Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra is the Academic Dean for Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is the co-author of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World and Buried Seeds: Learning from the Resilience of Vibrant Marginalized Christian Communities, and as part of a team, God’s Resistance: Mobilizing Faith to Defend Immigrants.

She is a Lutheran Pastor with over 40 years of experience in congregational (English and Spanish) and community ministry, including church-based service and community development programs, congregational/community organizing and legislative advocacy. 

Dr. Salvatierra is a consultant for a variety of organizations, including World Vision, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and the Christian Community Development Association. She has been a national leader in the areas of working poverty and immigration for over 25 years and has founded multiple programs and organizations both in the US and overseas. These included a gang prevention program for at-risk immigrant youth, a community computer center, and an intergenerational community garden where the elderly taught at-risk youth to grow produce for sale as well as a collaborative of UC students, homeless leaders, and congregation members providing emergency services in the streets of Santa Cruz and the migrant farmworker camps in Watsonville. In the Philippines, she trained urban poor women in Manila to serve as chaplains to their neighbors. 

Rev. Dr. James Choung serves as Vice President of Strategy & Innovation — overseeing evangelism, discipleship & leadership development, planting, global engagement & justice, multiethnic initiatives, and the Creative Labs — at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA.

He is ordained through a local Vineyard USA church, and has written three books — the latest being a co-written book titled Longing for Revival. He speaks frequently and consults at campuses, churches, seminaries, and conferences, and most recently taught a doctoral course on evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary. His work has been featured in Christianity Today, Leadership Journal, Outreach Magazine, Seminary Now, and exploregod.com.

James wrote his D. Min. dissertation on postmodern leadership development also at Fuller Theological Seminary, received his M. Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and studied management science and marketing at MIT. He has previously served on the pastoral staff of a Boston-area urban church plant, of a megachurch in Seoul, and led an LA-adjacent house church. As for other interests, he has led worship at various national conferences including the Urbana Student Missions Conference, and serves on boards for higher education and overseas for-profit and non-profit startups.

For fun, he likes to travel with his wife, laugh with his two sons, spoil his daughter, bask in Los Angeles’ endless summer, and swing a racket in hopes of playing something like tennis.

Dr. Charles A. Montgomery, Jr serves as the Associations Strategic Coordinator for Vineyard USA and Teaching Pastor at Vineyard Columbus.

Charles also founded a successful multiethnic Campus (Vineyard Columbus East) and has pastored there since 2012. His passion is to develop Beloved Communities as espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, an alumnus of Charles’ alma mater, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Charles has a B.A. in Mathematics from Morehouse, a Master of Divinity from Emory University (Ga) and a PhD in Ethical and Creative Leadership from Union Institute University (OH).

He has earned several credentials in Diversity Training and is a Certified Spiritual Director through the Sustainable School of Faith.

He considers his greatest accomplishment (ok, grace) being married to his childhood crush, Kimberly. Charles and Kimberly are avid Buckeye fans (Go Bucks!) and make their home in Columbus Ohio.

Jay Pathak is the National Director of Vineyard USA, starting in January 2022. He also serves as the Lead Pastor of the Mile High Vineyard, a family of neighborhood churches in Denver, that he, Danielle and a small team planted in 2001.

Jay co-wrote the book, The Art of Neighboring, with Dave Runyon. His passion for sharing his faith with the people around him is at the center of his calling. He is a humble, empowering leader who is passionate about raising up leaders around him. His strengths, in particular, lie in strategically placing people on teams where they thrive. Additionally, he regularly thinks of ministry in context of culture and developing relationships and partnerships in the city, government, and across denominational lines.

Jay has lead in various contexts throughout the Vineyard starting as an intern for Rich Nathan at the Columbus Vineyard in his early ministry days, and stretching into various positions of translocal leadership including serving on the Vineyard USA Executive Team for many years. He is a sought after speaker and coach, while keeping strong ties to the local community.

Jay has a BA in Philosophy from The Ohio State University and is a graduate of the Vineyard Leadership Institute.

Rev. Dr. Catherine Gilliard currently serves as Superintendent of the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Southeast Conference.

She was the first African American woman to serve as an ECC superintendent, the first black president of the Covenant ministerium, the first African American to serve as chair of the Covenant’s Executive Board, the highest governing body of the denomination, the first black president of the Association for Covenant Clergy Women (ACCW) and the first woman to serve as president of the African American Ministers Association. Gilliard was also the first black woman church planter in the Covenant. She has served as the only black member of many of the denomination’s leadership boards and associations. In her last pastorate, she served as co-pastor of New Life Covenant Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

Gilliard holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Kansas School of Architecture, and an MDiv and DMin from North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. She holds certification in Enneagram and Marriage, is an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Qualified Assessor, a COACH Model ministry coach and adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary.

She and her husband, Deric, have lived in the metro-Atlanta area for over forty years and have four adult children.

Debby Wright, together with her husband John, lead Vineyard Churches UK & Ireland and are the founding pastors of Trent Vineyard church in Nottingham UK, which they started in 1996.

Debby lived in Chile until she was 14, with earthquakes and military coups most days! Upon returning to England, Debby trained as a dancer and artist and married John. She was part of St Andrew’s Chorleywood where she first encountered John Wimber and later trained under him at the Anaheim Vineyard. 

John and Debby helped start the first Vineyard in Europe and have been serving together in pastoral ministry for more than 30 years. She has two sons, two fabulous daughters-in-law, and three beautiful grandsons.