Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner

Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner is president of Skinner Leadership Institute, which she founded with her late husband, Rev. Tom Skinner. A nationally recognized spiritual leader, teacher, lecturer and writer, she is an alumna of San Francisco State University, with M.S.W. and law degrees from UCLA and M.Div. and D.Min. degrees from Howard University School of Divinity. Dr. Williams-Skinner is passionate about racial reconciliation and producing a new generation of leaders who are technically excellent and spiritually mature.

Rev. Soong-Chan Rah

Soong-Chan Rah is Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. He is the author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (IVP, 2009). He is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (DMin, MDiv), Harvard University (ThM), and Columbia University (BA). He is the former senior pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (an urban, multi-ethnic church in the Boston area) and has previously served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. For more info, see: www.profrah.com.

Shane Claiborne

Shane Claiborne is an author, activist, and founding member of The Simple Way, an intentional community of ordinary radicals in Philadelphia. Before finding his home in community life with his dearest friends, Shane attended Eastern University and studied Sociology and Youth Ministry. He has written several celebrated books, including The Irresistible Revolution, Jesus for President, and Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers.

Dr. John Perkins
Bible Study: 1 2 3 4

Dr. John Perkins is a sharecropper's son from Mississippi who vowed never to return after his brother was murdered there. In 1960, he did return to share the gospel, yet his outspokenness during civil rights demonstrations garnered repeated harassment and imprisonment. Despite a third grade education, he earned honorary doctorates from institutions such as Wheaton College, Gordon College, and North Park University. Founder of CCDA, Perkins teaches internationally on racial reconciliation, leadership and community development.

Rev. Gabriel Salguero

Rev. Gabriel Salguero is director of the Hispanic Leadership Program at Princeton Theological Seminary and Senior Pastor of the multicultural Lamb’s Church in New York City, alongside his wife Jeanette. His passion is bringing an ethical framework to public policy and empowering multicultural leadership while working on issues of indigenous leadership development, faith and public policy, as well as racial and economic justice. Gabriel and Jeanette live in Newark with their two sons.

Rev. Jim Wallis

Rev. Jim Wallis is a bestselling author, public theologian, speaker, preacher, and international commentator on religion and public life, faith and politics. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sojourners, where he is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine. Jim spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements, and during his studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, he and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice which has now grown into a national faith-based organization. Jim lives in inner-city Washington, D.C. with his wife and their two sons.

Rev. Alexia G. Salvatierra

Rev. Alexia G. Salvatierra is executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice of California (CLUE-CA). CLUE-CA is an alliance of interfaith organizations and religious leaders who respond to the crises of the working poor by joining low-wage workers in their struggle for a living wage, health insurance, fair working conditions and a voice in the decisions that affect them. Alexia studied sociology and religious studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz and earned an M.Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. She and her daughter reside in Los Angeles.

Noel Castellanos

Noel Castellanos is CEO of the Christian Community Development Association. He has worked in full-time ministry in urban communities since 1982, and was a long-time CCDA board member. Noel established the CCDA Institute, which equips emerging leaders in the CCD philosophy. He is a highly sought after speaker and a passionate mentor to young leaders across the USA. Noel and his wife Marianne have three children, and reside in the barrio of Chicago’s La Villita.

Rev. Matthew Watts

Rev. Matthew Watts has been the Senior Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Charleston, West Virginia, for over ten years. Prior to that, he worked as an engineer, small business consultant and CEO of a broadcasting corporation. In 1997, he established the Hope Community Development Corporation, a non-profit organization with the mission of empowering the inner city through spiritual renewal, education, employment and training and economic development. Rev. Watts is recognized as a community leader who understands the importance of economic development to the empowerment of the African American Community. He has been married to his wife Pamela for 30 years and they have five children.

Dr. Wayne Gordon
Singles Panel

Dr. Wayne Gordon is founding pastor of Lawndale Community Church, founding president of the Lawndale Community Development Corporation, and president of CCDA. With more than 30 years in ministry, Coach’s major goal is developing a new generation of indigenous leaders in North Lawndale. Coach is an alumnus of Wheaton College and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, and received his D. Min. degree from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Anne have three children.

Bart Campolo

Bart Campolo is a veteran urban minister and activist who speaks and writes about grace, faith, loving relationships and social justice. Bart is the leader of The Walnut Hills Fellowship, a local ministry in inner city Cincinnati. He is also the founder of Mission Year, a Christian ministry which recruits committed young adults to live and work among the poor in inner-city neighborhoods across the country, and executive director of EAPE, which develops and supports innovative, cost-effective mission projects around the world. Bart is married to Marty and they have two teenage children.