-energy-retrofits, new-construction Passive Houses, and Living Building Challenge inspired work in both urban and rural settings. The pursuit towards a carbon neutral built environment has evolved into ever more natural, biophilic and socially conscious approaches for enclosure and systems design with the goal of decoupling the constructed world from its century-plus-old fossil fuel addiction.
Website: brightcommon.com
Email: avellino@brightcommon.com
Instagram: @brightcommon
Kristen Snow | Immersion Site Community Partner (Philadelphia, PA)
Leader of Watershed Discipleship Team at Circle of Hope
Kristen lives in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia with her husband Gregory, together they own a small environmentally focused woodworking business called Fuugs. Among several leadership roles with the church community of Circle of Hope, she leads the Watershed Discipleship Compassion team. She is currently participating in a 9 month self guided theological cohort with a group of peers focused on liberation theology, social and environmental justice.
Watershed Discipleship: Watershed Discipleship is a response to the overwhelming climate catastrophe that we’re seeing right now – its a way to gather, witness, preserve and respond. It is our mission as Christ followers in Philadelphia to be disciples of the Delaware River Watershed, to learn to live well together, respecting our neighbors of all kinds, recognizing God in the place that we live. We invite those we engage with to learn, wonder, explore, grow and change with us. In our rapidly changing climate much of our human ways are more at war than in harmony with the Creation we’ve been given to learn from. We ask: How do we think Jesus wants us to faithfully dwell within our bioregion? This team is a response to the infinite love God has for us and God’s extensive Creation, and for the passion, and love. Out of deep responsibility we feel for the earth we commit to practicing Watershed Discipleship – Environmental Justice, Simple Living, and Fossil Fuel Addiction Recovery within and outside the Circle of Hope network. Our group was born from the community of Watershed Discipleship, specifically the book “Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith and Practice” a collection of works by a variety of young authors edited by Ched Myers
Email: kristenalycesnow@gmail.com
Deborah Ortiz-Vasquez | Immersion Site Community Partner (Philadelphia, PA)
Esperanza Health Center
Director of Community Health & Wellness
Website: https://esperanzahealth.com/
Email: debra.ortiz-vasquez@esperanzahealth.com
Instagram: @ehcphilly
Jess Shoffner | Immersion Site Community Partner (Philadelphia, PA)
Founder of Hart Lane Farms
Jessica Shoffner moved from Kansas to Philadelphia in 2008, after studying Horticultural Therapy at Kansas State University. Her work in urban gardening began with The Simple Way, an organization that does community building work in the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia. She currently hosts a gardening club in the Hart Lane Neighborhood Garden (also in Kensington) through Pathways to Housing, teaching participants who were formerly homeless both practical gardening skills and providing opportunities for connection. As a Circle of Hope leader, Jess has served on the Leadership, Urban Farm, and The Watershed Discipleship Teams. She helps lead our cell movement and is the Manager at Circle Thrift. In her spare time, Jess loves sharing fresh food with neighbors, bicycling, and the experiments of simple living.
Email: shoffnerj@gmail.com
Facebook: Esperanza Health Center
Wes Willison | Workshop Facilitator
Wes recently graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and currently lives and works in North Philly. While he grew up in the Evanston, East African, and Blue Route Vineyard, he’s presently active in the Circle of Hope community. He writes about the intersections of theology, architecture, and design.
Email: willison.wes@gmail.com
Elisa Berry Fonseca
The longer I have been married to an immigrant from Brazil who works with other Latinx immigrants, the more I see the injustices experienced by the vulnerable. I am convinced that God cares deeply about justice and reconciliation, which I have begun to pursue through community arts.
Email: elisa.kari@gmail.com