Our People - [test] A Rocha USA

Our People

Team

Board

Advisory Council

Team

Board

Advisory Council

Rev. Dr. Ben Lowe, Executive Director

Since his first encounter with A Rocha as a Wheaton student in 2003, Ben has served on A Rocha staff teams and boards, nationally and internationally, most recently as Deputy Executive Director of A Rocha International. Ben’s training as a scientist and a minister inform his leadership and development of A Rocha USA’s national strategy and team. Originally from Singapore, Ben was the founding national organizer of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action and has served on the boards of A Rocha USA, A Rocha International, the Au Sable Institute, and Christians for Social Action. He is the author of multiple books and his work has been featured in media outlets including Audubon Magazine, Christianity Today, and The New York Times. He has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Biology from Wheaton and a PhD from the University of Florida focused on the human, religious, and ethical dimensions of environmental change and conservation. Ben is based in the warm and watery state of Florida, USA, where he can often be found kayaking on the Indian River Lagoon.

Hannah Gillespie, Communications Coordinator

CEO

Hannah coordinates our storytelling and reporting through blogs and newsletters and also supports the development of resources, including the Wild Wonder curriculum. Raised in the mountains of South Carolina, she developed an appreciation for the beauty of nature and experience of the outdoors at a young age. She went on to graduate from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Sociocultural Anthropology, with a focus on environmental justice. Her passion for writing and the environment has led Hannah to work with a number of community-based nonprofits, providing assistance with multimedia communications projects. In her free time, Hannah enjoys reading, hiking, and using the Merlin Bird App from her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Dr. Verónica Godoy, Central Texas Conservation Project Director

Verónica directs our Conservation Project in Central Texas. She leads ….the development of Community development and partnerships to restore the Bull Creek Watershed and to offer programs to the Spanish-speaking community to (more here about what she does in Austin and why she loves it) Originally from Argentina, Veronica worked as a scientist and college instructor in plant molecular and cellular biology and conservation biology before moving to Austin, Texas in 2015, where she lives with her husband and twins. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree and PhD in Biological Sciences from The National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina. Veronica finds plants fascinating and enjoys the diversity and beauty of Texas native trees and wildflowers on her daily walks with her dog, Nacho.

Jenna Henderson, Director of National Programs

Jenna directs our programs for individuals and churches to connect, learn, and engage in creation care with A Rocha USA. Whether developing our online platform, church resources, or internship opportunities, Jenna loves inviting people into the joyful work of caring for creation. Jenna earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Wake Forest University and a Masters degree from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, where she first learned about A Rocha’s work. She has worked with a number of nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity, Northern Ireland and Saint Thomas Health Services in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives. Mom to two teenage sons, she enjoys gardening with native plants and spending time in Tennessee parks with family and friends.

Brittany Michalski, Director of Conservation & Affiliated Projects

Brittany directs our conservation projects in Florida and Texas and develops affiliated projects to achieve mission-aligned, conservation results. She loves connecting with the Texas and Florida staff and serving as a resource so they can accomplish their creation care goals. Previously with Care of Creation as the Outreach Specialist, Brittany has worked extensively with A Rocha International’s climate action program, Climate Stewards, and Marine Conservation program. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology and a Masters degree in Environmental Conservation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Sparta, Wisconsin with her husband and two rescue dogs Pippin and Rosie, where she is an avid gardener and vegetable fermenter (think kimchi, sauerkraut, and hot sauce).

Autumn Ricksecker, Social Media & Content Coordinator

From her home in Los Angeles, California, Autumn shares snapshots of A Rocha’s work around the world on our social media channels. Through digital storytelling, she connects with new audiences, offers education on the problems we face, and inspires hopeful action to care for God’s creation. tor | Autumn has a Bachelor of Arts in Intercultural Studies from Biola University and has worked with non-profits like Musalaha, Voice of Refugees, and Solidarity. She may be found playing in the Santa Monica Mountains, working part-time at an independent bookstore, or gardening at her Orthodox parish.

Dr. Robert Sluka, Lead Scientist, Marine Conservation

After living for extended periods of time in Australia, India, and Great Britain, Bob now lives with his family in Titusville, Florida where he directs research at our Florida Conservation Project and serves as Lead Scientist for A Rocha International’s Marine Conservation Programme. Bob’s research focuses on marine biodiversity conservation, plastic pollution, and fisheries, particularly in marine protected areas. Bob has a PhD in Marine Biology from the University of Miami in coral reef fish ecology and is an associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. His ultimate goal is to glorify God by transforming oceans and communities through holistic marine conservation. Bob’s lifelong passion for the ocean and all its creatures means he spends as much time as possible in or near the water, especially along the Canaveral National Seashore near his home.

Liz Dong

is a financial advisor and a CFP® practitioner. She holds her BA from Northwestern University and MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Liz and her husband live in the Chicago area with their dog, Miso. They love hiking, camping, and exploring the great outdoors whenever they can.

Nancye Saunders Drukker

Nancy has worked with Bible Study Fellowship International as a Teaching Leader and Area Advisor for fourteen years. She has degrees in Clinical Nutrition from Baylor University and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School of Allied Health and a M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. She and her husband live in the Texas Hill Country, where she enjoys hiking and volunteering with ecological surveys as a Texas Master Naturalist.

Liuan Huska (陈柳岸)

is a freelance writer and speaker focusing on topics of embodiment and spirituality. Her writing, on everything from chronic pain to fertility trends, appears in Christianity Today, The Christian Century, Psychology Today, Hyphen, and Sojourners. She is a graduate of Wheaton College (BA anthropology) and the University of Chicago (MA social sciences). She lives with her husband and their three little boys in the Chicago area, where they enjoy gardening, foraging, and reading lots of books.

Mary Anne Inglis, Secretary

currently works as an ESL teacher for Michelin's Ecole Francaise Bilingue in Greenville, SC. She has been a part of the pilot program of A Rocha's Creation Care Camp since its beginning. Mary Anne has served on many non-profits and co-founded My Neighbor's Voice, a non-profit that promotes healthy civic dialog. She graduated from Duke University with a BA in Political Science/International Relations. She lives on a small farm in South Carolina with her husband and enjoys gardening and caring for their horses, dogs, cats and chickens and visiting their five adult children.

Dr. Rachel Lamb, Board Chair

is currently the Senior Climate Advisor and agency lead for natural climate solutions at the Maryland Department of the Environment. She is also an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). In addition to earning a PhD in Geographical Sciences from UMD, Rachel holds graduate degrees in Public Policy, and Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology. Rachel enjoys visiting U.S. National Parks whenever she can and has been to more than 250 sites.

Dr. Rick Lindroth

is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Ecology, and former Associate Dean for Research, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on forest systems, with a special emphasis on global environmental change. Dr. Lindroth is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Ecological Society of America, and the American Scientific Affiliation. He is a member of the Biologos Voices Speakers Bureau, and speaks publicly on topics such as creation care, climate change, and science denialism/communication. He enjoys fly-fishing, cycling, and canoeing, especially with his wife Nancy, adult children, and grandchildren.

Dr. Jonathan Moo

is the Lindaman Chair and Professor of New Testament and Environmental Studies at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. He is the author or co-author of a number of essays and books on Christian faith and ecology, including Let Creation Rejoice (IVP) and Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World (Zondervan). He loves introducing students to the beauty of wild places, including on a January-term course he offers at Tall Timber Ranch in the snowy North Cascades. He enjoys hiking and backpacking, cross-country skiing, fly-fishing and helping his wife Stacey grow food in their backyard garden.

Caroline Park

is a Deputy Section Chief with the Fisheries and Protected Resources Section, NOAA Office of General Counsel (D.C. area), where she provides legal advice on domestic and international fisheries issues. She is a Georgetown (J.D., L.L.M.) and Stanford (B.A. American Studies) grad. She enjoys playing violin and singing with her quartet, playing piano and guitar, and writing/arranging music.

Rev. Dr. Ron Rienstra

is Director of Worship Life and Professor of Preaching & Worship Arts at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. He is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) author of Church at Church, and coauthor (with Debra) of Worship Words: Disciplining Language for Faithful Ministry. Together they have three grown children, a multiplicity of living-room instruments, and a tame back yard they are slowly rewilding. His research interests include considering how the church might be a Refugia community in an era of climate crisis.

Vera Ayers Bowen

is a third generation owner of the Shield Ranch which manages ranch lands for conservation and nature education. Currently she serves as the President of El Ranchito, a nature immersion camp for under-served children. She is also President of the Shield Ayres Foundation, a nonprofit family foundation supporting human services, social justice and environmental conservation. She earned a BA from the University of the South. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Jason Fileta

serves as Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. From a very young age, Jason felt God’s call on his life to work for justice and mobilize others on the same journey. This was largely influenced by his parents, who immigrated to the US from Egypt, and helped him understand the inequality and injustice facing Christians there. Selected as a citizen delegate to the 2005 G8 Summit in Scotland, Jason advocated to the US delegation for fairer trade practices, debt cancellation for impoverished nations, and increased poverty-focused development aid. This led him to join Micah Challenge USA in 2005, a global movement of churches and organizations holding leaders accountable to their promises to combat poverty and injustice. While at Micah Challenge, he organized advocacy delegations to multiple G8, G20, UN summits and General Assemblies, advocating to high-level delegations from over 40 nations, but more importantly creating spaces for protest, prayer, and training for individual Christians who felt called to respond to systemic injustice. He co-founded and served as the first executive director of the Micah Institute at New York Theological Seminary, and was a contributor and editor of Live Justly, a book that has been used by over 250,000 people around the world. He lives in Vancouver, WA with his two children Eden and Nash.

Dr. Steven Garber

is the Senior Fellow for Vocation and the Common Good for the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. A teacher of many people in many places, he was the founder and principal of the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, and recently served as Professor of Marketplace Theology and Director of the Masters in Leadership, Theology and Society at Regent College, Vancouver, BC. The author of several books, including Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, his most recent is The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work. One of the founders of the Wedgwood Circle, he continues to serve as a consultant to colleges and corporations, facilitating both individual and institutional vocation. A husband, a father and a grandfather, a he has long lived in Virginia, near Washington DC, living a life among family, friends, and flowers.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

is Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. She is an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change, one of the most pressing issues facing humanity today. But Katharine may be best known to many people because of how she’s bridging the broad, deep gap between scientists and Christians— work she does in part because she’s a Christian herself. She’s been named by Christianity Today as one of their 50 Women to Watch, she serves as the World Evangelical Alliance’s Climate Ambassador and as the science advisor to the A Rocha USA, the Evangelical Environmental Network, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and she currently hosts the PBS digital series, Global Weirding: Climate, Politics, and Religion. Katharine is currently the Political Science Endowed Professor in Public Policy and Public Law and co-directs the Climate Center at Texas Tech University. She has a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Colgate University and Victoria University at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Ruth Padilla-DeBorst

serves as a Professor of World Christianity at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. She yearns to see peace and justice embraced in the beautiful and broken world we call home. A wife of one and mother of many, theologian, missiologist, educator, and storyteller, she has been involved in leadership development and theological education for an integral mission in her native Latin America for several decades. She serves with Resonate Global Mission, leading the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI, a learning community with students across Latin America), coordinating the Networking Team of INFEMIT (International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation), and furthering missional leadership formation processes with the Christian Reformed Church of North America. She serves on the board of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. She lives with her husband, James, in Costa Rica as a member of Casa Adobe, an intentional Christian Community with a deep concern for right living in relation to the whole of creation. Her studies include a Bachelors in Education (Argentina), an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Wheaton College), and a PhD in Theology (Boston University).

Steven Purcell

has been the Executive Director of Laity Lodge since 2006. From 1997-2002, he was the Director of Conferences and Retreats at Schloss Mittersill, in Mittersill, Austria. Prior to that, he attended Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., where he studied Spiritual Theology with an emphasis on its integration with the arts. Steven lives with his family in Boerne, TX.

T’Noya Thompson

is a consultant for the North American Association for Environmental Education. Being born and raised in the Bahamas fostered a deep connection to the ocean that inspired a career path at an early age for T’Noya. She began her career at Moody Gardens in the Animal Care Department, where she served several roles including, connecting with communities in various capacities for twelve years. After Moody Gardens, she worked at Galveston Bay Foundation for two and a half years as the Advocacy Programs Manager. She educated and encouraged action to improve the overall health of Galveston Bay, Texas’ largest estuary. T’Noya is now the Environmental Education Specialist at the North American Association for Environmental Education. Here, she works with various partners on eeWORKS, eeBLUE, and developing an evaluation portal with Duke University. Currently, T’Noya is also the Conservationist-In-Residence with Conservation Nation, and a Conservation Impact Fellow, Marine Conservation with the Cincinnati Zoo. Additionally, she serves as a Community Learning Leader for Miami University’s Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program. She serves as the Board Chair for the Vermilion Sea Institute. She is currently in Class Eight of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders Program. T’Noya is also a member of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation governing council, Science Partnerships Committee, serves as the Vice-Chair for the Public Participation and Education Committee for the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, and is on the Advisory Council for A Rocha USA. T’Noya holds a B.S. in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University at Galveston and an M.A. in Biology from Miami University through Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program. She is passionate about wildlife, environmental education, and supporting conservation and equity through community engagement. In her spare time, she enjoys growing in her faith, spending time with her wonderful family, meeting new people, and exploring when traveling.

Dr. Kyle S. Van Houtan

is a Research Scientist at Duke University. Previously he served as CEO of Loggerhead Marinelife Center and chief scientist of the Monterey Bay Aquarium where he oversaw the Aquarium’s research, including programs devoted to sea otters, white sharks, and plastic pollution. Dr. Van Houtan concurrently holds an adjunct professorship at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and is an adjunct at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). His research explores global change, biodiversity conservation, historical ecology, and ethics. In 2012, he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama for his pioneering research on how climate regulates sea turtle populations. Dr. Van Houtan earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, a Master of Science from Stanford University, a Ph.D. from Duke University, and completed postdoctoral research at Emory University. Before joining the Aquarium, he served as a program leader for NOAA in Hawaii where he led initiatives across the Pacific in protecting species and climate. His work has been featured on National Public Radio, The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Nature, Science, National Geographic, Wired, Smithsonian, Scientific American, and more. He lives in Florida with his wife and two children.