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Rev. Patricia de Jong, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, has served as Senior Minister at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley and the Urbandale United Church of Christ in Des Moines, Iowa. She also served as the Minister of Education for Christian Discipleship at The Riverside Church in New York City. Patricia’s roots in social justice began as a campus minister, serving on university campuses in Michigan, Oregon and California. Pat lives in Sonoma, CA. Rev. de Jong is Chair of the Board of Directors.
Katy Keck's career is in the culinary field, with an emphasis on hunger and the effect of poverty on food security. Her strong skill sets lie in the areas of board governance, fundraising and partnership development. She spent nearly a decade intimately involved in the launch of the organization Infinite Family, an international non-profit which uses video technology to connect adult mentors with South African teens affected by HIV/AIDS. She received her BA in Liberal Arts at DePauw University and served on its Alumni Board. Katy obtained her MBA in Finance & Marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is a two-time Daytime Emmy Awards honoree and ordained Deacon at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. She is First Vice Chair of the CWS Board.
Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson is the Associate General Minister of Global Engagement and Co-Executive of Global Ministries, the common overseas ministry of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Rev. Thompson has been working in the national setting for ten years, first as Minister of Racial Justice before assuming the role of Minister for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. She believes both of these positions have provided her a foundation and skill sets that will be necessary in the role as AGM for Global Engagement.
Thompson has shared her skills and gifts in a variety of settings nationally and internationally. Her ministry is informed by her passion for racial justice. A strong proponent of human rights, she currently provides leadership for the joint United Church of Canada and United Church of Christ committee working on the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. Before joining the National Staff, Thompson served in the Florida Conference United Church of Christ as a pastor, and on the Conference staff. She has extensive experience in nonprofit management, having served in leadership in nonprofit organizations and in academia.
Thompson earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College in New York, a Master of Public Administration from North Carolina Central University in Durham, and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York. She earned her Doctorate of Ministry at Seattle University.
Laura Roberts is co-founder and chief executive officer of Pantheon Enterprises, which was honored with Ethisphere’s 2012 World’s Most Ethical Companies Award. She also serves on the Conscious Capitalism National Board of Directors, promoting higher purpose in business, and is a member of the American Sustainable Business Council and the Young President’s Organization (YPO). Roberts is Secretary of the CWS Board.
Paul Chan is an M.D. (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Cardiology) living in Kansas City. He has raised significant funds for CWS through fundraising walks in the Grand Canyon. He has served on the board of a Guatemalan development organization, and is the founder and has been director of Community Impact, an umbrella organization at Johns Hopkins Medical School for initiatives in inner city Baltimore. Dr. Chan was named one of "50 Missourians You Should Know 2018" by Ingram's. He is the Treasurer of the CWS Board.
Phil Atkins-Pattenson is a retired counsel from the international law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, one of the country’s top law firms. Prior to his retirement, he was a Partner in the Business Trials Practice Group, where he tried complex business cases and argued several precedent-setting cases on appeal. He was recognized annually by his peers as a “Super Lawyer” in Business Litigation, was a recipient of a California Attorney of the Year award and a Sheppard Mullin Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award. He is the former Co-Managing Partner of the firm’s 100-lawyer San Francisco office.
Mr. Atkins-Pattenson joined the CWS Board in January 2020 and serves as Chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Corus International, Inc., where he serves as Vice Chair of the Board and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. He serves also on the Board of the Glenbrook Water Cooperative in Glenbrook, Nevada (Lake Tahoe) where he now resides.
Mr. Atkins-Pattenson holds an A.B. from Stanford University, a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, where he was a Rockefeller Fellow, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, where was the Articles Editor for the Law Review.
Rev. Chris Dorsey currently serves as President of Higher Education & Leadership Ministries for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), based in Indianapolis, IN. An ordained Disciples minister, Dorsey received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Texas at Austin and earned a Master of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. He is a Ph.D. candidate at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
Rev. Dorsey has taught at a variety of academic and theological institutions and previously served as a local church pastor, university chaplain at Clark Atlanta University, and as the vice president of development and marketing at Chicago Theological Seminary. Previously, he served as assistant professor of theology and preaching at Western Theological Seminary, where he taught classes on Preaching Foundations; Race, Culture, and Reconciliation; Theologizing Violence; and the Theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rev. Dorsey currently leads a ministry that works with higher education and leadership development programs. Part of his work with young adults includes helping young people connect with opportunities to give and to serve the common good. He is particularly interested in how to better connect young people with the mission and work of CWS. Rev. Dorsey believes that CWS helps to gather resources from across the ecumenical church and distribute them to communities where it is most needed.
Martin Ferenczi has successfully served as CEO and CFO in various private sector companies, focused on combatting fraud through technology. Currently, he serves as Principal of Martin Ferenczi LLC, advising start-ups and established companies in the payments, authentication, and identity spaces. Martin Ferenczi LLC is also an independent contractor to Oliver Wyman, a leading global management consulting firm.
Mr. Ferenczi graduated from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and earned a PMD from Harvard Business School. He has appeared on Bloomberg and on CNBC, among media outlets. Mr. Ferenczi holds both British and American passports. He speaks English, French, Italian and German. He is based in Washington, DC.
Dr. Elizabeth Ferris is a Research Professor at Georgetown University in the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM). She served for nine years as a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Brookings Project on Internal Displacement. She has extensive professional background in the areas of refugees and migration specifically, and justice and peace more generally. Dr. Ferris notes that she believes “in ecumenism and in the power of churches to bring about change in our troubled world.” Dr. Ferris spent 20 years working in the field of international humanitarian response, most recently in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Council of Churches. She was an earlier Director of the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program in New York. Dr. Ferris is a Quaker (Friends General Conference) and has attended a United Church of Christ congregation for the last ten years.
Caroline S. Gesami is the Legal Services Manager at Africa Social Economic Research Foundation (ASERF). She graduated from the University of Sussex (U.K.) with a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and received her Post-Graduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law, and a Masters in Oil & Gas Law (LL.M) from the University of Aberdeen (U.K.). She is fluent in English and Swahili with a working knowledge of French and Spanish. She is a member of the Young Lawyer’s Committee of the Law Society of Kenya and the International Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenyan Chapter. Caroline brings long-term fundraising strategies; strategic networks; and ability to advise on regulatory compliance matters. Her religious background is as a Catholic.
Nobi Kaneko is the Founder and President of Kaneko and Associates, an executive search/leadership consulting firm since 1988, with locations in Tokyo and Newport Beach, CA. The firm specializes in executive search and leadership consulting in the areas of professional services, insurance/banking, consumer goods and high technology sectors. Previously, he served as Senior Minister at First Christian Church, Tucson, AZ and Foothill Christian Church, La Crenscenta, CA. Mr. Kaneko earned a Master of Divinity from Texas Christian University and did additional studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary and University of Cambridge. Since transitioning to the corporate world, he has become an advocate for inclusivity and diversity. He holds an expansive and ecumenical view of the Church and represents a bridge between the faith-based community and the business world. He is currently a Global Board Member and Asia Chair of the Association of Executive Search Consultants and Leadership Consulting (AESC). He is also a member of 30% Club/Japan, a global campaign to increase gender diversity at board and senior management levels.
Rev. Vy Nguyen is Executive Director at Week of Compassion with the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church). He places special emphasis on connecting younger generations to the faith-based humanitarian and development work. Vy formerly served as a CWS staff member in the fundraising office based in Northern California. A former refugee himself, he has volunteered at various refugee organizations in Chicago & Dallas and has served on both his Church’s National & Executive Boards.
His Eminence, Metropolitan Zachariah Mar Nicholovos, is the ruling Metropolitan of the Northeast American Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. His Eminence currently serves as a Central Committee and Executive Committee member of the World Council of Churches, Governing Board member of the National Council of Churches in the United States, and as a member of the Board of Trustees for St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, New York. Most recently His Eminence was appointed by the Malankara Church to serve as the President of the Department of Ecumenical Relations.
Harriett Jane Olson has served as chief executive officer of the United Methodist Women’s national administrative and policymaking arm since 2007. United Methodist Women is a nearly 800,000-member organization within the United Methodist Church in the United States. United Methodist Women members give approximately $15 million a year for work with women, children, and youth in the United States and around the world. UMW operates the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City, a retirement home for deaconesses and missionaries in North Carolina, a publication and distribution network, and a series of mission education and leadership development events annually. Through these events and their connections around the world, UMW staff and members are inspired, prepared, encouraged, and celebrated for their direct service and advocacy for justice.
A Harvard Law School graduate, Ms. Olson practiced real estate and environmental law (1983-96) at a N.J. law firm that is now part of Day Pitney before working for the church full-time. From 1996-2007, Ms. Olson was senior vice-president for publishing, editor for church school publications and United Methodist Church book editor at the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, TN. Ms. Olson has a bachelor's degree from Houghton College in Houghton, NY, where she serves on the Board of Trustees. Ms. Olson previously served on the CWS Board when the Board was still a representative board. Ms. Olson is based in New York City.
Rick Santos is the President and CEO of Church World Service. Prior to assuming this role in 2021, Mr. Santos was most recently the President and CEO of IMA World Health. He has more than two decades of experience working for and with faith-based organizations, including more than 10 years of living and working in Asia. Mr. Santos is an expert in engaging and partnering with civil society in the development process, and his developmental approach includes building and prioritizing robust local and regional partnerships—communities, organizations and networks—which he believes are the key ingredients to successful and sustainable development work.
Mr. Santos holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School, a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from George Washington University. Learn more about him here.
Rev. Dr. David Vásquez-Levy serves as President of Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. A committed pastor, a nationally recognized higher education and immigration leader and a sought after speaker, Rev. Dr. Vásquez-Levy leads at the intersection of faith, higher education and social change.
Rev. Dr. Vásquez-Levy serves as convener for the GTU Consortial Council, is co-founder and convener for the Latinx Presidents and Deans of ATS schools, and is a member of the executive leaders group of AshokaU campus network and the Asociación para La Educación Teológica Hispana. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Encore.org.
Rev. Dr. Vásquez-Levy regularly contributes a faith perspective to the national conversation on immigration. He has consulted on a number of documentaries on immigration, labor and human rights and is the author of publications that explore migration stories in sacred texts and in people's lives.
