UPCOMING COURSES & HAPPENINGS

Open House and Info Session

December 6 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Leadership and Ministry

December 9 @ 9:00 am - December 11 @ 5:00 pm

STAFF

Rev. Andrew Chirch, MDIV

Executive Director
Email: andrew(at)chaplaincyinstitute.org
Phone: (510) 843-1422

Andrew lives in Tucson, Arizona in the embrace of the Santa Catalina / Babad Do’ag mountains. After a first career in banking, investing, and finance, Andrew graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry and The Chaplaincy Institute in 2019. He now Chaplains both individuals and organizations like The Chaplaincy Institute.

His children are all adults or nearly so, and he’s proud to call ChI his spiritual community. Andrew feels deeply called to cultivate organizational health and wholeness and is excited about the role that organizations can play in the healing the world needs.

Rev. Kari Kopnick

Community Minister
Email: kari(at)chaplaincyinstitute.org

Rev. Kari lives just south of Seattle and is a graduate of both ChI’s Chaplaincy Program and Interfaith Spiritual Direction program. Kari has worked in congregational ministry and faith-based organizations for 15 years in several different roles, including religious education, communications, membership, and community life. She enjoys gardening, writing, and spending time in nature. 

Rev. Katrina Leathers, MA

Dean of Students & Enrollment
Email: katrina(at)chaplaincyinstitute.org
Phone: (510) 843-1422

Website

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.

Shae Green, MPA

Administrative Specialist
Email: shae(at)chaplaincyinstitute.org

Shae has begun her journey with ChI in taking on the role of the Administrative Specialist. She has earned both her Undergraduate degree in Organizational Management and her Master’s in Public Administration. Her professional experience consists of work in both the private and not for profit sectors. Shae’s previous work experience ranges from having been an Administrative Coordinator (Sr.), to utilizing her education and knowledge of government and non-profit systems as a Program Consultant, to having been a Program/Project Coordinator and grant lead. Shae feels called to serve others utilizing known and developing gifts, and brings with her an array of experience, a heart to show the world around her love through kindness and service, and the desire to work to provide a quality experience to all of those who are in some way or another a part of ChI’s vast community.

Rev. Lauren Van Ham, M

A

Lead Consultant & Past Seminary Dean, Interfaith Studies and Spiritual Direction Faculty
Email: lauren(at)laurenvanham.com
Phone: (510) 843-1422
LinkedIn Profile

Raised under the big sky of the Midwest prairie, Rev. Lauren Van Ham, M.A., began her professional life as a performing artist in NYC before pursuing interfaith seminary studies in California. She served, for 9 years, as a hospital chaplain focusing in psychiatry, palliative care, and bereavement support. Moved by spirituality and ecology, Lauren’s ministry called her to a consulting firm where she custom-designed employee engagement sustainability programs for multi-national corporations. For nearly a decade, she served as Seminary Dean for the Chaplaincy Institute, and interfaith seminary and community. Lauren’s passion for spirituality, art and Earth’s teachings have supported her specialization in eco-ministry, grief & loss, and sacred activism. Her essay, “Way of the Eco-Chaplain,” appears in a collection of women’s work; and her work with Green Sangha is featured in Renewal, a documentary celebrating the efforts of religious environmental activists from diverse faith traditions across America. She is a guest writer for “Progressing Spirit.” Lauren holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Naropa University. Currently, Lauren serves as Climate Action Coordinator for URI (the United Religions Initiative). She is a spiritual director and guest faculty for several schools in the Bay Area.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Rev. Bonnie Lange

Board of Directors, President
Email: bonniep357(at)gmail.com

Becoming an Interfaith Minister and Chaplain is Bonnie’s encore career. Her
focus is to serve as a compassionate companion for those facing challenges,
particularly related to the end of life. Her current ministry includes volunteering
in various roles for Hospice of Santa Cruz County and leading the pastoral care
team and prayer ministry for Peace United Church of Christ in Santa Cruz, CA.
Bonnie arrived at ChI aer four previous careers and a brief retirement. Her
spiritual homes have been United Church of Christ (current), Unity (25 years), and
Lutheran (childhood) faith traditions. She is also a certified coach for Gallup
Strengths Finder and HeartMath.

Rev. Kara Rosseaux

Board of Directors, Secretary

Email: krosseaux (at)gmail.com

Rev. Kara was ordained in 2016 by The Chaplaincy Institute and serves on the ChI Board of Trustees. Her ministry has included serving in a post-incarceration men’s sober living community, as an airport chaplain, and an officiant at funerals for those who identified as spiritual, though not religious. Kara works for a national engineering and consulting firm in human resources, and makes her home in Gold Canyon, Arizona, located at the base of the Superstition Mountains.

Don Morgan

Board of Directors

Email: donontam(at)gmail.com

Phone: (510) 843-1422

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.

Marcus Hill

Board of Directors
Email: marcus.r.hill(at)gmail.com
Phone: (510) 843-1422

LinkedIn Profile

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.

Rev. Andrew Gregg

Board of Directors
Email: aandrew.gregg@gmail.com

The Rev Andrew Gregg is a staff chaplain at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, VT, serving the emergency department, COVID-19 medicine unit, and Ethics Committee. Rev Gregg completed the Chaplaincy Institute’s Interfaith Chaplaincy Program in 2021 and was subsequently ordained by the community to interfaith chaplaincy and eco-ministry. An alumnus of Yale Divinity School, he completed Mayo Clinic’s chaplain residency program in the fall of 2022. Rev Gregg serves on the Chaplaincy Institute’s Board of Directors and the Winooski Valley Park District Board of Trustees.

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