We’re excited to have the speakers below on board to share some of their experience and approach. Stay tuned for more coming soon!
Missional Practice
Dwight Zscheile
The Rev. Dwight Zscheile, Ph.D., is vice president of innovation and associate professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. An Episcopal priest, he is author of Participating in God’s Mission: A Theological Missiology for the U.S. (with Craig Van Gelder, Eerdmans 2018), The Agile Church: Spirit-Led Innovation in an Uncertain Age (Morehouse Publishing, 2014), People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity (Morehouse Publishing, 2012) and The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation (with Craig Van Gelder, Baker Academic 2011) and editor of Cultivating Sent Communities: Missional Spiritual Formation (Eerdmans, 2012). A graduate of Stanford University (BA), Yale University (MDiv) and Luther Seminary (PhD, Congregational Mission and Leadership), he previously served congregations in Virginia and Connecticut. Dwight’s experience growing up in a secular home in California has shaped his commitment to helping the church cultivate Christian community with new populations and generations in today’s changing world.
Beloved Community
Catherine Meeks
Catherine Meeks, PhD, is Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. Prior to the center’s opening she chaired its precursor, Beloved Community: Commission for Dismantling Racism for the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. A sought-after teacher and workshop leader, Catherine brings four decades of experience to the work of transforming the dismantling racism work in Atlanta. The core of her work has been with people who have been marginalized because of economic status, race, gender or physical ability as they pursue liberation, justice and access to resources that can help lead them to health, wellness and a more abundant life. This work grows out of her understanding of her call to the vocation of teacher as well as her realization that all of humanity is one family which God desires to unite. Catherine is the retired Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio Cultural Studies from Wesleyan College and Founding Executive Director of the Lane Center for Community Engagement and Service. She is the author of six books and one inspirational CD, and holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Clark Atlanta University and Ph.D from Emory University.
Heidi Kim
Heidi J. Kim has served as the Staff Officer for Racial Reconciliation for The Episcopal Church since 2014, and is one of the lead members of the Presiding Bishop’s staff charged with sharing best practices of Becoming Beloved Community; The Church’s Long Term Strategic Commitment to Racial Healing, Reconciliation, and Justice Making. Her approach is grounded in the church’s mission to “…restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” Heidi served as a Diversity Director for a Jesuit high school for six years, and taught courses at the college level in Sociology, Anthropology, Women’s/Gender Studies, American Studies, and Ethnic Studies. Heidi is a graduate of Brown University, and holds an MA in Sociology from UCLA. She is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).
Rie Gilsdorf
Rie Algeo Gilsdorf, MS, MA, has broad experience as a principal, arts administrator, facilitator, instructional coach, teacher of science and dance, and parent in innovative public, private, magnet and charter schools in Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Minnesota. She spent her early career delivering, designing and guiding emergent, arts-integrated, student-centered learning, along the way developing expertise in performance-based assessment of students and teachers. Throughout her career Rie has also facilitated adult learning that develops capacity to achieve equity across race, gender, sexuality and ability in redesigned schools and progressive faith communities. She now provides racial equity seminars, coaching and consulting through Embody Equity, combining her training as an Advanced Practitioner of Social Presencing Theater and an Affiliate Practitioner of Courageous Conversations About Race.
Sustainable Pedagogy
Natalia Hernández
Dr. Natalia Rico Hernández, Head of School at Breck School in Golden Valley, Minnesota, has 26 years of teaching and leadership experience in public, private, and independent schools throughout the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Hernández earned an M.Ed. in Educational Administration from the University of Texas and an Ed.D. in Leadership, Policy and Organizations from Vanderbilt University. Her dissertation, “On Teacher Quality in Independent Schools,” was published in the Peabody Journal of Education. In addition, she has published articles in Independent Magazine and the National Association of Independent Schools blogs.
Stacy Williams-Duncan
The Rev. Stacy Williams-Duncan believes she is called to be a co-creative priest who fulfills her baptismal ministry by integrating teaching and learning, research and practice, and ministry and theological education within and beyond the parish, seminary, and digital contexts. Stacy currently serves as the Interim Director of Digital Learning and Trotter Visiting Professor at Virginia Theological Seminar and is an Ed.D. Candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Virginia. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Stacy served Episcopal parishes and schools on both coasts. Some of Stacy’s research and work can be seen at https://www.digitalliteracytoolkit.org/.
John Lewis
The Rev. John Lewis, D.Phil., is Director of the Iona Center and Lecturer in New Testament and Spirituality at Seminary of the Southwest. He oversees many of the seminary’s non-degree programs, including the Iona Collaborative, a network of 28 Episcopal dioceses that use the seminary’s digitized three-year curriculum in their local diocesan settings to train women and men for ordination and lay leaders for licensing. John also serves as Co-Director of St. Benedict’s Workshop, a non-profit ministry for Christian formation he founded in 2001 to help Christians and their communities use Scripture to practice vocational discernment and discipleship in daily life. He served the Diocese of West Texas as Dean of Examining Chaplains from 2005-2018 and currently serves on the Task Force on Vocations for the Diocese of Texas.
Worship
Chaplain
Kyle Oliver
The Rev. Kyle Matthew Oliver (@kmoliver) is an Episcopal priest, media producer, and doctoral student in the Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Before he began his dissertation research on learner-centered media making in faith and faith-adjacent settings, he served as Digital Missioner in the Center for the Ministry of Teaching (now Lifelong Learning) at Virginia Theological Seminary. While at VTS, he developed the e-Formation Learning Community and conducted a nationwide study of digital literacy instruction in theological education. He has contributed to the journal Teaching Theology and Religion; the websites Faith & Leadership, Building Faith, ECF Vital Practices, and Faith Formation Learning Exchange; the books The Study of Ministry, Teaching Religion Using Technology in Higher Education, and The Seasons of Adult Faith Formation; and the podcasts Media and Social Change, Easter People, and The Specialist. He lives in San Francisco and blogs at kyleoliver.net and prayr.cc.
Music Leader
Conie Borchardt
Conie Borchardt describes herself as a Luth-opalian Sufi dancer (Lutheran childhood, Episcopal current work, with interfaith interests) because in her experience, G-d continually defies any definition. As a descendent of Korean-German immigrants who farm the rich prairie of southern Minnesota previously stewarded by the Lower Sioux Dakota people since time immemorial, she is especially interested in shining a light on voices who are underrepresented and marginalized. Along with her leadership in Episcopalian and other worshipping communities, she works with Music that Makes Community and is the founder of Points of Light Music.
Uncharted Network 