Our Core Organizer/Trainers & Trainer Apprentices (COTA):

JAMES ADDINGTON

James, a former Crossroads Board member, is a training and organizational development consultant with the Minnesota Collaborative AntiRacism Initiative (MCARI) – one of Crossroads’ regional organizing partners, and served for eleven years as its co-director. He has 30 years experience in community development, leadership training, organizational development and strategic planning. James spent ten years in a variety of international local and regional development projects including in Jamaica, Venezuela, India, the Philippines, and Nigeria; directed the Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota (an advocacy and public policy education arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) for nine years; and served as adjunct faculty at Luther Seminary.

JOY BAILEY

Joy is Director of Organizing & Training for Crossroads. She taught high school Spanish for six years in Kalamazoo, MI and occasionally teaches courses on race and racism in education at Western Michigan University. Joy has been doing local antiracism organizing in Kalamazoo Public Schools for over ten years. Although originally from North Dakota, she currently lives with her spouse in Kalamazoo, MI.

Joy es entrenadora y organizadora para Crossroads. Joy enseñó español en una escuela secundaria por seis años en Kalamazoo, MI y de vez en cuando enseña en Western Michigan University dando clases sobre el racismo y la educación. Joy también ha participado en el equipo anti-racista de Kalamazoo Public Schools por más que diez años. Ella es originalmente de Dakota de Norte, pero ahora vive en Kalamazoo, MI con su esposo.

RYAN BAILEY

Ryan Bailey is a high school English teacher and antiracism activist. He has worked on antiracism organizing within his local congregation as well as within the public schools. Ryan is also active in working on other justice issues such as educational reform, fair trade issues, community sustainable agriculture, etc. Ryan is a Nationally Board Certified teacher and has his masters degree in Educational Leadership from Michigan State University. Ryan and his partner Joy live in Kalamazoo MI.

REV. WILLARD BASS, JR.

Willard is Director/Organizer of one of Crossroads’ regional organizing partners the Institute for Dismantling Racism (IDR) in Winston-Salem NC, and is also a Crossroads Organizer/Trainer Apprentice. In addition, he is Assistant Pastor of Outreach, Green Street United Methodist Church. Willard is engaged in a broad range of civic and church activities focused in various ways on building and enhancing community and dismantling racism including serving on Crossroads Board. He and Shirley Lewis Bass, his wife of more than 34 years, have three children who are making vocations in medicine and industry.

eric bjorlin

eric is a member of the antiracism team of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is an organizer with Chicago Regional Organizing for Antiracism (C-ROAR). He is also active supporting the Chicago program of Lutheran Volunteer Corps. eric gets paid for his work as the School Programs Manager with Active Transportation Alliance, a Chicago-based organization working to promote walking, biking, and public transportation. He is a writer/performer and storyteller at various events around Chicago whenever he gets the chance.

JYAPHIA CHRISTOS-RODGERS

Jyaphia lives in New Orleans and has worked 20+ years with community-based programs, including co-founding the Center for Ethical Living & Social Justice Renewal (CELSJR, a Unitarian Universalist-based nonprofit that runs the Post-Katrina Rebirth Volunteer Center); and with the Food Justice Movement. As an antiracism Organizer/Trainer, Jyaphia works with Crossroads and groups in the UUA, and belongs to European Dissent, a collective of antiracist white people associated with People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

DERRICK C. DAWSON

Derrick is a member of the AntiRacism Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, and served as its Co-Chair for three years. He is the Training Manager at the Chicago law firm of Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg in Chicago, and is a graduate student and teaching assistant in English Composition at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Derrick was also a broadcaster and journalist in the United States Navy, where he served for eight years on ships in Asia and the Pacific.

LOUISE DERMAN-SPARKS

Louise was a human development faculty member at Pacific Oaks College from 1974-2007 and has worked with young children and families as an early childhood education teacher and program director. She has authored and co-authored of several books including the recently published 2nd edition of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (with Julie Olsen Edwards, NAYEC 2009). Louise speaks, conducts workshops and consults widely throughout the U.S. and internationally. A former member of the Governing Board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (1998-2002), she is on the National Diversity Advisory Council of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. She has been an activist for social justice for over 40 years.

ROBETTE ANN DIAS

Robette has been Executive Co-Director and a Core Organizer/Trainer since 2002. Prior to that she was an antiracism program coordinator for the Unitarian Universalist Association’s (UUA) Faith In Action Department, providing training, technical support and advocacy for the Journey Toward Wholeness antiracism initiative. As a Karuk Indian, Robette brings a specifically indigenous perspective to antiracism organizing. She is a founding member and past president of Diverse & Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM), the continental support and advocacy organization for UUA People of Color. She is currently Board President of Oyate, a Native American resource and advocacy organization.

EMILY M. DREW

Drew teaches Sociology and American Ethnic Studies at Willamette University in Oregon. Her primary areas of teaching and research revolve around race, racism, and antiracism. She received her education from Jesuit universities, as well as the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans where she helped organize a freedom school and did activist work against racism with European Dissent. She is active in social justice including educational reform, environmental justice, and the abolition of the prison-industrial complex. As an antiracist white person, Drew is committed to understanding how white power and privilege de-humanize white society, and is considering what white people have to gain with an end to racism.

THE REV. DOCTOR WILLIAM J. GARDINER

Bill Gardiner currently works as an antiracism consultant in the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). He is also a member of the Board of Crossroads. Bill was the Director for Antiracism and Social Justice Empowerment Programs in the Department for Faith in Action at the UUA in Boston, Massachusetts from 1990 through 2004. Before that Bill served as a parish minister in Washington DC, Nashville TN and Philadelphia PA.

MARY PAT MARTIN

Mary Pat is an Early Childhood Education professional with experience as a director of an Early Childhood Program. She is currently a professor at Oakton Community College in Illinois. She has an M.A. in Early Childhood and a M.Ed. Mary Pat has also been an elementary and preschool teacher and an early childhood education consultant in the Chicago area. She has done extensive consulting and training in culturally relevant and anti-bias education. Mary Pat has been associated with Crossroads for more than fifteen years.

MARILYN MILLER

Marilyn is the Executive Director of the Lutheran Human Relations Association (LHRA), a national peace and justice organization. She is an educator/ trainer who served as an adjunct faculty member at Concordia University, Advisor and Program Director for the Multicultural Engineering Program at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and as Director of Youth and Congregational Ministries for LHRA. Marilyn is a native of Milwaukee who has served locally and nationally in helping people to reach their full potential educationally and relationally. she has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Education and a Master of Arts – Reading. Marilyn completed a Certification Program in Youth and Family Ministry and is working to become a pastor through the Theological Education for Emerging Ministries Program.

REV. DR. B. JO ANN MUNDY

Jo Ann is an organizer, facilitator and board member with ERAC/Ce (Eliminating Racism and Claiming/ Celebrating Equality), a regional organizing partner of Crossroads in southwest Michigan. She serves on the board of World Fare, a fair trade store in Three Rivers, Michigan; and is a founder mentor of the NIA Project where she encourages the celebration of identity, purpose and sisterhood in adolescent women of color. Enjoying over 15 years of pastoral ministry, Jo Ann currently serves as a solo pastor of First Baptist Church of Three Rivers, Michigan and is a founding member of the Three Rivers Area Faith Community, an ecumenical and faith-based social justice network of churches where she completed her doctoral thesis in “Sacred Action to Claim an Anti-Racist Identity in the Faith Community of Three Rivers Michigan.”

REV. CHARLES RUEHLE

Chuck is a member of Coming Together Racine, a local community based antiracism organizing effort in Racine, WI. He is also the retired former Executive Co-Director of Crossroads and continues to serve as a core organizer/trainer consultant with Crossroads. Since 1971 he has led antiracism workshops and produced antiracism organizing and training curriculum and resources. Chuck is a Lutheran Pastor and he served an urban parish, Reformation Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, from 1986 to 1995. He lives in Racine with his wife, Pastor Susan Ruehle. He is also an artist.

SUE RUEHLE

Sue has been organizing, teaching and training on issues of oppression for over 25 years. She has worked as a teacher, congregational pastor and assistant to the bishop in the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). She recently retired as pastor from a Milwaukee area congregation. Along with her husband Chuck she has created antiracism training resources. She is also a poet.

DR. VICTOR M. RODRIGUEZ

Victor is an educator, writer and trainer whose area of expertise is the racialization of Latino identity and its impact on political behavior. He is a sociologist, professor and former chair of the Dept. of Chicano and Latino Studies at California University, Long Beach. Victor has written extensively, and published “Latino Politics in the United States: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class in the Mexican American and Puerto Rican Experience” in 2005. His most recent publication is “The Racialization of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Asians, 1890′s-1930′s” in Eds. John N. Tsuchida, Juan M. Benitez and Dean S. Toji Education, Youth, Leadership and Labor: Asian Pacific American and Latino Perspectives, Long Beach, CA Center for Asian Pacific American Studies, 2007. He is a former Co-Chair of Crossroads Board.

REV. MICHAEL P. RUSSELL

Michael is the pastor of the Jubilee Faith Community of the ELCA in Country Club Hills, IL. Prior to that he did community organizing with Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. in Chicago’s West Englewood community. Michael has a Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and completed post graduate studies at the Keller School of Business Management. He co-authored “Lazarus at the Gate: Writings and Reflections on Poverty and Wealth,” a resource of the ELCA Poverty Ministries Networking program unit for Church in Society. Most importantly, he is a child of God, partner of Debra, and father to Justin, Chandra, and Evan. They are the center of his universe and inspiration for his antiracism work.

ANNE STEWART

Anne has worked as an Organizer/Trainer for Crossroads since 1992. She believes that her life experience has prepared her to focus on systemic racism. That experience includes: growing up in Mississippi, teaching high school English on Chicago’s South and West Sides, counseling individuals and couples, teaching and social work in an Early Childhood setting, and parenting and grandparenting African Americans.

CARMEN L. VALENZUELA

Carmen is a coordinator of the Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI), a long-time regional organizing partner with Crossroads. Born and raised in Arizona, she lived in Minneapolis for over 25 years and has recently returned home. She has a variety of management and training experience both in the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Active in MCARI since its inception in 1993, she has a long history of activism in ecumenical church and community organizations that have worked to cross the boundaries of gender, class and “race.” She is a 1995 graduate of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in New Brighton, Minnesota, and currently serves on the Board of Crossroads.

JESSICA VAZQUEZ TORRES

A native of Puerto Rico, Jessica resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her partner. She is a graduate student (again!) at Candler School of Theology and works part-time for Crossroads. An ordained minister, Jessica received her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from University of Central Florida in Orlando and a Master of Divinity from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. Jessica identifies as a “1.5 Generation Queer Latina of Puerto Rican descent.”

KAREN ZIECH

Karen organizes and trains in the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago where she has been a member of the Anti-racism Commission since 2008, serving as co-chair from 2008 – 2012. As a member of Chicago Regional Organizing for Antiracism (C-ROAR) she is working to build a network of antiracist allies in the Chicago area. Karen spent 20 years as a professional volunteer, organizing women and parents around various issues. She moved into instructional design and training in the telecom industry where she worked for nearly fifteen years. As a career consultant in the outplacement industry, she taught laid-off employees job search skills e.g. resume writing, interviewing, negotiating, social media and networking. Karen loves spending time with her four children and their kids (ten grandchildren and counting), practicing yoga, reading and walking.