To request the services of an MCC staff person, please contact Larry Guengerich with information about your event, dates of engagement, topics of interest and any request for a specific speaker. Larry may be reached at
lrg@mcc.org or (717) 738-0885. Larry is also ready to help you plan an event if you have a general idea and would like assistance in shaping the specifics.
MCC East Coast Speaker’s Bios
Curtis Book, Peace and Justice Coordinator for MCC East Coast, has served internationally for many years with Brethren in Christ World Missions in England, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and Colombia working primarily in pastoral leadership development. Curtis is prepared to discuss biblical/Anabaptist basis of peace, justice and immigration issues with youth and adults in either English or Spanish. Curtis is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school sessions, small groups and youth groups. Curtis and his wife live in Philadelphia, Pa.
Ruth Keidel Clemens, Executive Director of MCC East Coast, served with MCC in Congo and Cambodia. She grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), the child of Mennonite missionaries. Ruth is prepared to discuss MCC ministries, gifts of the Global Church and God’s calling on our lives. Ruth is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school sessions, small groups and children's time. She lives with her family in Baltimore.
Kim Dyer, Young Adult Program Coordinator for MCC East Coast, relates to young adults in a variety of ways. Kim coordinates the MCC East Coast International Volunteer Exchange Program, a program for international young adults between the ages of 18-30 who come to the United States and Canada to serve for one year. She also encourages and recruits young adults to consider the Serving and Learning Together program of MCC. SALT is a one year assignment for young adults, 18-27, from the United States and Canada who serve in different countries around the world. As a previous SALTer in Mexico, Kim is able to share firsthand her experience as a young adult in service with MCC. She also coordinates the Summer Service Program, a program for young adults of color who wish to engage in their home churches and communities through service learning during the summer months.
Larry Guengerich, MCC East Coast Communications Coordinator, has worked with MCC for more than a dozen years. He is available to speak in any setting and is able to share about the general work of MCC, with particular interest in how MCC is working in the areas of agriculture and water. He also has presentations about the meaning of the MCC logo and "brand." He has travelled with MCC to the Balkans and to Central America and can share about the work in these areas as well as other places. Larry and his family live in East Petersburg, Pa.
Evanna Hess is the Resources Center Manager at the Ephrata MRC. Evanna and her husband Dan served with MCC in Russia, Serbia and Albania working primarily with the effects of inter-ethnic and
inter-religious conflicts. She is prepared to speak about MCC's use of material resources and general MCC ministries. She is willing to share in SS classes, children's times, sermons, small groups and women's groups.
Fred Kauffman, MCC Philadelphia Program Coordinator, and his wife Minh worked with MCC for fifteen years in Guatemala, India, Cambodia and Vietnam. In 1994, they and their two sons moved to Philadelphia where Fred served as pastor of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship until 2005. Since that time he has been the Program Coordinator for MCC Philly. He speaks Spanish fluently and some French as well. Fred is willing to share in sermons, Sunday School classes, small groups and youth events. He is involved with issues of urban life, gun violence prevention, racism, and reflections on the role of the empire in Scripture.
Millie Nafziger is the East Coast Administrative Assistant for Constituency Relations. A child of both Lancaster County Mennonite culture and Honduran influences, she spent five years teaching music at Ephrata Mennonite School and has travelled to Egypt with MCC. She can share about the MCC program in Egypt and general MCC ministries. She can do this in both Spanish and English. She also is available to lead singing, both hymns and choruses. She is willing to share with both adult and children's groups. Millie lives in Lancaster city.
Grant Rissler, Financial Resource Development Coordinator for MCC East Coast, works at providing resources to help relief sales, thrift shops, individual and congregational donors. Grant can share in either English or Spanish about MCC’s general work and current opportunities to give as well as more focused presentations on God’s call to give and receive, MCC’s work in Southern Sudan, Colombia, Israel/Palestine, Care for Creation and immigration issues. Grant is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school sessions, small groups and youth groups. Grant and his wife live in Lancaster, Pa.
Luke Schrock-Hurst, MCC East Coast Representative at Eastern Mennonite University and Harrisonburg, Va., served with MCC in Central America and the Philippines. Luke is prepared to discuss MCC ministries, biblical mandates for service, and the role of the church in MCC ministries. Luke is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school settings, small groups and youth groups. Luke lives with his wife and family in Harrisonburg, Va.
Kenneth Sensenig, MCC East Coast Assistant Director, brings extended service in Swaziland and Sudan. Ken also brings short term experience in Central and South America and Europe . Ken is prepared to discuss general MCC ministries, MCC history, biblical mandates for service and interaction with Islam. Ken has a special interest in the role of the church in MCC ministries. This includes a focused interest in the Amish and other culturally conservative supporters of MCC. Ken is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school sessions, small groups, children's time or youth groups. Ken and his wife live in Ephrata, Pa.
MCC U.S. Speaker's Bios
Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, works as Co-Director of the Office on Justice and Peacebuilding for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries. She has been involved in the field of restorative justice for many years and co-chaired the international Victim Offender Mediation Association (VOMA) for seven years. She is the co-author of Restorative Discipline in Schools and the author of Victim Offender Conferencing, both part of the "Little Books of Justice & Peacebuilding" series published by Good Books. Lorraine speaks and conducts trainings on the issues of crime and justice, restorative justice and conflict transformation. She lives with her family in Akron, PA.
Michelle E. Armster, is an activist and works as Co-Director of the Office on Justice and Peacebuilding for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries in Akron, PA. She provides resourcing, consulting, and training for churches, agencies, communities and individuals. She has many years of extensive training and experience in meditation, facilitation, conciliation, restorative justice, arbitration, victim/offender mediation, anti-racism and alternatives to violence. Michelle has served on various community boards, serves as a volunteer mediator at the Lancaster Mediation Center, and facilitates cases of severe violence with the PA Office of the Victim Advocate. She has completed Eastern Mennonite University's Graduate Certification program in Conflict Transformation and graduated from Lancaster Theological Seminary's Masters of Divinity program. Michelle serves as co-pastor of St. Andrews United Church of Christ congregation in Lancaster, PA.
Saulo Padilla, works as Director of the Office on Immigration Education for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries. The Immigration Education Office's role is to educate and inform MCC's constituency on immigration issues, to provide biblical and theological resources for reflection on immigration, and materials that help understand the root causes of immigration. He also works in conjunction with the MCC U.S. Washington Office and regional offices to inform MCC's constituency on immigration legislation issues. Saulo was born and lived in Guatemala for the first 15 years of his life. In 1986 he immigrated with his mother and siblings to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 2001 he moved to Goshen, IN, to study. Saulo is a 2005 graduate of Goshen College and the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 2008, and he is an active member of Iglesia Menonita Del Buen Pastor, in Goshen IN.
Linda Gehman Peachey, Director of Women's Advocacy for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries, which encourages mutuality between women and men, and provides resources that address sexism, violence and abuse in our families and communities. Linda and her husband Titus worked with MCC in Laos and in MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries. Linda is prepared to share workshops and sermons. Including, Sunday school classes on topics such as the following; Biblical equality, Ending violence in the home, Child protection policies for congregations, Parenting skills, Women in the Bible and Dealing with pornography. Linda and Titus live in Lancaster, PA.
Titus Peachey is Director of Peace Education for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries. The Peace Education program nurtures a commitment to peace and conscientious objection to war in the lives of youth and adults. It provides information on military discharges to soldiers and their families who call the GI Rights Hotline, and provides resources to advocate for an end to the use of cluster munitions. Titus registered as a conscientious objector and performed alternative service in Vietnam from 1970-1973. He and his wife Linda worked wth MCC in Laos from 1980-1985. Titus later returned to Laos to help coordinate the Cluster Bomb Removal Project. Titus is prepared to share workshops, sermons or Sunday School classes on topics related to peace and conscientious objection to war, Jesus' way of peace, advocacy related to landmines and cluster munitions and war tax resistance. Titus and Linda live in Lancaster, PA.
Rolando Santiago, currently serves as Executive Director of Mennonite Central Committee U.S., an agency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in this country charged to implement service, development, peace and justice programs in the United States. From 1997-2004 he served as Director for Evaluation at the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch of the federal Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He oversaw evaluations of programs funded through the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch (CAFB) and served as Project Officer for the national evaluation of 92 communities that received grant and cooperative agreements from the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and their Families. From 2001-2003 he also served as Deputy Chief of the CAFB and assisted with the oversight of this children’s program that served over 60,000 children from 1992-2004. In 1998 he provided international consultation to the Pan American Health Organization and to the country of Chile on the evaluation of mental health services. He also served as a key organizer for the Surgeon General’s Conference on Children’s Mental Health in September of 2000. Before starting his position at CMHS, Rolando served as Research Scientist at the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH) from 1994-1997. At the NYSOMH he directed the evaluation of one of the children’s federal grant sites funded by CMHS and located in the Mott Haven community of the South Bronx. He also helped conduct a quasi-experimental research study of intensive in-home crisis services for children and adolescents needing emergency psychiatric services. Rolando provided expertise to the NYSOMH in the areas of research, measurement, instrument development, information systems, cultural competence, and family involvement as they relate to the field of children’s mental health services. In 2003 he served as President of the Northeastern Educational Research Association. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Statistics from the University at Albany, State University of New York.
Valentina Satvedi, Director of the Anti Racism Program for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries, working to provide antiracism education and organizing resources from an Anabaptist perspective. Valentina can share about oppression/racism within church and church related institutions, and provide tools and resources that assist in the process of dismantling oppression/racism. She is an ordained Church of the Brethren minister and strives to ground herself in the Word and read it through a postcolonial lens. Valentina is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school sessions and small groups. She lives in Lancaster, PA.
Timothy Seidel, Director for MCC U.S. Peace and Justice Ministries, which includes programs dealing with anti-racism training, immigration education, women's advocacy, peace education, restorative justice, and conflict transformation. He worked as a Peace Development Worker with MCC in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 2004-2007. Seidel has delivered sermons, lectures and workshops in numerous university and church contexts and has authored articles appearing in various periodicals, including Mennonite and Brethren in Christ periodicals such as The Mennonite, Canadian Mennonite, and Shalom!: A Journal for the Practice of Reconciliation. He was a contributing author to Under Vine and Fig Tree: Biblical Theologies of Land and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Cascadia Publishing, 2007). He also serves as a member of the board of the Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness. He lives with his family in Lancaster, PA.
MCC Washington Speaker's Bios
Mary Stata is the Legislative Assistant for International Affairs at the MCC Washington Office. Her focus is on Africa, HIV/AIDS, and militarism. Prior to joining the MCC Washington Office, she served in India with MCC’s SALT program where she taught English and worked at a women’s center. Mary is a graduate of Calvin College. She is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school sessions, small groups and youth groups. Mary can present about Christian advocacy, Sudan, DR Congo, Uganda, and HIV/AIDS.
Tammy Alexander, Legislative Associate for Domestic Affairs, MCC Washington Office, works on issues related to immigration, the environment, and health care. She is prepared to speak on a variety of public policy issues related to these topics, including comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, impacts of the U.S.-Mexico border fence on communities and on the environment, climate change, mountaintop removal, and health care reform. Tammy is willing to share in sermons, Sunday School classes, small groups, forums, workshops, and youth events.
Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, Director, MCC Washington Office, monitors U.S. policy related to the Middle East (Iran, Israel-Palestine, Iraq) and international debt relief. She has visited MCC programs in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. She is prepared to speak about faith and politics, the general work of the MCC Washington Office, or a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues the office works on. Rachelle is prepared to share in sermons, Sunday school settings, small groups, forums, and youth groups. She lives with her family near Washington, DC.
Christina Warner, Legislative Assistant for Domestic Affairs, at the MCC Washington Office, works to advocate for policies which justly address political and systemic concerns of MCC partners and constituents, as well, as educating MCC constituents about such issues. She is prepared to speak about domestic issues including: crime and justice; civil rights and religious freedom; Native American concerns; and U.S. economic justice (poverty, hunger and housing). Her first term with MCC was as a SALTer in rural India from 2008-2009. Christina is able to facilitate discussion with adults, youth, and children in Sunday school sessions, small groups, and youth groups.
To request the services of an MCC staff person, please contact Larry Guengerich with information about your event, dates of engagement, topics of interest and any request for a specific speaker. Larry may be reached at lrg@mcc.org or (717) 738-0885. Larry is also ready to help you plan an event if you have a general idea and would like assistance in shaping the specifics.
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