Board

Trained as an immunocytochemist and a graduate of the University of Medicine and Dentistry NJ, Lisa spent 36 years as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, and currently serves as the Executive Presbyter for the Presbytery of Cincinnati. She also serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and as chair of Governance on several other Boards. Lisa is a certified facilitator and expert trainer for personal and team leadership skills, culture and motivation for teams, and strategic processes for innovative thinking and forward movement in projects. Integrity, creative strategies, cross-functional collaboration, people and organizational development, a passion for true leadership, and strong communication skills drive her passion to grow excellence in organizational relationships, cultural competence and influence. Her fun passions are gritty travel and photography, and visiting her daughters Meredith (clinical psychologist in Long Island) and Ashton (award-winning HS science teacher in North Carolina) and her family.

Rev. Annettra R. Jones is the senior pastor of Scott United Methodist Church in the historic Martindale-Brightwood community of Indianapolis. An alumna of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, she has served in leadership roles across the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church, including as associate director of Diversity, Missions, and Justice Ministries. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and certified intercultural development administrator, She brings deep experience in intercultural development, justice ministry, pastoral leadership and has a passion for helping individuals and communities move from trauma to transformation.

Rev. Dr. Andrew Pomerville is the 11th president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He worked previously as the founding director of the Center for College and Community Engagement at Alma College, as well as Alma’s Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement and Senior Chaplain. Dr. Pomerville was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 2007, serving as the senior pastor for The Peoples Church in East Lansing (MI) and pastor of Church in the Hills in Bellaire, MI. He is passionate advocate for ecumenical dialogue and cooperation and brings an enthusiasm for congregational revitalization.

Originally from Mexico, Javier arrived in Fort Wayne in 2007 and together with his wife founded Many Nations Church, a multiethnic congregation in the Mount Vernon Park Neighborhood. In 2012, Javier established Bridge of Grace Compassionate Ministries, a faith-based community development organization dedicated to building thriving and sustainable neighborhoods in southeast Fort Wayne. Mount Vernon Park has struggled with many of the same problems many older neighborhoods face. Over the past decade Bridge of Grace, has mobilized staff, volunteers, and their neighbors to serve, pray, work on clean-up projects, renovating and building new homes, tutoring, mentoring, testifying at public hearings, and constructing parks in vacant lots and most recently a health clinic and an early learning center.

Javier holds a Masters of Ministry and Leadership from Olivet Nazarene University, has served as Adjunct Professor of Community Development and Urban Ministries at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Ted Waggoner is a retired lawyer from Rochester Indiana. He is a noted speaker on legal issues including ethics, retirement planning, and estate planning and probate, for state and national legal organizations. Ted is also active in his church, at the local, regional and national manifestations. He has been general counsel for the Indiana Regional Church, (Disciples of Christ) and the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ. He served as a Vice-Moderator of the General Assembly for the Disciples.  Ted has been a founding member and past Chair of his local multi-county Community Foundation, founding Chair of the local Hospital Foundation, and member and Chair of the Christian Church Foundation. Ted and Nancy are the parents of two daughters and grandparents of seven grandchildren.

Rev. Dr. Lynn Jameson lives out her calling through preaching, teaching, and leading workshops centered on care, compassion, and community. With more than four decades of experience in business management, community service, and religious leadership, she bridges the worlds of corporate strategy and spiritual formation with grace and grit.

Her ministerial journey includes leadership in the United Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), where she is ordained and serves as an elder. Lynn is currently a Hospice Chaplain and Co-Founder of Cultivating Caring Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people build caring relationships and practice compassion in the communities where they live, work, and serve.

Rev. Michael Jefferson, II is an itinerant elder in the Indiana Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He serves as Secretary of the Indiana Annual Conference supporting the Bishop of Indiana’s 37 A.M.E. churches and Administrator of the South District, supporting the Presiding Elder of the 18 churches from Indianapolis to Jeffersonville. Michael is the former pastor of two Indiana A.M.E. Churches in Richmond and Plainfield, IN, respectively. In the secular arena, Michael is an energy policy advisor and former educator. A lifelong learner, Michael has several degrees, but is proud to be a Master of Divinity alumnus of Christian Theological Seminary, one of the Center for Congregations’ supporting institutions. Michael chairs the personnel committee of the Board of the Center for Congregations.

Dr. David M. Mellott is the president of Christian Theological Seminary. He has served as vice president for academic affairs, dean, and professor of theological formation at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. An ordained minister with the United Church of Christ, Dr. Mellott provides an especially unique perspective for the ecumenical Indianapolis campus; he grew up with roots in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Roman Catholic Church. He was originally ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1982.

Rev. Dr. Richard L. “Dick” Hamm served as a minister of congregations for 23 years, as regional minister of the Disciples of Christ in Tennessee, and as general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada from 1993-2003. He was the first executive director of Christian Churches Together in the USA, and has served as a vice president of the National Council of Churches and a member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee. Dick is an author and affiliate faculty member at Christian Theological Seminary. As a member of Central Christian Church, Indianapolis, he is active locally in Bread For The World.