KEYNOTE SPEAKER SERIES
The Tahoe Resident Leadership Speaker series brings Christian leaders from across the country to speak into the lives of our residents. The goal is to highlight different journeys and experiences from various leaders and what common themes they have in their lives.
Shannon Sedgwick Davis
CEO
Bridgeway Foundation
BIO
Shannon Sedgwick Davis is the CEO of Bridgeway Foundation (http://www.bridgewayfoundation.org/leadership/) a philanthropic organization dedicated to ending and preventing mass atrocities around the world. As an attorney, activist, and passionate advocate for social justice, Ms. Sedgwick Davis has guided Bridgeway Foundation in pioneering solutions to these seemingly intractable issues. More recently, Ms. Sedgwick Davis and the Bridgeway Foundation have been credited for their pivotal role in mobilizing awareness, civilian protection, and recovery efforts against the Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony, the first-ever indictee of the International Criminal Court.
In 2015, she received the Global Human Rights Hero award from Saving Innocence. In 2019, Sedgwick Davis received the distinguished Navy SEAL “Fire in the Gut” Award, and in the same year she was honored at the UNITAS gala. In 2020, Sedgwick Davis delivered the keynote at the Global Girls Summit, where she received their Globally Awesome Girl award
Prior to joining Bridgeway Foundation in 2007, Ms. Sedgwick Davis served as Vice President of Geneva Global, and was the Director of Public Affairs at the International Justice Mission (IJM).
Bob Plouffe
Executive Director
Joshua Wilderness Institute
BIO
Bob was born and raised in central Massachusetts, just east of our Hume New England campus. After high school, he left for the United States Air Force where he served a 25-year career spanning many states and career opportunities. After retiring from military life, Bob sensed a calling into full-time ministry. This calling brought him and his family to Hume Lake where he joined the team in the summer of 2003. Over the span of his Hume Lake career, Bob held such positions as Grant Writer, Development Manager, Marketing Director, and finally Human Resources Director where he served since 2008. He joined the Joshua Wilderness Institute team in 2016. He understands and respects the roots of the program and loves to walk alongside students who are willing to serve Jesus.
Krista Back
Co-founder
BuilderChicks
BIO
Krista went a very different route to entrepreneurship and got a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Marketing. Loving the blend of creativity and understanding people, she pursued Marketing and First Impressions, focusing on bringing visions and dreams to reality for over 10 years. After several years, she also got two Masters degrees in Business Administration and Leadership.
We believe that men and women have unique views and perspectives on every project. – Both are valuable and useful! But, the reality is that there are very few women in the building industry (between 1-2%), so we love the chance to highlight the unique perspective that we offer to projects because we’re women!
Dave Alford
Director Saddleback Church
Leadership Academy
BIO
Dave Alford Is Pastor of Leadership Development at Saddleback Church where his team oversees small groups, next steps, interns, and ministries to men, women, and singles. Dave’s background includes experience in business, pastoral ministry, and higher education. He worked as an investment consultant for Mercer Consulting assisting large corporations, public entities, and foundations with their investment strategies. He served for 10 years as executive pastor and lead pastor at churches in the San Fernando Valley in Southern California helping them transition out of financial challenges and into a renewed vision for mission. He served for 12 years at Vanguard University first as Vice President for Business and Finance, and later as Dean of the School of Business and Management. Dave also writes, coaches, and speaks about leadership. Dave has a Bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, an MBA from USC, and a doctorate from Pepperdine University. Dave and his wife, Molly, live in Irvine. They have three adult children.
Joshua Symonette
Campus Pastor
National Community Church Kingstowne
BIO
Joshua is a self-driven entrepreneur and self-starter who is enthusiastic about building people and helping organizations grow. His networking skills have enabled him to open doors to opportunities from various industries. Josh is a creative person who can adapt to any situation that he encounters.. He gave his time to work with young people as a role model to show them what can result from hard work and character.
Donna Farrell
Chaplain
Restorative Justice Program Facilitator
BIO
Donna is an ordained Deacon in the California-Nevada Annual Conference. She most recently served as a pastor at the Church of the Mountains, Truckee United Methodist Church. She will begin a new appointment, starting in July 2020, at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center. Donna has been a pharmacist most of her life, working primarily in hospitals since 1983.
Her desire to serve in ministry came from serving the sick and dying through her work as a Hospice Pharmacist in the early 2000’s. Her background as a critical care pharmacist has segued into following her passion for providing care to those that are suffering from spiritual disease and distress. Following her call to ministry, she attended Claremont School of Theology where she obtained her Master of Divinity degree, with an emphasis in Interfaith Chaplaincy. Four units of Clinical Pastoral Education brought her to the streets of the Tenderloin in San Francisco, the oncology unit of Sutter Roseville Medical Center, and the maximum and minimum yards of the California State Prison – Sacramento. This training has led her to Board Certification as a Clinical Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor through the Center for Spiritual Care and Pastoral Formation.
Donna’s interest in prison came during her first year in seminary when she visited a restorative justice program at San Quentin State Prison. It was during this visit that she decided to pursue restorative justice programming facilitation as her way to make change in the United State’s broken system of mass incarceration. She has been a Spiritual Leader for a Kairos weekend at Dublin FCI – a women’s prison – as well as a sponsor for Kairos and Celebrate Life worship services at Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) in Carson City, Nevada. She currently facilitates Houses of Healing, a restorative justice program, at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center. She also spends time in the Hospice Unit at NNCC as a volunteer chaplain and spiritual leader and grief processor to the inmate volunteers caring for the inmate hospice patients. Donna’s passion for prison work includes raising awareness regarding the school-to-prison pipeline that leads to the overwhelmingly disproportionate incarceration of people of color. Donna brings passion and a grass-roots volunteer spirit to the prison system in hopes of “releasing the captives” through deep listening, restorative justice programming, and spiritual practices.
Craig Lomax
Leadership Coach and Emotioneer
BIO
Before graduating from college Craig co-founded an adventure camp called Rock-N-Water. He developed and directed this for-profit corporation that served over 100,000 guests with the help of more than 300 employees between 1989 and its sale in 2018. There were no known models similar to this camp at start-up and there are very few in the country today. Rock-N-Water led the camping industry for customer reviews averaging 4.9 of 5 stars, had no fatalities, liability claims or debt. Integral to these accomplishments was the consistency of the camp’s highly reputed staff.
As this organization grew from a small business into a significant organization, Craig also grew, developing skills in program development, business administration, leadership, management, training, communications, human resources, marketing, and long-term vision.
Melissa Holland
Founder and CEO
AWAKEN
BIO
Melissa Holland serves as the Founder and Director of Awaken. She holds a Master’s degree in Marriage Family Therapy from the University of Nevada, Reno. Melissa started as a counselor offering pro bono services to women affected by commercial sexual exploitation. In 2011 she and Jen Robinson co-founded Awaken, a nonprofit whose mission is to increase awareness and education surrounding the issue of commercial sexual exploitation and to provide housing and restoration for its victims. Melissa believes strongly in responding to God’s call to seek justice for the oppressed and is passionate about uniting local churches and the NV community in the fight to end the sexual exploitation of women and children.
Marta Hammond
Speaker
BIO
Marta Hammond is an on-fire for the LORD Christian who has been walking with Jesus and studying the Bible intently for over 20 years. Marta was raised in an agnostic/atheist home which gave her the freedom to find and define her own spirituality. Beginning at a young age, Marta began a search for greater meaning, which took her through all sorts of religions and spiritual practices including New Ageism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and others. She traveled the world seeking to find the truth. While living in Australia and practicing as a Psychologist, she was introduced to Jesus by a dear friend. Full surrender to Jesus as the LORD of her life happened a few years later and that was when the real miracles began to unfold. Today, Marta is a mother of two, wife of a firefighter and works as an Occupational Therapist. Her personal mission is to love Jesus and follow Him in all she does.
Andrew DeCort
Speaker
BIO
Dr. Andrew DeCort is the founder of the Neighbor-Love Movement. Andrew holds a PhD in Religious and Political Ethics from the University of Chicago. He has served as a lecturer in Ethics at Wheaton College (USA), the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (Ethiopia), and the University of Bonn (Germany). Andrew is passionate about sacred presence, rigorous learning, and practical service. He is married to Lily Atlaw DeCort and the author of Bonhoeffer’s New Beginning: Ethics after Devastation (Fortress Academic, 2018).
Lisa Birle
Speaker
BIO
Lisa Birle grew up in Lake Forest, California and has served on multiple teams at Saddleback Church for over 15 years including college ministry and small groups. Currently, Lisa is the Intern Program Minister, overseeing Saddleback’s internship program across nineteen campuses. She is grateful to be able to pour into college students as she was poured into as a new believer in her 20s and has been serving students for 20 years. Her passion is to equip students for the ministry and leadership God has called them to, and to help churches develop effective internship and residency programs. Lisa has a BFA in art history from the University of California–Irvine and a Master of Theological Studies from Gateway Baptist Theological Seminary.
Dave
Director of Graduate Studies at Jessup University
BIO
Dave is originally from California and has studied and worked in over 25 countries, most recently as a pastor and starting churches for almost seven years in New Zealand. In addition to ministry, Dave has worked in Christian higher education since 2001, completing an Ed.D. in Innovation and Leadership from University of the Pacific. Dave is passionate about developing future leaders. Dave is passionate about developing future leaders. His areas of research and expertise include leadership stress resilience and leading innovation. Dave serves on several non-profit boards and as the former Dean of Students and is now a full-time faculty member and Director of Graduate Studies at Jessup.
Dave loves his wife Melissa and their four children, Noah, Corban, Hope, and Halee. He also enjoys being outdoors on the water and in the mountains, reading, traveling, pursuing Jesus, and loving His Church.