Ben Lowe serves as the National Organizer and Spokesperson for Y.E.C.A. He is also the Director of Young Adult Ministries with the Evangelical Environmental Network and Chair of the Board of the Au Sable Institute. A dedicated activist and organizer, Ben was born and raised as a missionary kid in Southeast Asia, where he experienced firsthand the impacts of poverty and pollution. He is a 2007 graduate of Wheaton College (IL) and previously served as National Coordinator for the student creation care network, Renewal, and Outreach Director of A Rocha USA. Ben is also the author of Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation (IVP 2009) and a regular contributor to RelevantMagazine.com.
Brittany Bennett is a graduate student in civil/environmental engineering and a laboratory technician at the Catholic University of America (DC). She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from Eastern University (PA), where she led their on-campus environmental organization. She was a student leader with the national student creation care network, Renewal, where she contributed to the publication of two major reports on student creation care efforts across the U.S. and Canada.
Jayme Cloninger is a human rights and social justice activist in Washington DC. As a young evangelical, Jayme advocates for faith-driven approaches to caring for the environment and its impact on poverty, especially in conflict-zones. Currently, Jayme serves as the Congo Campaign Organizer at the Enough Project to help mobilize offline engagement to create a sustainable constituency for anti-genocide and crimes against humanity issues. Prior to joining the Enough Project, Jayme served as the public policy consultant for Food for the Hungry for two years, organizing advocacy and policy efforts around child survival and maternal health, food security, gender issues, and worked with the Evangelical Environmental Network to help launch the Evangelicals for Climate Adaptation initiative. Jayme graduated from Samford University (AL) in 2011 with a B.A. in political science.
Kevin Crosby is focused is on helping people love their neighbors by living more sustainably, especially through renewable energy and energy efficiency. He currently serves as the Coordinator of Stewardship and Sustainability at Taylor University. Prior to joining the staff in 2010, Kevin earned an undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics and a graduate degree in Environmental Science from Taylor. Kevin and his beautiful wife Kristin live in Upland, Indiana where they are active in their church and community.
Emma DeVries is a recent graduate of Calvin College (MI) with a triple major in Geography, Environmental Studies, and Spanish. There, she led the student Social Justice Coalition, worked as the residence life sustainability coordinator, spread awareness on mountaintop removal, and conducted geography research on evangelical responses to climate change. Emma currently serves as a community organizer with AmeriCorps VISTA in Brooklyn, NY, working with undocumented Mexican immigrants to advocate for equality and justice for immigrants in the educational system. She plans to study both theology and environment-society geography in graduate school in order to better understand the church’s relationship to the environment and advocate for better care of God’s good earth. When she’s not working, she loves cooking, hiking, going to concerts, making maps, and pondering the new Jerusalem as she explores NYC.
Danika Foster is a recent graduate of Messiah College (PA) with a BS in Biology and a BA Spanish. While at Messiah, she worked for the Office of Sustainability and also wrote a regular column on sustainability for the campus paper. This fall, she will be starting a Master in Sustainable Communities at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. In her free time, Danika enjoys singing, swing dancing, visiting Chile, and spending time in God’s creation. Danika’s love of the outdoors started at a very young age as she has been camping and exploring creation since before she could walk or talk. As a child, she had many unique pets, such as a robin, blue jay, and an epileptic squirrel named Peanut. Her academic interests include eco-justice through fair resource distribution, indigenous cultures, environmental advocacy, and the Global South.
Rick Herron is from Dresden, Tennessee and is a senior at Yale University (CT), where he has been blessed to work with and learn from the amazing people in the Yale Student Environmental Coalition and 350 Connecticut. He is a trained presenter with The Climate Reality Project, and has given presentations on creation care and climate change to Methodist congregations in northwestern Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Rick is a proud Tennessean (Go Vols!) and the son of two United Methodist ministers.
Rachel Lamb is a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park where she is pursuing both a Master of Public Policy and Master of Science in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development. She received a B.S. in Environmental Studies, B.A. in International Relations, and Human Needs and Global Resources Program (HNGR) certificate from Wheaton College, IL where she graduated with highest honor. While at Wheaton, Rachel served as the President of A Rocha Wheaton and on the College President’s Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee as the student representative. As part of her professional development, Rachel worked for numerous agencies and organizations including the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, A Rocha Peru in Lima, Peru and the U.S. EPA. While working at the EPA, Rachel developed a Climate Change Adaptation Guide for Native American communities in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Currently, she is working on climate change adaptation research with the H. John Heinz Center for Science, Economics and Environment in Washington DC. Rachel’s professional expertise is finding interdisciplinary strategies to climate change mitigation and adaption, which simultaneously address ecological, economic and sociopolitical concerns. This includes both community-based conservation and national policy development. Her vocational passions also drive her to facilitate dialogue and action on creation care within the Christian community. Rachel’s recreational interests include hiking, backpacking, National Park hopping and traveling to new places.
Katie Norregaard is recent graduate of Moody Bible Institute where she majored in Communications. She served on the leadership team of the national student creation care network, Renewal, for multiple terms and is passionate about promoting social justice and informing others about the environmental roots (pun intended) to many of these issues. Katie loves playing the guitar, walking barefoot, biking, reading, photography, and climbing trees.
Kaleb Nyquist is currently serving as the Campaigns Assistant for Y.E.C.A. Kaleb is focused on helping people understand what it takes to live life well in our complicated, 21st century world. He thinks that the challenge of climate change is an opportunity for the church to demonstrate what sacrificial love looks like, and is passionate about bridging this gap between talk and action. Kaleb is a graduate of North Park University (IL) with a double major in Global Studies and Conflict Transformation. At North Park he led a team of students to partner with caste-reconciliation ministries in India. A native Oregonian, Kaleb has worked as the service-leadership counselor for a Pacific Northwest summer camp. He also has spent time working with grant-gifting organizations to help empower non-profits and NGOs to meet their financial and strategic goals. Now in Chicago, he is presently developing an urban youth ministry program with a neighborhood church. In his spare time, Kaleb likes to run, write, and travel.
Kyle Schaap is a recent graduate of Calvin College (MI) with a major in religion and minor in international development. At Calvin, he led the student Environmental Stewardship Coalition, led trips to Washington DC to advocate against mountaintop removal, and focused as much of his studies as he could on creation care theology. Now he is employed at the Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice, where he works as a policy analyst and advocacy fellow, focusing specifically on immigration and climate change. His future plans include attending seminary for his Master of Divinity and marrying his beautiful fiancé, Allie, in August. In his free time, Kyle enjoys cooking, reading, being outside, and longing for the fullness of the kingdom.
Curtis Witek is a recent graduate of Wheaton College (IL) with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and a certificate in Urban Studies. He recently earned a Land Resource Analysis certificate from the AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies while attending as the Calvin B. DeWitt Leadership Fellow. Curtis currently works with the National Park Service (NPS) as a Fellow in the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) program. Prior to this position, Curtis has engaged with climate action and urban sustainability from several interdisciplinary perspectives including: watershed planning and organizing at Friends of the Chicago River and the Calumet Stewardship Initiative (CSI); transportation and campaign planning at the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT); and climate action research at the Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) Division of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Curtis’ vocational goal is to design and implement cross-disciplinary strategies for preserving and protecting nature and fostering vibrant human communities by leveraging the unique strengths of cities. He is grateful for the opportunity to serve alongside such passionate young Christians in overcoming the climate crisis.
