Paul Gorrell

Mr. Paul Gorrell is a poet and Founding Director of Peace Right Here, a non-profit organization working to recover and reshape imaginations to embrace, practice, and champion alternatives to violence.

Philip Browning Helsel

Rev. Dr. Philip Browning Helsel, is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Previously he served for four years at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. His current research interests include systemic pastoral care for oppression, migration as pastoral theology, collective trauma, and the care for families and kin networks, and pastoral care during a Trump presidency. He is author of Pastoral Power (Palgrave, 2015) a book in the New Approaches to Religion and Power Series that is the first full-length book in pastoral care to examine the Great Recession’s impact on mental health […]

Dominique Robinson

Rev. Dominique Robinson currently serves as the Youth & Young Adult Pastor at Shaw Temple AME Zion Church (Smyrna, GA).

Alaina Kleinbeck

Alaina Kleinbeck is Director of Youth Ministry Initiatives for the Duke Youth Academy for Christian Formation. Alaina has served youth ministries and organizations in suburban St. Louis, urban Houston, and Norway. She holds degrees from Concordia University Nebraska and Duke Divinity School. Before her time with the Duke Youth Academy, she was a Director of Christian Education working with middle school students.

John Leedy

Rev. John Leedy was raised in Houston, Texas and has been a life long Presbyterian. His calling into ministry began when he was a high school student and has since dedicated his life and work helping students understand their place in God’s world. John graduated from Abilene Christian University with a B.A. in Youth and Family Ministry and after marrying his wife, Krystal, in 2006, moved to Austin and completed a Master’s of Divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2011. John was ordained and installed as the Associate Pastor of Youth and Family Ministry at University Presbyterian Church […]

Miriam Acevedo

Miriam Acevedo is a Licensed Minister and directs the children’s programs at Damascus Christian Church in Hunt’s Point, the South Bronx, and is both a member of the faculty and Director of Operations at City Seminary of New York.

Tim Walsh

Tim Walsh is Director of Experiential Learning at Newport Academy, a teen rehabilitation center with the mission to provide teens and their families with care and treatment for trauma, mental health issues, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Walsh is a mental health professional, outdoor educator, certified recovery coach trainer, and recovery expert. He has more than 20 years of experience leading programs for young adults, adolescents, and families. Particularly, Tim has spent decades cultivating his expertise in program development. He is a thought leader in adventure-based counseling and recovery. However, his main areas of expertise include youth mentoring, outdoor leadership, […]

David C. Mahan

“It is at the level of the imagination that the fateful issues of our new world-experience must first be mastered” (Amos Wilder, Theopoetic).

This observation reflects a conviction that has inspired Dr. Mahan’s work as the Executive Director of the Rivendell Institute and a Christian scholar over the course of his nearly 30 years as a campus minister at Yale. In his commitment to serve the university, its students, faculty and staff he promotes a thoughtful, creative engagement with Christian faith in contemporary culture. Dr. Mahan’s fascination with the relationship between theology, the imagination and other academic disciplines has similarly guided […]

Keith King

Reverend Keith A. King was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan and is the youngest of seven children. He graduated from Howard University with a Bachelors of Arts degree in international business; he received a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and a Masters in Theology from Andover Newton Theological School. Upon completion of law school, he immediately entered the United States Marine Corps as a Judge Advocate General (“JAG”). While serving as a JAG officer, he was awarded a Naval Achievement Medal by the Secretary of the Navy for his professional achievement in the superior performance […]

Aracelis Vazquez Haye

Rev. Aracelis Vázquez Haye serves as the Associate Pastor at Church of the City, New London. Her passion and commitment to urban children and youth advocacy, education, social justice, and worship embodies her holistic approach to ministry.

Rev. Haye received her undergraduate degree from Eastern Connecticut State University (B.A., 2001) and has earned graduate degrees from Loyola University of Chicago (M.Ed., 2003), and Yale Divinity School (M.Div., 2012).

Outside of Rev. Haye role at Church of the City, she also serves as the Protestant Chaplain at Connecticut College and at The Waterford Country School. She is also a member of the New […]

Matthew Croasmun

Matt Croasmun is Associate Research Scholar and Director of the Life Worth Living Program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Senior Lecturer of Divinity & Humanities at Yale University. He began working with YCFC after completing his Ph.D. in Religious Studies (New Testament) at Yale in 2014. While a doctoral student, he and his wife, Hannah, planted and pastored the Elm City Vineyard Church, a dynamic, diverse, urban church in the heart of New Haven, CT. With deep grounding in both the church and the academy, Matt brings to all of his work a passion for the […]

Lillian Daniel

Rev. Lillian Daniel is a preacher, teacher and writer in Iowa. While she has taught preaching at a number of schools, including Chicago Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School, she can’t be held responsible for everyone who falls asleep in church. ​Her new book, Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To is generating international conversation about the changing religious landscape. ​It continues the theme of her 2013 book When ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ Is Not Enough about the growing number of people who claim “none” as their religious preference.

Lillian Daniel has spoken at the National Cathedral, Duke […]