ChI Staff & Board

Rev. Lauren Van Ham, M.A., was ordained with the very first cohort of ChI ordinands in 1999, and completed the Interfaith Spiritual Direction Certificate Course in 2006. Before joining the ChI staff in 2010, Lauren served for eight years, as a staff chaplain at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco. From there, she moved to a corporate environment, where she custom-designed employee programs for multi-national companies committed to sustainability and culture change. As part of her evolving call and commitment to “eco-chaplaincy”, Lauren served as Executive Director for Green Sangha (a non-profit dedicated to spiritually-engaged environmental activism) from 2004-2006; and in 2008, founded Fair Trade Berkeley, a grassroots committee, whose dedication helped make Berkeley,CA the 19th Fair Trade Town in the U.S. She is featured in Renewal, an award-winning documentary, celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists in groups from diverse faith traditions across America; and authored the chapter, “Way of the Eco-Chaplain,” in a book of collected works, Ways of the Spirit: Voices of Women. Lauren loves to bicycle and, in May, 2015 she rode across her home state of Nebraska to raise 11K on behalf of climate change awareness efforts happening there. Lauren holds BFA and MA degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (1994), and Naropa University (1999).

Read Lauren’s Articles

Susie Idzik is The Chaplaincy Institute’s (ChI) Interim Academic Dean. Over the past six years, Susie has worked at The Chaplaincy Institute as the Director of Operations and in other positions. She received her Certificate in Interfaith Spiritual Direction from The Chaplaincy Institute in 2010 and has an active private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Susie is a Unitarian Universalist and has worked in churches and religious organizations for well over twenty years. She is currently serving as the Interim Director of Religious Education at the First Unitarian Church of San Jose. To the position of Interim Academic Dean, Susie brings a passion for the work of The Chaplaincy Institute, a deep familiarity of the formation process of both ordained clergy and Spiritual Directors, and clear understanding of organizational change and transformation.

Katrina started her worklife in Expressive Therapies, with a focus on movement forms. As a psychotherapist, she used expressive arts for healing childhood trauma and abuse. Over time, her spiritual focus became primary, so she was ordained at The Chaplaincy Institute in March 2012, and later certified as a Spiritual Director. Raised as a Baha’i, and later diving into shamanism, she particularly loves working with people who are “non-affiliated,” spiritual-but-not-religious, agnostic or atheist. At The Chaplaincy Institute, she is joyfully overseeing the Arts for Awakening curriculum, and envisioning new forms for transformational creativity.

Andy is The Chaplaincy Institute’s (ChI) Minister of Finance. He came to ChI on a personal journey to reclaim the forgotten sacrality of money. Andy is building a practice as a Chaplain of Administry which is all about helping businesses and non-profits rethink their relationship to finance as a way to more effectively live their mission. Andy is an ordained interfaith minister through ChI and is currently pursuing dual ordination with the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Cecily Knepprath is The Chaplaincy Institute’s (ChI) Program Coordinator. She brings more than 25 years of experience working in nonprofits, higher education and human service organizations with a focus in operations and database administration. Most recently, Cecily led the development operations team scattered around the world for Room to Read, an international NGO with a mission of educating children. Cecily’s curiosity about metaphysics, led to her to teaching psychic development classes for the Institute of Noetic Sciences’ community group in Tucson and where she facilitated a support group for mothers who have lost children due to suicide and accidents. Cecily’s educational background includes a BA in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and is currently an interfaith studies student at ChI. Cecily delights in traveling, spending time out in nature and on adventures with her young grandchildren and family who live nearby.

Lisa Winston is The Chaplaincy Institute’s (ChI) Marketing and Communications Manager. She holds an AAS Degree in Graphic Arts and Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology, and is an award-winning, published photographer practicing Zen contemplative photography. Lisa’s work-life experience includes six years as a Senior Account Executive with two advertising agencies, launching internal public relations departments.  She went on to run her own Marketing Communications & Event consulting firm for over 15 years advising global brands and non-profits. A near-death-experience (NDE) opened her up to a new way of “seeing.” Lisa then took a deep dive into spiritual studies including Nine Gates Mystery School, Kabbalah, Spiritual Psychology, and the Aghor Yoga tradition. She holds certificates in Usui Reiki, BTB Feng Shui and Spiritual Psychology. Lisa received her Interfaith Ordination through CHI where she is now studying Spiritual Direction. She co-leads Sisters-of-Spirit™ Healing-Photography Retreats for women in Hawaii, and is a member of the International Association of Near Death Studies (IANDS) and will be presenting at its 2019 annual conference.

The Reverend Ineda P. Adesanya, M.A., M.Div., DASD is The Chaplaincy Institute’s President and CEO of the Board of Directors. Reverend Ineda is an ordained American Baptist minister and spiritual director. Her divine call is to make the world better by using her spiritual gifts to help others live more abundantly and to experience truth, joy and justice by surrendering all to the Spirit. Rev. Adesanya’s theology of ministry seeks to assist Christians to lift themselves up through knowledge, encouragement, and spiritual guidance. With an inner conviction that spirituality and justice go hand-in-hand, the goal of her ministry is to communicate the ideals of the faith, enabling Christians to mature and become confident disciples, spiritually healthy, able and willing to follow Christ in providing and advocating for those who are oppressed and marginalized.

Rev. Adesanya received both her Master of Divinity with concentration in Christian Spirituality, and her Diploma in the Art of Spiritual Direction from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California. She earned a Master of Arts in Religion and Psychology from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California where she is currently earning a PhD in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion. Rev. Adesanya holds a BA in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and worked as a land-use planner, facilities professional, and construction industry executive for twenty-five years. She serves as a pastoral counselor for the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.As Minister of Spiritual Life for the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California, Rev. Adesanya provides individual and small group spiritual direction, leads contemplative retreats, teaches seminars and short courses on various aspects of Christian spirituality, hosts and facilitates the quarterly Spirituality and Hermeneutics Forum, and authors a weekly column/blog entitled “Spiritual Life Note” for the congregation and community. She is a contributing author Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Stories of Contemplation and Justice both by Morehouse Publishing.Rev. Adesanya is founder and proprietor of WJoy – A Spiritual Care Ministry providing spiritual direction and care for faith-based institutions, clergy and lay members of the community at-large.

Don uses a mix of business development skills, strategic management, and daily practices to assist people and organizations to bring more simplicity into their lives. The result is a reduction of the daily struggles that block profitability, effectiveness, and enjoyment.

Don has served as an Executive Director in 3 social service nonprofit organizations, one of which tripled in size over 5 years employing over 400 people, and serving thousands of families in 6 San Francisco Bay Area counties.

Don’s commitment is to build the daily practices, capacity, and resiliency of people and organizations to more naturally thrive through times of growth and change. His unusual mix of senior management experience, spiritual leadership roles, and personal mindfulness practices of over 20 years, gives him special skills to partner with leaders to evolve their organizations into greater effectiveness and profitability.

He has served as an ordained minister in both Unity and the Centers for Spiritual Living. He is a certified counselor and coach with extensive experience speaking, teaching, and facilitating retreats. He has served in interim senior director roles creating effective transitions for several organizations.

Don presently works with Simplicity Partners, A consultancy applying the principles of simplicity to bring increased effectiveness, profitability, and ease into the workplace and personal life.

Rev. Jennifer Bernstein was ordained an Interfaith Minister by The ChI Community in 2014, and received her certificate from ChI as a Spiritual Director in 2017.

Jennifer has been the Campus Volunteer & Guest Relations Manager at Guide Dogs for the Blind for over 16 years. She is currently creating the field of Veterinary Chaplaincy, offering pastoral care to people who are dealing with end-of-life issues for their companion or service animals. Jennifer also volunteers at Halleck Creek Riding Club, a facility that offers equine therapy to people on the autism spectrum and with other cognitive differences.

Jennifer lives in Petaluma with her daughter and their animals.

Marcus is an experienced communication and storytelling professional having received education and training from award winning public speaking programs at Los Angeles Valley College, California State University, Long Beach, and Illinois State University.

Marcus joins us after 11 years of applying his ever-growing knowledge about communications and storytelling to help various schools, universities, businesses, and individual professionals achieve success in their communication endeavors.

Having been raised by a friend’s warm-welcoming family, Marcus learned the importance of inclusion, humility, and charity early on. It was this foundation that helped him to excel in communications giving rise to a need to bridge learning and understanding of differences with those he worked with throughout the years. He understands without great communication an interfaith community cannot exist. He is excited to be with us and contribute to the ongoing conversation about transforming the world for the better.