2024 ACPE Leadership Election
ACPE 2024 Leadership Election
By Matt Rhodes, Chair, Leadership Development Committee
ACPE's annual election for the association's board of directors, commissions, and standing committees will be held from October 16 to October 30, 2024. Polls will be open from 3:00 pm Eastern on October 16th and close at 3:00 pm Eastern on October 30th. We will email the ballots via SimplyVoting.
Please take the time to review the slate of exceptional nominees who volunteered to serve in ACPE leadership. This year ACPE members will elect:
- Board Secretary/Treasurer
- three (3) Board Directors
- Accreditation Chair-elect
- four (4) Accreditation Commissioners
- one (1) Accreditation Public Member
- Certification Chair-elect
- five (5) Certification Commissioners
- Psychotherapy Chair-elect
- three (3) Psychotherapy Commissioners
- one (1) Finance Committee Member
- one (1) Leadership Development Committee Member
Voting Method
ACPE utilizes Ranked-choice Voting using the Borda Count method. ACPE members will rank the candidates in order of preference. Select One (1) for your first preference, Two (2) for your second preference, Three (3) for your third preference, etc.
The number of points given to candidates for each ranking is determined by the number of candidates in the question. Thus, if there are five candidates, then a candidate will receive five points each time they are ranked first, four for being ranked second, and so on, with a candidate receiving 1 point for being ranked last.
After counting all the votes and adding up points, the candidate(s) with the most points wins.
Important Dates
- Slate Published: October 10, 2024
- Polls Open: October 16, 2024
- Polls Close: October 30, 2024
- Election Results Published: November 11, 2024
- New Leadership Terms Begin: January 1, 2024
Inquiries
If you have questions about the election or candidates, please contact Matt Rhodes, Leadership Development Chair. If you have questions about the balloting software or election process, please contact Tiffany Kindred, Director of Communications.
Proposed Slate:
Board of Directors
Jonathan Ball
Secretary/Treasurer
Vision Statement
ACPE will help unify the field of spiritual health to provide the world with competent spiritual care providers.
Biography
Rev. Jonathan W. Ball is the Coordinator of Clinical Pastoral Education for Northside Hospital’s Spiritual Health and Education Services Department. Jonathan is an ACPE Certified Educator and an ordained Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister. He has led CPE groups in hospice, hospital, and Community Outreach settings. Jonathan found a professional home in ACPE and has sought to be a good colleague and citizen of the ACPE community. As a colleague, Jonathan has loved getting to know Educators and Candidates across the country and beyond. As a citizen of ACPE, Jonathan has sought to serve in various ways, utilizing his gifts in understanding finance and leadership to help guide the organization (regionally and nationally). Seeking congruence between the financial functioning of the association and the values the community holds is of prime importance to him. Along with his spouse Shannon, Jonathan is a parent of three growing boys and their dog Alice. He enjoys board games, camping, and kayaking.
Johnny Bush
Director
Vision Statement
ACPE is also a gift that keeps on giving: 1) to the development of competency in Spiritual Health and Ministry, 2) to the best care of the human spirit, 3) to underserved and suffering populations, and 4) to the empowering attention to profound loss and grief. As your representative, I believe I embody much of the hopes and dreams transferred to me through the years of our work together, and I would be honored on your behalf to continue to package and appropriate these gifts for our constituents and partners, our students and communities, and our supporters and donors.
Biography
Reverend Johnny C. Bush was certified as a CPE Educator in 2003. He trained in 3 of the former regions: Southeast, Northeast, and Eastern. He was directly supervised by Eugene Rollins, James Gunn, Hayden Howell, Joan Hemenway, Richard Bennick, John Swift, and Denise Haynes, but midwifed and cultivated by the ACPE Racial Ethnic and Multicultural (REM Network) Community of Practice; he was recently re-affirmed by its Steering Committee to lead as the Convenor for REM during this time of organizational transition coming out of COVID. His professional work has been sustained by his peers and colleagues of the Eastern Area CoP. Johnny was elected regionally and nationally as a Certification Commission Reviewer in former and current processes. He has worked with conference planning, leadership development, mentoring, and consulting with Educators/Programs and the movement of diversity and inclusion in ACPE. For more than 18 years, he worked with the Healthcare Chaplaincy Network in New York City, contracting in transitions for multiple healthcare institutions inclusive of but not limited to Beth Israel, NYU, Memorial Sloan Kettering, NY Queens Hospital, and Stamford, Bridgeport, and Hartford Hospitals. He also coordinated and supervised congregational CPE for the historic Riverside Church on the Upper Westside of New York City for ten years. He most recently served the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY, for eight years as Director for CPE and Spiritual Health. He is now contracted as Interim CPE Educator for Yale New Haven Health-St. Raphael Campus. Johnny relocated back to Columbia, SC, in the fall of last year upon the call to serve the local congregation that gave spiritual birth to him and to rejoin peers, colleagues, and a region that first saw and named possibilities in him. He will be both humbled and honored to serve the ACPE organization that has provided him meaning and vocation.
Robin Franklin
Director
Vision Statement
My hope (or vision) is that we can build on the work started by some hard-working people who engaged in lots of meetings, discussions, wrestling, and writing. I hope that more people in ACPE will feel heard and will also step up and participate, particularly our newly certified educators and people working to get certified. I know that many have said one reason they valued the regions was because they were the place where someone approached them about getting involved. We are in a post-region period, and new changes mean different approaches to getting the work done. I was asked a few months ago whether I would consider running for the Board. Maybe I was asked because I have already served in leadership, or that person believed I would be good at it. Whatever the reason this person approached me, I decided to take a risk. I do want to see ACPE thrive and move into the 21st century while holding on to the issues that we say are important – inclusion, collaboration, justice, clarity about our processes, and growth.
Biography
Rev. Robin Y. Franklin is the Director of Chaplaincy Services at the University of Rochester Medical Center and has worked in that position for 22 years. She earned her BA from the State University College at Buffalo and majored in Journalism. She attended the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where she earned an MDiv. She was ordained an itinerant elder with the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1997. On a less academic level, she took in a small black kitten whose home was a barn, along with several other siblings. That was four years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic. His name is Chewbacca, and he lives up to the name. Lastly, she is a native New Yorker from the Boogie Down Bronx.
Elizabeth "BJ" Larson (Incumbent)
Director
Vision Statement
My vision for ACPE for the coming five years is to build stronger community connections across our organization while advancing the highest quality spiritual care education that results in a more excellent spiritual care provider, whether as a chaplain or psychotherapist. We do this through open listening and a learning culture, an educational pathway that emphasizes knowledge of self in relation, develops competence, and is courageous in working with growing edges, such as bias and racism, to become more whole and better equipped to support the spiritual needs and strengths of others in our care. On the eve of celebrating one hundred years of the CPE movement in 2025 and looking ahead to 2030, we can honor our roots and spread our wings going forward. We can be process educators and address core content creatively, while providing our students with clarity of feedback on their demonstration of the core competency outcomes. We can practice hybrid approaches, both in-person and remote learning, using the tools of technology and embodied humanity in our DOE accredited model. We can learn from each other’s sites, both individual educator and team educator programs. We can face our racism and bias and ethical challenges, while also helping build each other up so we are stronger together. We can share our commonality and our diversity, as well as continue to learn through our connection and our disconnection going forward. I believe ACPE is us and we are ACPE. We embody our history, and we are our evolving future. Within ACPE and beyond, as belonging, identity, brokenness and trauma continue to challenge us relationally and historically, we will benefit from listening to both resistance and dreams. When we struggle both individually and within organizations, we can better support one another and our students and clients on an emotional and spiritual level to become more of who we are meant to be.
Biography
BJ Larson is an ACPE Certified Educator and has served as the Director of Spiritual Care for Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN since April 2019. She brings over 25 years’ experience in healthcare chaplaincy in system leadership at Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis, including completion of a Masters degree in Organizational Leadership from St. Catherine’s University, St. Paul, MN. Experienced in both large health care systems and small community and critical access hospitals, as well as faith community settings, BJ is a life-long learner. She has gained cultural and religious learning in many different socio-economic and racially diverse settings through study seminars and inter-faith service opportunities, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Madagascar, Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Tanzania between 1982 and 2019. BJ is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), who savors relationships and cross-cultural connections, which have taught her the importance of living with integrity, openness and commitment to love of neighbor and standing up for justice as essential to our path together as a human community. She is also a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal and has studied systemic constellations during the past seven plus years. In addition, BJ is grateful for her family, husband Tim, and young adults Jenna and Ingrid, as well as Sierra-- rescue dog extraordinaire and Simon newest addition. They are foundational to her experience of love, grounding and learning day by day, in challenging and sustaining ways, how to be human and how to be of service in the world.
Mark Lee
Director
Vision Statement
To be the cutting-edge leader in the field of CPE and psychotherapy for 2030 and beyond. We need to maintain the industry leadership as "the GOLD" standard, above reproach, and stand "head and shoulders" above others who offer CPE. ACPE, Inc. must continue to be an organization that is true to the foundational essence of CPE, with the highest standards and without the unnecessary burdens of a bureaucracy that often suffocate innovation and growth. ACPE's leadership must have a clear strategic vision in order to grow, both domestically and internationally.
Biography
Mark Lee hails from the Aloha State of Hawai'i, and currently serves as the Dean of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Graduate School. Mark exemplifies a well-balanced visionary leader and an outstanding CPE educator. He has proven his leadership qualifications within the U.S. Army, as evidenced by his current position and having achieved the rank of Colonel. Furthermore, Mark has demonstrated his commitment and dedication to CPE through his membership in several CoPs, as well as having served as the Chair of the Research Committee. Mark is also very familiar with the current certification process, having been one of the first three people to go through the "new" process. He is very dedicated to the future of CPE, having educated two CECs, sitting on several committees (Phase II and theory paper), as well as currently serving as a Theory Integration Mentor for four CECs. Mark will certainly add fresh perspectives on leadership and the certification process. Most importantly, Mark's "aloha spirit" helps maintain a spirit of welcome and inclusivity, balancing people and mission. Mark is an Episcopal priest, has been married for over 23 years, and is a father to two - a 21 y.o. college senior and a 16 y.o. high school junior.
Lerrill White
Director
Vision Statement
A Vision for ACPE Over the Next Five Years ACPE must remain resolute in upholding the highest standards possible to guide our training of those who seek to serve as providers of spiritual care, whether that care is for congregants, patients, families & staff, or clients. Our goal must remain true to the value we place on persons in ministry being self-aware, other-focused and competent practitioners of the knowledge and skills required to provide meaningful and healing encounters on behalf of the other. To do that, we will need to map a future together, a vision that is supported by the membership because they helped create it. We will need to find creative ways to promote the value of the unique gifts that we share, leaning on established research-based outcomes to demonstrate the transformational process in which we participate. We will need to make a commitment to future generations of faith leaders and unaffiliated spiritual leaders with no formal faith tradition, by investing our own money in an endowment for the future for ACPE. And we will need to restore the remnants of former Regions, to functional communities of practice once again.
Biography
Rev. Lerrill J White, ACPE Certified Educator and the Director of Texas Health’s Departments of Clinical Pastoral Education, is ordained in the churches of Christ. He received his B.A. and M.S. degrees from Abilene Christian University and a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. He completed coursework, written & oral comprehensive exams and two years of dissertation research for his Ph.D. at Penn State University. He has served as a pastor in churches in New Jersey, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Texas. As a Certified Educator and Board-Certified Chaplain, he has served in mental health facilities, community hospitals, regional hospitals and large teaching hospitals. Lerrill is married to his wife of 54 years, Debby, and they have two adult children and five grandchildren. They cherish time with their family and friends, enjoy antiquing, the arts, good food and their dog Ringo.
Accreditation Commission
Pat Kelly
Chair-elect
Vision Statement
To help centers tell their stories on how they are transforming people's lives through their educational programs. ACPE must expand our vision to include the next generation of spiritual care providers so that our organization can remain relevant and vibrant for years to come. Staying aware of new avenues of technology that impact our CPE programs, maintain good communications and support with our accreditation commissioners, and never lose sight of how our educators are facing complex situations at their centers. With spiritual care needs constantly changing, ACPE needs a diversified membership to address the future of spiritual well-being.
Biography
Patricia E. Kelly is an African-American Ordained Baptist Clergywoman. She graduated from The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. Patricia is originally from Chicago, Illinois. Currently, she is employed as a CPE Program Manager/Staff Chaplain at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She is a Board-Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains. Patricia has served as a mentor and interviewer for certification candidates. Patricia has served ACPE as an accreditation portfolio reviewer since 2021. She has managed the accreditation process at Baylor Scott and White – North Texas CPE System Center since 2018. Patricia is also a member of ACPE’s CoP Womanist Approach to Care and Curriculum. In 2022, Patricia graduated from the Transforming Chaplaincy year-long program for Spiritual Care Management and Leadership. Also, in 2023 Patricia graduated from the Transforming Chaplaincy week-long Chaplaincy Research Summer Institute.
Mirjam Berger
Commissioner
Vision Statement
Collegially support CPE educators in their program accreditation work to maintain a high quality, trauma informed, safe learning environment for CPE learners so they can learn and practice inclusive, self-reflective and interfaith spiritual care.
Biography
Mirjam Berger started her CPE journey as a resident in Miami, FL in 1996 without being able to speak English. As an immigrant from East Germany Mirjam continues to be intrigued by the many layers of cultural, regional, spiritual and neurological diversity she continues to experience in the CPE context. She holds a Master of Theology from Humboldt Universitaet Berlin, Germany and is an ordained UCC minister. Mirjam is a Certified ACPE Educator and a Certified Enneagram Facilitator who has worked in Texas, Minnesota, and North Carolina in diverse Healthcare settings such as Hospitals, Senior Living, and Community based CPE. She collaborated with others to establish a Spanish-Speaking CPE program in Mexico. Mirjam is trilingual, has lived in five countries and has extensive expertise in multicultural and multilingual healthcare. She loves learning and creating innovated approaches to Spiritual Care and CPE, for example, the inclusion of the enneagram in the CPE curriculum; the creation of an educational experience for CPE learners called “Cultural Life Maps;” and the integration of Clean Language and Systemic Modeling into the CPE curriculum. Mirjam is passionate about helping CPE colleagues and programs use the accreditation process to create a safe holding environment for CPE learners and functional structures for CPE programs. Mirjam has previously served on the ACPE Accreditation and Certification Committees (ACPE Southwest and North Central Region) and is the Co-Chair of the Enneagram in CPE CoP. Mirjam and her husband Michael Doane, a Certified ACPE Educator at Mayo Clinic, have served as bi-vocational Co-Pastor for several years in Texas. They are parents of two young adults and two gigantic dogs.
Mary Browne
Commissioner
Vision Statement
To provide the best education for and about the professions of spiritual care and chaplaincy, partnering with other stakeholders in spiritual care to promote the equitable, diverse, and inclusive provision of spiritual care, making the world a better place.
Biography
Mary graduated from the University of Connecticut, with a Bachelor of Arts, Honors Scholar in Psychology, from the University of Pittsburgh with a Master of Social Work and the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity. She became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (2010) and Board Certified Chaplain with the Association for Professional Chaplains (2011). Mary participated in an ACPE Residency and Supervisory Training program at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS). Upon achieving Associate Supervisor status, she was an ACPE Certified Educator at VAPHS. During this time she became involved in the East Central Region of ACPE coordinating mock committees for SES’s. She then transferred to the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio where she also served as the CPE program director. She became fully certified as an ACPE Certified Educator in 2014, just prior to joining Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, TX. At Memorial Hermann she served in the role of Director of the Chaplaincy Service at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital and was on the faculty of the system CPE program. She served on the accreditation committee for the Southwest Region, and then became Chair Elect and Chair of the region just as the regions were dissolved. Mary then joined the Department of Spiritual Care at Yale New Haven Hospital in 2019 as a Manager. She was elected to serve on the Leadership Development Committee, a position she held for two consecutive terms. Mary is a visionary leader who thinks outside of the box. She is also able to take her ideas and turn them into actionable items. For example, she successfully created an outpatient department of spiritual care at Yale New Haven Hospital. Before entering into chaplaincy and ACPE as a CE Mary served on staff in several churches, was a therapist/pastoral counselor, and was a contract chaplain in a state mental hospital. She has articles published in the Journal of Religion, Disability, and Health
Colette Gaffney
Commissioner
Vision Statement
I envision an ACPE where members are fully engaged with our shared work, not feeling alone or isolated from one another but supported not only locally or nationally but internationally. The world has changed so quickly and will continue to and we must be flexible enough to change while maintaining our values and commitment to seeing the world transformed through the power of spiritual care, counseling, and the clinical method of learning.
Biography
Since becoming certified in 2020 Colette has served ACPE in various ways: as a theory mentor, accreditation portfolio reviewer, serving on the Professional Well-Being Committee as a liaison to the psychotherapists integrated into the ACPE community, supporting the development of Anti-Bias task force webinars related to Sexuality in Supervision, the Queer experience of CPE and disability, started the Education and Consultation on Disability Community of Practice and co-convening the Anti-Ableism Task Force that challenges ACPE in its work to become more accessible to the disabled community. Colette is currently the sole supervisor of CPE at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, supervising Level ½ and Educator Students and providing a tuition-free hybrid program that accepts students from historically marginalized communities in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Stephenie Maddox Hill
Commissioner
Vision Statement
My vision for ACPE over the next five years is one that sees us finding our joy and passion and living into it. I want our purpose and hope to be the forces that propel us forward and for us to become more flexible as a system.
Biography
Stephenie Maddox Hill, ACPE-CE, DMin is serving as the Director of CPE for the AdventHealth West Florida CPE Program. She joined the AdventHealth CPE department in 2020. Stephenie did most of her CPE and CEC work at University of Louisville Hospital before moving across the street to Norton Healthcare as the CPE Manager in Louisville, KY. Before moving into ministry and chaplaincy, Stephenie was a Music Therapist, MT-BC. Alongside of chaplaincy and CPE Education, Stephenie has and currently serves as a parish minister for the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is married to a fellow Presbyterian (USA) minister. They share two teenagers and two dogs (she won’t say which she likes more). Stephenie enjoys walking, crochet, British mysteries, being with her family, and music. Her passion is learning differences and creating a CPE curriculum that is creative and draws out the potential of the learners.
Unyong Statwick
Commissioner
Vision Statement
I envision the accreditation tasks for each CE to become less time-consuming and more consistent tasks with available technology and community of support within each cohort.
Biography
Rev. Dr. Unyong Statwick is a Korean-American female certified educator who belongs to "in-between" cultures and thrives in the beauty of diversity. She feels blessed to have found a community and organization in ACPE and the vocation of a Certified Educator and continues to find joy in the ripple effect of the healing presence of her CPE students on the world of suffering and pain. She currently manages a residency program in San Francisco and envisions innovative ways of spiritual care at the organizational and community levels.
Alexandra Zareth
Public Member
Vision Statement
ACPE continues to be a space of excellence that recognizes the need for continued adaptations as life's pace continues to move us all forward. It would be my hope to help and witness to this process with integrity and intelligence as we all see to empower and educate individuals for their best service in their work of pastoral care.
Biography
Rev. Alexandra Zareth is a board certified chaplain who currently serves in a border ministry with women and families connecting Mexico and south Texas as the director of partnerships and education. Alexandra has served in non-denominational church leadership, PC(USA) congregations, United Nations advocacy committees, Soroptimist International program work, as well as local and national non-profit grant management. With a psychotherapeutic education, Alexandra is committed to helping individuals reconcile with self and others and rises every morning with the hope of serving as a catalyst for folks curious to live more fully.
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Certification Commission
Jeff Holman
Chair-elect
Vision Statement
ACPE has the opportunity to innovate and grow in years to come. We can identify markets well-suited to CPE programs and begin new programs domestically and abroad. We lead institutions in JEDIA, and have vital roles to play in our society promoting inclusion. We need more CE's to lead more programs, to continue our sacred charge of educating for ministry. ACPE has vital, growing programs as well as programs that are closing. We can reflect on what makes for growth and what makes for closure and respond to opportunities. ACPE needs to be more of a resource for it’s members, especially its new members to integrate them into the Association, bring their creativity to bear, and find opportunities for continuous development. I believe our Certification processes can lead ACPE into these opportunities.
Biography
Jeffrey Holman serves on the Certification Commission and is highly involved and extensively experienced in the CE CPE processes of ACPE, with seventeen current CEC's and aspirants connected to his leadership. He serves as the system manager of CPE for OhioHealth, a Methodist faith based healthcare system in Ohio. OhioHealth's CPE programs are innovators and leaders within ACPE, convening four residencies and five internships in the Fall of 2024. Jeff is a cisgender, married male of Portuguese and Celtic descent, who values justice and inclusivity. He lives in Columbus, OH with his wife, teenage son, dogs, and cat. Jeff is a Paulist Associate and Board Member of the Jung Association of Central OH.
Ki Do Ahn (Incumbent)
Commissioner
Vision Statement
Diversity and inclusion has been ACPE’s challenges and growth. I believe ACPE has been working on these in previous years. At the same time, ACPE also has a long way to go. Since I have been serving as a Certification Commissioner from 2021 and anti-bias work group for language/immigration last two years, I have advocated for diversity and inclusion as a Korean American cisgender male. I appreciated my colleagues' openness to learn and practice what they learn. As an organization, ACPE also needs to work on the structure and processes. I believe one of the important structures is the Certification Commission. As I finish my 1st term as a certification commissioner, I would like to continue to serve as a certification commissioner for the 2nd term. I am very passionate about the certification process. I want to support CECs in their learning and embracing diversity and inclusion, and later integration of it in their education with CPE students. I would like to see in the next five years that ACPE would grow more in the values of diversity and inclusion not only in the Certification process but also other critical areas. So, I am volunteering for the 2nd term of the certification commission to support ACPE and hopefully my contribution will make some difference in ACPE structure.
Biography
Rev. Dr. Ki Do Ahn is a first-generation Korean American cisgender male (he/him/his), ACPE certified educator (National Faculty). Currently, he serves as the manager of Mission Integration at Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, CA. He is ordained in PCUSA and serves as a parish associate at Korean Presbyterian Church in Fresno, California. He was born and raised in South Korea. His university work was done at Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea in 2004. He came to the United States for his seminary training at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He earned M.Div. in 2008 and the diploma of the art of spiritual direction in 2010. His CPE residency and his CEC training were at Stanford Hospital. In 2015, he was fully certified as an ACPE-certified educator. In 2021, he earned a Ph.D. degree at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, in interdisciplinary studies (pastoral care and conversion studies). He is the recipient of the 2021 ACPE Inspiration Award. Currently, Ki Do serves as an ACPE certification commissioner and as a convenor of Korean American CoP in ACPE. He is also a member of the AAPI CoP and Pacific CoP.
Amanda Alexander (Incumbent)
Commissioner
Vision Statement
I am grateful for the nurturing and vibrant care community ACPE offered for me to grow my pastoral ministry beyond the scope of my local faith community. The opportunity to learn and serve within a diverse population of co-learners, students, colleagues, and patients has enriched my personal and professional life. As a Black Baptist Cisgender Woman, I know firsthand the importance of being a part of a learning and service organization that cultivates courageous spaces for people like me to emerge from the margins of society and dare to form sacred connections with self, God, and others to engage transformative spiritual care. My passion to ensure people from all cultural, religious, and social locations can experience ACPE as a respectful, anti-bias, compassionate, and forward-thinking organization informs my motivation to seek the opportunity to serve as a Certification Commissioner.
Biography
Amanda is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and was raised as a military child in the southern states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and graduated from high school in Keflavik, Iceland. Amanda earned a B.S. in Psychology from Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia in December 2010 and a MDiv with an emphasis in pastoral care and counseling from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in May 2014. Amanda completed a first unit of CPE at the Care and Counseling Center of Georgia followed by the 1st Year Chaplain Resident Program at Emory Midtown and the 2nd Year Chaplain Resident Program at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Upon completing the 2nd residency program, Amanda was accepted into the ACPE Certified Educator Candidate Program at Duke University Hospital. Amanda completed the ACPE certification program in December 2021. Following which, Amanda served at ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina as the CPE Program Manager and ACPE Certified Educator from January 2022-June 2023. Amanda currently serves that CPE Program Manager and ACPE Certified Educator at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Amanda is the mother to an adventurous and intuitive son named Lucas James and married to Rev. Dr. James H. Alexander.
Robin Booth (Incumbent)
Commissioner
Vision StatementIn my 30 years of being a part of ACPE I have seen many changes and necessary growth as the organization faced many challenges. As a part of the leadership, I navigated the rapids of grief and change with my colleagues and Certified Educators. My abilities to see the larger picture and trust of the process, guided my leadership within the organization through some of the more difficult times of transition. I found the members of ACPE my tribe, my people and a place that strives to be welcoming to all. I am very grateful to be a part of this organization. ACPE is faced with the challenge of certifying educators who are committed to training chaplains who are compassionate, caring, and inclusive of all people. Our ongoing work towards inclusivity and anti-bias work will assist the organization to attain new creative energy that will enhance all of what we do. The organization has long been lacking in our teaching of evidence-based practices, which are informed by knowledge of trauma and suffering. Developing research in the area of spiritual care with a focus on outcomes, will assist ACPE to be the standard bearer within our discipline. Adhering to the regulations of the Department of Education has historical called the organization to move to new ways of assuring that students are learning the art of spiritual care. The Department of Education invites us to discover ways in which we can measure the students’ learning and have standards that are held my all ACPE programs. I want to use my gifts, knowledge and experience to assist ACPE to move to new frontiers of education. As I work with Certified Educator Students (CES) and Candidates (CEC), I am learning new ways of teaching and training. I am excited to see the quality of CES and CECs who are currently moving towards certification. They bring new life to ACPE and new approaches to training. I want to continue to be a part of the educational process that new students are entering, working through and completing.
Nathan Goldberg (Incumbent)
Commissioner
Vision Statement
I am a returning commissioner. I hope to continue supporting CEC's and their CEs as they navigate through this process. I believe the quickest way to transformational change is an influx of new CEs that can provide a vision for the future while assuring continuity.
Biography
Nathan Goldberg is an ACPE Certified Educator and Orthodox Rabbi. He brings extensive experience in chaplaincy and education in very diverse settings in Kansas, Missouri, New York City and Connecticut. Nathan also has extensive experience with CPE Supervisory Education. He has served for many years on the ACPE National and Regional Certification Commissions and has trained numerous CPE Educators towards successful certification. Nathan has published numerous articles and led workshops at webinars at national and regional conferences. He resides in Queens in an empty nest (raised three children) with wife Ayelet and dogs Oxy(contin) and Zol(oft)
Roy Meyers
Commissioner
Vision Statement
ACPE is a location as much as it is an organization; it represents a place wherein people can find wholeness and be prepared to contribute to the wholeness of others. ACPE represents a vision for spiritual care and education that celebrates differences while discovering meaningful common ground for spiritual and educational practice. In a world that seems divided to its core, it can be hard to see how humans can be authentic and authentically connected in love and respect. The CPE process of action-reflection-action is founded on the basic assumption that we can learn and grow together as we engage our experiences in the community. Human experiences can be very diverse and appear to have no common point of reference. However, that perception often changes as each person makes space for themselves to celebrate their unique experiences and personhood. In making space for self, many are inspired to find space for others to celebrate their uniqueness.
Biography
The Reverend Doctor Roy M. Myers is passionate about creating and re-creating systems for learning and growth. Roy is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia International University. He also teaches Level 1 and Level 2 CPE for R/ C Freedom Ministries of San Antonia, Texas. Roy Retired from the Army in May 2024 after nearly 33 years distinguished career as an Army Chaplain. During his tenure in the Army, Roy led the Army CPE System, served as an administrator in military education, and was actively involved in CPE and CEC education. Roy’s work included serving as the primary progenitor of the Graduate School of the US Army Institute for Religious Leadership. His effort ensured that CPE education in the Army Chaplain Crops would continue moving forward and have significant opportunities for growth. Roy served as the inaugural Dean of the Graduate School from January 2020 to September 2023. Before his time as the Dean, Roy also served as the Director of the Amry CPE System and a tour as the Director of two of the Army CPE Component Sites. Roy was privileged to teach CPE units to almost 100 Army Chaplains as an Army Educator. He was also an integral leader in the Army CEC process, directly certifying three Army CPE Educators now serving on Active Duty. Roy is completing a doctorate or Philosophy degree at Columbia International University in Practical Moral Theology. He plans to graduate in December 2024. He also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Oblate School of Theology in 2005. His work features spiritual care assessments for Army Chaplain practice. Roy has a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Roy was granted “Associate ACPE Supervisor in 2014 and “Full” ACPE Supervisor in 2015. He attended the Army CPE Resident Course in 2002-2003. Roy has been married to Dana Myers for 36 years, and they have two grown children and three grandchildren.
Psychotherapy Commission
Carol Smith
Chair-Elect
Vision Statement
The ancient wisdom that Soul-Care and pastoral psychotherapy are built upon is needed by our world. We are living in a sea of fragmented souls, all trying to find a way to knit ourselves back together. Our cultural mantra of ‘do it myself’ tells us that we should be able to heal ourselves without assistance. The wisdom of pastoral psychotherapy, however, acknowledges that much as we are tattered in community, we are healed in community. Offering ourselves as an anchor to a tattered soul, welcoming all the tattered parts with compassion and respect, begins a mystery of healing and hope. ACPE has embraced an opportunity to pass on this wisdom to the next generation of therapists, those who have the capacity to be soul-healers, through the SIP Training program. It seems that many who are experiencing and seeing the fragmentation of persons today are drawn to the language of spiritually integrative psychotherapy, and long to learn the art of re-stitching souls. The SIP Training Program is positioned to continue and expand offerings on manageable platforms with a variety of formats to meet this growing need. The next challenges of the Psychotherapy Commission seem to be continued management and development, ultimately shepherding the Psychotherapy members beyond the training into a new form of deeper community.
Biography
Carol Smith is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and serves as Insight Counseling Centers’ Director of Spiritually-Integrated Psychotherapy (SIP) Training.
Living life in movement toward integration…
Engaging self and others with courage and grace…
Sharing our uniquenesses with our world in ways that respect and bring Life…
These are some of the desires that sustain Carol in the ministry of pastoral counseling as she seeks to meet clients and students where they are and walk with them on their journey toward wholeness. Acceptance, encouragement, exhortation and faith are gifts she will offer as she joins you in the process of finding your way through your current experience.
In her spare time, Carol enjoys family and friends, traveling, movies, gardening, choir, and cooking.
Roosevelt Brown
Commissioner
Vision Statement
As an ACPE Psychotherapist and chaplain, I have learned that individuals are still seeking spiritual guidance, direction and counseling from spiritual leaders within institutions. Many of these individuals no longer belong to traditional groups or organized religions. In addition, the leaders in these institutions still depend upon chaplains for advice and guidance. To help ACPE continue to meet the needs of spiritual professionals, I recommend the following vision. My vision for ACPE is to help the organization continue to be a world class leader in developing models and implementing strategies that will advance the practice of spiritual care, research, education and clinical training Continue to train spiritual care professionals to provide for the spiritual and whole health needs of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and groups of people. Emphasize the cultural diversity of our country and provide opportunities for these groups to become involved in ACPE programming Collaborate with other organizations to offer continuing education and programs to advance spiritual care to meet the growing need in mental health.
Biography
Roosevelt Brown is a native of Camden, South Carolina. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the army and was stationed at Fort Richardson, AK. He was called to ministry in 1981 at Greater Friendship Baptist Church in Anchorage, AK. He graduated from the University of Alaska with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in 1983. After graduation, he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and received a Master of Divinity degree in 1987. While attending seminary, he started Westside Baptist Church in 1984 and served as its pastor until being commissioned as a Navy chaplain in September 1988. He served as a navy chaplain until 2018. In April 2009, he was promoted to the rank of Captain in the United States Navy. He received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Garrett Evangelical Seminary in May 2010. To enhance his pastoral counseling skills, he became an ACPE Psychotherapist, completed an MA in Marriage and Family Therapy and became licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist with the states of North Carolina and Virginia. In addition, he is an American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy Approved Supervisor and a Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy Trainer. He started working at the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 2018 and presently serves as the Chief Chaplain for Martinsburg VAMC. He enjoys gardening and traveling. One of his goals in life is to visit every major league baseball park. He has already been to 20 baseball parks. He is married to Deborah Melton Brown. They love traveling and attending baseball games. They have four adult children and two grandchildren.
Tere Canzoneri (Incumbent)
Commissioner
Vision Statement
Like all professional Associations, ACPE faces the challenge of staying cutting edge as the world and its needs change. We must stay attentive to our members, the institutions where we work, and the people we serve. Our goal is to remain true to our mission and values as we make the necessary adjustments to continue to be the standard for spiritual care and education.
Biography
Tere Tyner Canzoneri is a license clinical social worker and an ordained Baptist minister. She has worked as a pastoral counselor and psychotherapist in the metro Atlanta area for 42 years. For 36 of those she has been active in AAPC and now ACPE. She was director of one pastoral counselor training program and later on the training faculty of another. In addition to her work as a psychotherapist, she has served as manager of a member care and wellness program for a religious organization’s domestic and international field personnel. She served multiple times on the AAPC regional certification committee as well as a term chairing the Association certification committee. She was chair of the SE region of AAPC and president of AAPC as it merged into ACPE. Since becoming an ACPE pastoral psychotherapist she has been a SIP trainer, a member of the Psychotherapy Commission, and part of the ACPE Psychotherapy Commission Working Group. She was the 2024 recipient of the Helen Flanders Dunbar Award.
Tom Knowles-Bagwell
Commissioner
Our society and world currently faces a mental health crisis that is overwhelming the mental health professions' ability to provide adequate clinical providers. This is amplified by the additional need for professional practitioners who are competent to practice spiritually aware and affirming psychotherapy services in the "cure of souls" tradition. The Psychotherapy Commission of ACPE stands at a point of advantage in the ability to respond to this challenge. Building on the strengths of its AAPC history and its ACPE resources in the areas of certification and accreditation, the Commission stands poised to reinvigorate the professional mental health world with its depth of understanding of spiritually integrated psychotherapy. I envision the next five years as being a time when the Commission can develop the institutional infrastructure to provide standards for training and practice for such professionals. These standards will then provide the foundation for professional certification and accreditation of training programs around the country and world.
Lisa Nyabinghi
Commissioner
ACPE is poised to achieve success within the next five years. By implementing change, and spiritual development, and providing educational opportunities and journeys for growth, the organization will impact the lives of individuals across the country. By facing challenges that occur with the advancement of technology, environmental factors, and political alterations, ACPE remains the premier organization in the next decade.
Ashlee Pierson
Commissioner
Over the next five years, I would like us to embrace any challenges as opportunities for innovation and learning, fostering a culture of continuous growth by adding more BIPOC in every facet of the organization. We can envision becoming a resilient organization, where every challenge fuels our progress, and every achievement sets the stage for greater impact for the next generation. Through dedication and teamwork, we will evolve to progress as a household name.
Finance & Audit Committee
Mariela Gonzalez
Member
Vision Statement
Over the next five years, I expect ACPE to nurture growth and facilitate belonging for spiritual care practitioners. We in ACPE can uphold learning and education excellence through the strength of diverse representation, engagement, and expression. Nurturing this growth requires financial wisdom and responsibility.
Biography
Mariela Janelle Gonzalez is a Humanist Chaplain and Celebrant. She is an ACPE Certified Educator Candidate in Phase 2. In her faith community, she serves on the Membership Development Committee and LGBTQ+ Welcoming Committee. Mariela is a contributing author in "Spiritual Care in an Age of #Black Lives Matter." Mariela lives in Oswego, Illinois with her spouse Allyson Rowley and stepson, Sam. They share their home with a Bernese Mountain Dog, Piper and Tabby Cat, Stormy. Mariela enjoys jigsaw puzzles, bonfires, and strong coffee.
Leadership Development Committee
Christine Davies
Member
Vision Statement
Having recently served in leadership in ACPE, I know firsthand how important our members are in the running of our organization. And my time in Certification has enabled me to get to know many of our CECs and brand-new CEs. The future of our organization lies in recruiting and preparing our members to become leaders, both internally and in our field at large. I would welcome the opportunity to serve on the Leadership Development Committee to help ensure we are engaging a wide variety of our members in these important positions.
Biography
The Rev. Christine V. Davies runs the hospital chaplaincy department at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. In addition to her work as a Certified Educator, she is an ordained Presbyterian Minister and a trained Spiritual Director. Christine is about to finish her term as Chair of the Certification Commission. She loves ACPE and has a hard time saying no to serving our organization! Christine lives with her family on a small farm and spends her time chasing chickens and chauffeuring her school-aged children to all their activities.