Peer Cohorts Facilitators #
Alec Hill is president emeritus of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA. He has also served as dean of the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University and as a Regional Director for World Relief. He holds a law degree from the University of Washington and has served on numerous boards, including Christianity Today, the World Affairs Council, and the Union Gospel Mission. Alec teaches part-time at Regent College (Canada), mentors rising leaders, and is the author of two books, Just Business: Christian Ethics in the Marketplace and Living in Bonus Time: Surviving Cancer, Finding New Purpose. He lives with his wife, Mary, in the Seattle area and is the blessed survivor of a bone marrow transplant in 2015.
Martha Holley Newsome currently serves as a Strategic Advisor for Servant and is the co-owner of Envision Golf, an indoor golf simulation business in Tualatin, Oregon. She is the former President & CEO of Medical Teams International, a global health and humanitarian organization. She has spent the last 30 years of her life dedicated to serving the health needs of others. During her tenure at Medical Teams, the organization grew from $26 to $60 million, enabling three million people in crisis to be reached with urgent and lifesaving medical care. She holds a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College. Prior to joining Medical Teams International in 2016, she worked with World Vision International for 20 years, with 15 of those years spent in Mozambique and South Africa. She and her husband live in Portland, Oregon and have two grown children, a son-in-law, and a goldendoodle named Nugget. www.linkedin.com/in/martha-holley-newsome-68448234/
Dr. Jessica Taylor is the CEO and Founder of Leadership Training Initiative, a boutique leadership development consulting firm specializing in inclusive and equitable strategy. She is passionate about empowering others to transform their organizations and leadership legacy. She credits this passion to her deep faith. Known for her empathy, pragmatism, and humor, Jessica equips and builds organizations where everyone can courageously be themselves without bias, discrimination, or barriers determining their success. With a lifetime of perspective as a biracial, woman of color, years of executive experience, and a background in human development, Jessica coaches executive leaders and guides organizations through equitable leadership strategies through nuanced and comprehensive methods centered around empathy and holistic practice. She currently serves as the President of Multnomah University, in Oregon and has previously worked as the Executive Director of Youth For Christ Portland. She is also an ordained pastor in the Church of God and holds a PhD in Christian Counseling and a Master of Arts in Human Services.
Dr. J. Derek McNeil was named the fourth president of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology in 2019. Since joining the leadership team at The Seattle School in 2010 as Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. McNeil has been integral to the school’s achievement of regional accreditation, the reimagining of our common curriculum, and securing millions in grant funding. Dr. McNeil has a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Northwestern University and an MDiv from Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to his tenure at The Seattle School, Dr. McNeil served as faculty in the PsyD program at Wheaton College Graduate School for over 15 years. Dr. McNeil has worked as a clinician in private practice, a diversity advisor, an organizational consultant, and an administrator. His research, writing, and speaking have focused on issues of ethnic and racial socialization, the role of forgiveness in peacemaking, the identity development of African-American males, leadership in living systems, and resilience. He has written chapters in The Black Family: Past, Present, and Future (1991), Men to Men: Voices of African American Males (1996), Why Psychology Needs Theology (2005), This Side of Heaven: Race Ethnicity and Christian Faith (2007), Reluctant Integration (2010), and Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice (2016). His teaching has also included coursework on Social, Cultural, and Spiritual Foundations of Mental Health; Family Systems Therapy; Group Theory; Therapy; and Leadership.