Contributors

Roger Bairstow currently serves as an Executive on Broetje Orchard’s managing Board, helping the business balance its social responsible agenda. He oversees the company’s affordable housing operations, Snake River Housing Inc. and C.A.S.A. LLC, and directs Mano à Mano, a non-profit dedicated to asset building for low-income and disadvantaged populations. His work emphasizes the company’s business-as-ministry model. Prior to arriving at Broetje Orchards, he was an Assistant Professor with Oregon State University Extension Service, where he initiated micro-enterprise programming and directed a local leadership development program for low-income and minority populations. Roger has worked in Oregon, Michigan and Pennsylvania implementing community economic development programming. He has eight-years experience conducting international development work in Senegal, Kenya, Guatemala and Costa Rica. A father of three wonderful girls, Roger lives with his wife Suzanne in Walla Walla, Washington.

J. R. Bergdoll Jr., AICP, was project manager of Temescal Commons Cohousing during development and construction, and remains an active owner. Since 2000, Bergdoll has been managing real estate development, land acquisitions, and government funding for two Habitat for Humanity urban affiliates-East Bay, in the Oakland area, and now South Hampton Roads in the Norfolk area. He earned a BS in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Master of City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked for the San Francisco Planning Department in urban design, neighborhood planning, and project review and was a leader of missions for his local church in Oakland, California, while completing the certification for the American Institute of Certified Planners. In 2010 he joined the board of the Housing Ministries Group, a national non-profit corporation of Christian development professionals dedicated to promoting residential communities like Temescal Commons.

Marian Bray has authored more than twenty books and more than 150 stories with various publishers, including David C. Cook, Chariot Books, Scholastic, Zondervan, Harold Shaw Publishers, Tyndale House, Doubleday, Houghton Miffin, and Augsburg Books and in various Christian and secular magazines. Marian was a college instructor with the Children’s Institute of Literature, Learning Tree University in California, and Biola University, and has instructed workshops at various writing conferences. Marian is passionate about animals, especially horses and guinea pigs.

Terry Carter has worked for numerous nonprofit organizations, including several years as the Marketing Manager for Century Housing, one of the largest affordable housing lenders in Southern California. She has worked at two international relief and development agencies, World Vision and Food for the Hungry. She has participated in community organizing efforts, including serving on the Housing Strategy Team of One L.A., the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) affiliate in Los Angeles. She attended Biola University and graduated from California State University at Fullerton. She currently works for the Service Employees International Union in Los Angeles, which advocates for low-wage workers and their families.

Shane Claiborne is an author and activist, and founding partner of The Simple Way, a radical faith community in Philadelphia (www.thesimpleway.org). Shane graduated from Eastern University, and studied at Princeton Seminary. He spent a ten-week stint with Mother Teresa and a year at Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. Shane serves on the advisory board of the Christian Community Development Association. He writes and travels extensively, speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and justice.

Millard Fuller (January 3, 1935—February 3, 2009) was founder and former president of Habitat for Humanity International, one of the top twenty house builders in the United States. In 2005 he started the Fuller Center for Housing, with offices in Americus, Georgia. Habitat has helped more than 500,000 families in more than 3,000 US cities and 82 other countries. More than 2.5 million people now have safe, decent, affordable shelter because of Habitat’s global work. Author of nine books about his life and work with Habitat for Humanity, Fuller received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1996 and was named the 1995 Builder of the Year by Professional Builder magazine. Fuller has received honorary doctorates and achievement awards for his leadership toward meeting the goal of eliminating poverty housing worldwide. When he passed in 2009, he was buried on the hill where Koinonia founder Clarence Jordan was buried.

Daryn Kobata is an editor and writer with great interest in poverty and human rights issues. Currently the social media and web officer at Episcopal Relief & Development, the international humanitarian agency of the Episcopal Church, Daryn has also worked in communications with Food for the Hungry in Kenya and the US, and with World Relief in Darfur, Sudan. She holds a BA in English from the University of California, Davis; an MA in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary; and an MBA in international public and nonprofit management and policy from New York University.

Andy Krumsiegis co-founder and the current director of the Jubilee Christian Development Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, in partnership with Leroy Gill Jr., pastor of Jubilee Community Church. Andy graduated from Wheaton College, majoring in biblical studies served at Lawndale Community Church in Chicago and co-founded Lawndale Christian Development Corporation. He is married to Debbie, who grew up in the Congo as the daughter of missionaries. They have four children, Ben, Christy, Aaron, and Caleb. Caleb, born in St. Louis, is the sixth generation of Andy’s family living in the same neighborhood.

Dr. Robert C. Linthicum is a retired Presbyterian urban pastor who has been involved in community and broad-based organizing since 1967. Presently, he is a leader in the Inland Empire Sponsoring Committee, a new organizing effort of the Industrial Areas Foundation. For eleven years, he directed World Vision’s urban ministry in Asia, Africa and Latin America, training organizers to develop community organizations in 28 Global South cities. Over a 47-year career, he has pastored city churches in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. He is Professor Emeritus of Urban Ministry at Eastern University in Philadelphia, and has just completed a two-year ministry as interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Pomona, California, a highly-intentional, incarnational, and mission-focused church. He has taught more than 17,000 pastors, mission leaders, and students from more than seventy cities in the principles of community and broad-based organizing since 1985. Linthicum has authored eight books, most recently Building A People of Power: Equipping Churches to Transform Their Communities (2006).

Bob Lupton has invested almost forty years of his life in inner-city Atlanta. In response to a call that Bob felt while serving in Vietnam, he left a budding business career to work with inner city youth. They sold their suburban home, and moved to the inner-city Atlanta, rebuilding neighborhoods where families can flourish and children can grow into healthy adults. He has developed two mixed-income subdivisions—creating housing for hundreds of families—organized a multi-racial congregation, started businesses, and more. Bob is an engaging story teller, strategist, author,. He has authored numerous books, most recently, one with the provocative title Toxic Charity. Bob has a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia. He serves as speaker, strategist, and inspirer with those throughout the nation who seek to establish God’s Shalom in the city.

Ed Mahoney works to create a healthy home environment for abused and emotionally disturbed children at the residential Hillsides Home for Children in Southern California. He earned degrees in Religious Studies and English at Westmont College, Santa Barbara. In 1994 he completed his Master’s from Regents College in Canada.

Anthony Manousos is a Quaker, an author, teacher and peace activist who has edited books and the official magazine for Western Quakers. He serves on the board of several nonprofits, such as Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and the Christian and Interfaith Committee of Friends General Conferences. His books include A Western Quaker Reader (2000), Compassionate Listening: The Writings of Gene Hoffman (2003), EarthLight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age (2006), and Quakers and the Interfaith Movement (2010). He is married to Jill Shook, whom he met at during a Palm Sunday peace parade in Pasadena, CA. His blog: laquaker.blogspot.com.

Edward F. Moncrief has spent his entire forty-two-year career in non-profit housing development and finance; most recently as the executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services Silicon Valley. He retired from this position in July 2011. He now works as a consultant to housing organizations. During his younger years, he was a Franciscan friar, studying for the priesthood. After leaving seminary, he earned a Master’s of Social Work. He has also studied law, real estate, and mortgage financing. He is a published writer and poet. Among other positions, he was the director of El Porvenir, an early self-help housing project launched by the American Friends Service Committee with farm workers of the San Joaquin Valley. From 1980 through 1995, as founding executive director of Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association, Inc. (CHISPA), he oversaw the development of more than seven hundred homes for farm worker families of the Salinas Valley.

Mary Nelson is President Emeritus of Bethel New Life, a faith-based community development corporation on Chicago’s low income west side. Bethel developed over 1,200 units of affordable housing, brought in more than $110 million of new investments into a credit-starved community. She chairs the board of Sojourners, and presently serves on the board of Christian Community Development Corporation.  She formerly served on the boards of Woodstock Institute and Center for Neighborhood Technology. She currently co-ordinates Loyola University’s (Chicago) Masters in Social Justice and Community Development and serves on its faculty and the faculty of Asset Based Community Development Institute. She is the author of the book, Empowerment.

Bert Newton is a writer and Gospel-based activist who lives in Pasadena, CA. He blogs at www.urbvil.org and www.mennoweekly.org/blog/byline/bert-newton/. After 9-11 he began the Palm Sunday Peace Parade. He is author of Subversive Wisdom: A Socio-Political Dimensions of John’s Gospel, published in 2012.

Lowell Noble was called into missions in Appalachia. He received his MA in religion from Seattle Pacific College, an MA from Hartford Seminary, and an MA in anthropology from Wheaton College. He received a Specialist in Arts Degree in 1975, then taught sociology and anthropology at Spring Arbor College. He is the author of From Oppression to Jubilee Justice (2007). He and his wife Dixie volunteer six months of the year at Antioch Community in Jackson, Mississippi, working closely with Dr. John Perkins as the training (education) director for the Spencer Perkins Center.

Susan P. Ortmeyer is a writer living in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California, with her husband, John Neff, a scientist. Susan has an active interest in issues affecting the poor. She graduated from University of California-Berkeley in 1987 with a BA in history; and from UCLA Law School in 1993. Susan worked for ten years as a labor and employment lawyer, and for four years specializing in employment discrimination investigations. She was the legal director with Public Interest Investigations, Inc., then began a career as a writer, potter, and homemaker.

Jill Shook earned her BS from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, MA in Biblical Studies from Denver Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry in “Transformational Leadership for the Global City” from Bakke Graduate School. She served on the boards of the Pasadena Neighborhood Housing Services and the Golden Rule Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Jill was a campus minister, serving campuses in California and Oregon, worked with Food for the Hungry International designing and implementing a program for work-teams from Berkeley to Harvard to serve in developing nations. She designed “Teaching like Jesus” workshops for pastors and teachers which she taught in Bolivia and Mexico. Jill founded Students and Tutors Achieving Real Success (STARS), a ministry of Lake Avenue Church, where hundreds of volunteers work with at-risk students. She helped to begin a citywide network: Parent Project, to prevent gang violence, and a countywide network: Family Promise, to house homeless families. As a catalyst with Missions Door, she has helped shape housing policy, including an inclusionary zoning that has produced 460 affordable units. Her Web site is www.makinghousinghappen.comand her blog: www.makinghousinghappen.net

Thomas and Christine Sine are the cofounders of Mustard Seed Associates, which encourages Christians to create imaginative new models of life and faith including new forms of housing, community, and lifestyle. Tom is a consultant in futures research and planning for both Christian and secular organizations. He has authored many books, earning the Christian Booksellers Association’s Gold Medallion Award and Christianity Today’s book of the year list in 1996. Christine is an Australian physician who developed and directed the healthcare ministry for YWAM’s Mercy Ships, and has also written several books. They coauthored Living on Purpose: Finding God’s Best for Your Life. They are adjunct professors for Fuller Theological Seminary in Seattle. Christine’s newest books are To Garden With God and GodSpace (Barclay Press). Tom’s latest book is The New Conspirator: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time (InterVarsity Press).

Paul A. Smith serves with InnerChange, a Christian order among the poor. Inner Change ministries flow from relationships formed when teams move into poor neighborhoods. The emergence of local leaders in Los Angeles resulted in Comunidad Cambria, a tenant-controlled nonprofit corporation. Comunidad Cambria received the National Association of Professional Organizers Community Service Award in 1995 and Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing Project of the Year in 1998. Smith has an AB from Harvard University and a MS from the California Institute of Technology.

Rev. Canon Ronald Spann was rector of Church of the Messiah for twenty-five years in Detroit. The parish spread faith-based development through its Housing Corporation. Spann led the effort to form the Islandview Village Development Corporation. He is director of Christ Church Grosse Pointe Spirituality Center and on the faculty of CREDO, a clergy wellness initiative. He is a charter member of the Christian Community Development Association and serves on its advisory board.

Ray Stranske currently serves as the director of housing and economic development for Newsed Redevelopment Corporation in Denver Colorado. He earned degrees from Biola University and Denver Seminary. He co-founded Hope Communities, Inc., which has built or renovated more than 650 units of affordable housing in the urban Denver area. Ray has been an active member of the Five Points Business Association, and board member of Housing For All, Colorado Housing Consortium, US Bank Community Advisory Board, and the Enterprise Foundation network (since its inception in 1982). Ray has also been active with many state and local housing development associations, such as Colorado Housing Affordable Partnership, and Housing Colorado. He is currently chairman of the board of Project Education Sudan.

Marilyn Stranske is project director of the PICO Colorado Clergy Action Network, a state-wide, non-partisan project affiliated with the PICO National Network to engage clergy in prophetically addressing issues of justice that are affecting families in their congregations and communities. She co-founded Hope Communities with her husband, Ray. Marilyn formerly served as president and national organizer of Christians Supporting Community Organizing. She earned a BS from Northwestern University and a MEd from Georgia State University. The Stranskes met in an urban church in 1974 in the neighborhood where they still live. The joys of their lives are their children, Jon and Clarissa and their spouses, travel, and their church, St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Dr. Lee Stuart directed SBC Nehemiah—the development entity of South Bronx Churches from 1998 to 2005. Prior to taking on the leadership of the Nehemiah program she had been lead organizer of South Bronx Churches Sponsoring Committee, Inc., a broad-based organization affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation. She currently serves as program officer for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in Duluth, MN. Lee received her PhD in Ecology from San Diego State University and the University of California Davis and completed postdoctoral work at Virginia Tech in biology. She was one of the founders of SHARE—Self Help and Resource Exchange, an ecumenical food assistance and community development program operates in several communities in the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Richard Townsell served as the executive director of the Lawndale Christian Community Development Corporation (LCDC), and has overseen 30 million dollars of housing development. He and LCDC have received more than a dozen awards for the housing development including the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (2001) as the Community Builder of the Year; the Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation (2003); and a National Award for Social Justice Leadership (2004). He was named the Distinguished Fellow at the twentieth anniversary of Leadership Greater Chicago. He holds degrees from Northwestern University, Spertus College in Chicago (MA in urban housing development) and a Certificate in Business Administration from the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Business School. He was an adjunct faculty member of Northwestern University, Wheaton College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He currently teaches math at a charter school, North Lawndalde College Prep.

Rev. Dr. DarEll Weist has been a campus minister, theological professor in Sierra Leone West Africa, an Annual Conference administrator, and a local pastor and foundation president. He was the president and CEO of the 1010 Development Corporation, a faith-based affordable housing corporation from 1991 to 2007. The corporation’s housing received a prestigious Southern California award from Union Bank. Weist has a BS from Westmar College, Le Mars, Iowa; a MDiv from Garret Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois; and a RelD. from Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, California. He is currently a retired United Methodist clergy.