Meet the Team
Jessica
Uhl
Coordination Team Lead
San Francisco, California
Joel
Aguilar
Director of Fellowship Programs
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Joel
Van Dyke
Network Development
Wyoming, Michigan
Kris
Rocke
Executive Director and Director of Seminary
Tacoma, Washington
Lina
Thompson
Preaching Peace Initiative
Seattle, Washington
Nic
Hughes
Director of Operations and Design Studio
Portland, Oregon
Sarah
Moore
Senior Fellow for Applied Research
Tacoma, Washington
James
Alison
Senior Fellow for Theological Formation
Spain
Elizabeth
Hirschl
Metrics and Evaluation Team
Tacoma, Washington
Justin
Mootz
Lectionary Resource Team
Tacoma Washington
Lana
Rocke
Administrative Support
Tacoma, Washington
Lyle
Enright
Street Psalms Press Team
Painesville, Ohio
Olivia
Sherry
Lectionary Resource and Coordination Team
Seattle, Washington
The Street Psalms Community is a dispersed communion of Christ-centered leaders who see and celebrate good news in hard places. Enlivened by this gift, we are ordained to develop incarnational leaders according to the shape of our particular call and context. We do so as urban peacemakers and participants of Street Psalms’s mission.
We are called to nurture life-giving perspectives and practices guided by SP’s Incarnational Framework that sustains those who live and breathe good news in hard places. As witnesses of the Incarnation of Jesus, we seek peace and the underlying unity of all things – within the rich and sometimes challenging diversity of our own Community, as well as the diversity of our urban contexts. We are urban peacemakers who form and shape urban peacemakers in the power of the Incarnation. The Community is made up broadly of a network of friendships among women and men who profess to the way of life of Street Psalms:
Preston
Adams
Gang Affected/System Affected Youth Specialist
Denver, Colorado
Annette
Aguilar
Ordained
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Joel
Aguilar
Director of Fellowship Programs, Street Psalms
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Kieawnie
Clar
Ordained
San Rafael, California
Scott
Dewey
Director of Communications, Mile High Ministries
Denver, Colorado
Kendall
Dooley
Co-founder, BLK South
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Josh
Erickson
Director of Operations, Church at the Park
Salem, Oregon
Hultner
Estrada
Ordained
Managua, Nicaragua
Abhishek
Gier
Director, Catalyst Foundation
NEW DELHI, INDIA
Angelika
Gier
Hub Director, Catalyst Foundation
NEW DELHI, INDIA
Dwayne
Hilty
Director of Church as Neighborhood, Salem Leadership Foundation
SALEM, OREGON
Susan
Hudacek
Volunteer Coordination, L’Arche Tahoma Hope
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Kristy
Humphreys
Program Operations Manager, World Vision
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Jeff
Johnsen
Executive Director, Mile High Ministries
DENVER, COLORADO
Fred
Laceda
Professor of Contextual Theology, Penuel School of Theology
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Jessica
Louwerse
Co-Director, Anchorage Urban Training Collaborative
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
Josh
Louwerse
Senior Program Officer, Covenant House Alaska
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
Miriam
Medina Macias
Hub Director and Family Advocate, Mile High Ministries
DENVER, COLORADO
Linda
Martindale
Director, Third Way Communications
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Jimy
Martinez
Lead Pastor, Neighborhood Ministries
PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Mario
Matos
Executive Director, Center for Transforming Mission Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Tim
Merrill
Founder, Watu Moja, and Community Pastor
CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY
Gideon
Ochieng
Executive Director, Center For Transforming Mission Kenya
NAIROBI, KENYA
Esau
Oreso
Hub Director, Center For Transforming Mission Kenya
NAIROBI, KENYA
Ruben
Ortiz
Director of National Programs, Nueva Esperanza
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Paul
Patu
Co-Founder, Urban Family
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Kurt
Rietema
Senior Director, Youth Front
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS
Kris
Rocke
Executive Director, Street Psalms
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Lana
Rocke
Critical Care Nurse and Administrative Support, Street Psalms
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Ron
Ruthruff
Assoc. Professor of Theology and Culture, Seattle School of Theology and Psychology
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Jenna
Smith
Head of Outreach and Engagement, Christian Direction
MONTRÉAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
Lina
Thompson
Senior Pastor, Lake Burien Presbyterian Church
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Patricia
Thompson
Executive Director, YES Foundation
WHITE CENTER, WASHINGTON
Joel
Van Dyke
Co-Pastor, Lee Street Christian Reformed Church
WYOMING, MICHIGAN
DJ
Vincent
Executive Director, Church at the Park
SALEM, OREGON
Jacynthe
Vaillancourt
Ministries Advancement Leader, Christian Direction
MONTRÉAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
Kenneth
Wallace Jr.
Ethnodoxologist and Worship Professor
LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA
Irene
Wanjiru
Head of High of Hope, Center For Transforming Mission Kenya
NAIROBI, KENYA
Chris
Williams
Hub Director, Neighborhood Ministries
PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Kristy
Roberts Farber
Board Chair
Pastor, Mercer Island Presbyterian Church
Mandla
Kaunda
Treasurer – Board Member
Tax Manager, Deloitte
Doug
Hostetter
Secretary – Board Member
Director of Photography
Marti
Little
Board Member
Staff Attorney, Support Center for Child Advocates
Jacob
Moody
Board Member
Chief Information Officer, Bargreen Ellingson
Pat
Thompson
Board Member
Executive Director & Co-Founder, YES! Foundation
Mario
Matos
Board Member
Founding Director, CTM Dominican Republic
DJ
Vincent
Board Member
Executive Director, Church @ the Park
Since our inception in 1998, Street Psalms has formed more than 3,000 grassroots leaders through a highly inductive and experiential formational journey. Since 2019 we have offered more than 100 paid fellowships as well many more unpaid fellowships. These fellows represent a wide variety of vocations including organizational leaders, congregational leaders, community organizers, activists, teachers and preachers, as well as community health specialists of all kinds. All Fellows are committed to cultivating communities in mission with ways of seeing, doing and being that free them to create cities of peace for all people.
Rev. Alicia R. Forde resides in Boulder, Colorado, with her partner and a thriving collection of plants on the ancestral lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples. An ordained Unitarian Universalist (UU) minister, she offers spiritual care and accompaniment as Director of the New Communities Fund at the UU Association and as Director of Formation with the Texas Methodist Foundation. She says, “My connection with Street Psalms has deepened my exploration of Love and Forgiveness as transformative forces for breaking cycles of violence. This has been a challenging, yet profoundly meaningful journey.”
Brian Ammons is a Spiritual Director and Chaplain who lives with their partner in work and life, splitting time between Asheville, North Carolina, and Belfast, Northern Ireland. Together they lead The Porch, an organization dedicated to transformative storytelling. Brian calls Street Psalms “a lifeline where I am both supported and challenged to hold core principles that counterbalance the tribalistic rhetoric of ‘us vs. them’ I encounter in so much of my daily life and practice.”
Drew Peterson lives in Spokane, Washington, with his wife and two daughters. He pastors Knox Presbyterian Church, and serves as the Land Stewardship Guide for the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest. Since joining the Street Psalms network, he says, “I am increasingly convinced that seeing others the way God sees us, however fundamentally different we may appear, provides a hopeful expectation of the new thing God is doing in each one of us.
Habib Bako lives in Rockville, Maryland, with his family. Surrounded by inspiring colleagues and friends, he works at the intersection of advocacy, innovation, and community engagement, focusing on systemic change. He experiences his work with the most vulnerable as a spiral of deep reflection, discernment, interconnectedness, and continuous growth. “Through Street Psalms,” he says, “I have started asking, ‘How do we build communities of belonging in spaces shaped by urgency and rivalry?’ This question challenges me to listen more deeply, act with integrity and love, and remain open to transformation.”
Kathryn Kong lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Kathryn provides trauma-informed therapy, with a particular focus on religious trauma and Asian-American mental health. Through the Street Psalms community, she has “found a welcoming space to explore questions of faith, justice, and belonging.”
Shabrae Jackson lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, with her teenage son. Her primary calling is through her work at Collective Tapestry, accompanying community leaders to incorporate the arts in their contexts to increase connection and a culture of care. In her words, “Street Psalms has created a space for me to not have complete solutions but instead to wrestle with the mystery and the sometimes-incomplete in community with others."
Victor Conrado lives in New York City with his wife and their two sons. He serves as a Canon for New York City and the Director of Congregational Development in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, engaging congregations across Manhattan, the Bronx, Harlem, and Staten Island. “Through Street Psalms,” he says, “I have deepened my understanding of God's preferential option for the poor, finding space to listen to those often unheard in our communities. This work allows me to walk alongside them, exploring what it means to follow Jesus in sacred and complex urban spaces.”