Global Missions Speakers
Laura Ayala
Coordinator of Global Missions
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The Rev. Laura Ayala has served as Coordinator of Global Missions since February 2023. Rev. Ayala oversees CBF Global Mission, Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling Ministries, and Disaster Response. For nine years, she served as pastor of First Baptist Church of Rio Piedras in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Dianne McNary
Offering for Global Missions Advocate
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Dianne promotes the Offering for Global Missions by resourcing churches with materials and sharing stories from our field personnel to emphasize the importance of long-term presence. Having previously served as field personnel in Slovakia and Czechia for over 19 years Dianne is honored and excited to continue to support the long-term presence and ministry of our field personnel around the world.
Javier Perez
Director of Global Missions Programs & Impact
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Javier Perez serves as the director of Global Missions Programs & Impact at CBF, where he provides strategic direction for these programs and strengthens organizational impact in accordance with CBF’s Mission Distinctives. Javier received his seminary education at International Baptist Theological Seminary in Colombia; he also earned a master’s in public administration from the University of Texas. Topics which he can address include missiology from the margins, strategic planning, community development planning, program design, program evaluation, rural development and integral mission.
Ellen Sechrest
Director for Mission Engagement
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Ellen Sechrest is a native of North Carolina and is a graduate of both Mars Hill University and Southern Seminary. After serving 30 years in church staff capacities (youth and children, spiritual formation and missions), Ellen came to serve with CBF in 2019. In her role as Director for Mission Engagement, she helps churches deepen their relationships with CBF, with global missions and CBF field personnel. Ellen brings a unique experience of long-term church ministry and a global mission perspective to her work and can assist churches in evaluating and creating thriving mission portfolios, speaking to mission groups and being a worship leader .
CBF Field Personnel
Jade and Shelah Acker – Kampala, Uganda
Eddie Aldape – Albacete, Spain
Karen Alford – Togo, West, Africa
Anna Anderson – Rocky Mount, N.C.
Janee Angel – Antwerp, Belgium
Jonathan Bailey- Bali, Indonesia
Bev & Woody Baker - Global Service Corps, Ahoskie, N.C.
Chaouki and Maha Boulos – Beirut, Lebanon
Tina Boyles Bailey - Austria
Brooke and Mike- Southeast Asia
Rick Burnette – U.S. Disaster Response
Christine – Africa/Middle East
Annette Ellard and Steve Clark – Louisville, Ky.
Carson and Laura Foushee – Tokyo, Japan
Jessica Hearne – Danville, Va.
Mary Van Rheenen – Westervoort, Netherlands
Mary – Southeast Asia
Lynn Hutchinson – Africa/Middle East
Scarlette Jasper – Somerset, Ky.
Jenny Jenkins – Grand Goave, Haiti
Karen – North Africa
Kirk and Suzie – Thailand
Alicia and Jeffrey Lee – Skopje, Macedonia
Jana Lee - Larnaca, Cyprus
Dianne McNary – Little Rock, Ark.
Karen Morrow – Fort Worth, Texas
Matt and Michelle Norman – Barcelona, Spain
Stella Perrin - Larnaca, Cyprus
Cindy and Eddy Ruble – Malaysia and Indonesia
Gennady and Mina Podgaisky – Kyiv, Ukraine
Lita and Rick Sample – Fremont, Ca.
Greg and Sue Smith – Fredericksburg, Va.
Delores Stimpson – Global Service Corps, Research Triangle, N.C.
Missy Ward-Angalla – Kampala, Uganda
Kim and Marc Wyatt – Research Triangle, N.C.
Advocacy Speakers
Stephen Reeves
Executive Director of Fellowship Southwest
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Stephen serves as Executive Director of Fellowship Southwest and leads CBF advocacy efforts. An attorney originally from Texas, he has spent over 15 years working at the intersection of faith and public policy. In leading CBF’s advocacy efforts, he helps churches see how advocacy can be a natural outgrowth of their mission commitments. He can give guidance to churches seeking to incorporate a ministry of advocacy into their congregation, as well as provide issue education in the areas of predatory lending, immigration, religious liberty/church-state separation, and racial justice, among others. He is the co-author of The Mission of Advocacy: A Toolkit for Congregations.
Congregational Ministries Speakers
Brian Foreman
Coordinator of Congregational Ministries
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Brian gives attention to the work of the Fellowship and its partnerships to create and curate resources for congregations, and provides oversight to how CBF creates thriving congregations and a culture of inviting and equipping leaders.
Kelly Adams
Director of Clergy Support Ecosystem
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Kelly gives leadership to supporting clergy through an ecosystem that includes the CBF Fellows, Peer Learning Groups, and our Thriving in Ministry grant initiative. She is passionate about resourcing clergy and offering a holistic approach to wellness so that they can better lead their congregations to expand their capacity for creativity and renewal.
Chris Aho
Director of Thriving Congegations
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Chris directs the Thriving Churches Initiative and works to discover and design ways to cultivate the conditions for thriving within CBF congregations. He loves walking with people toward experiences of awe and wonder as they imagine new possibilities through the tools of design to bring about new experiences and fresh understandings.
Jay Kieve
Abuse Prevention and Response Advocate & Director of Ministerial Transitions
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Jay is CBF's Abuse Prevention and Response Advocate and is the Fellowship’s point person for connecting churches to resources for the prevention of clergy sexual abuse and clergy sexual misconduct. He also serves to connect gifted ministers and passionate congregations across the Fellowship.
Outreach and Growth Speakers
Kasey Jones
Associate Coordinator of Outreach and Growth
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Kasey Jones serves as CBF’s Associate Coordinator of Outreach and Growth. In her work to help grow the Fellowship’s impact, Kasey is most passionate about working directly with churches and individuals to make meaningful connections to do kingdom work together. Prior to joining the CBF staff in October 2017, Kasey served as a senior pastor in Washington, D.C. for 12 years, and also worked previously as a community organizer. She earned her Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary and Bachelors of Arts from Howard University. She is committed to working toward meaningful transformation within communities and loves working with others to help them live out their faith in such a way that lives and communities can be transformed. Kasey is available to teach or preach, especially focused on CBF’s inclusion work.
Grace Martino
Outreach and Growth Specialist
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Grace is part of the Outreach and Growth Team at CBF and operates from the area of New London, Conn. Grace is knowledgeable in topics that deal with equity and inclusion, CBF growth strategies, the Latino Network, the Young Baptist Ecosystem, and the church renewal process of Dawnings. She looks forward to helping congregations and church groups in any way possible.
Rubén Ortiz
Latino Field Ministries Coordinator
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Since 2017 Rubén Ortiz has served as Latino Field Ministries coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. An ordained minister since 2006, Rubén is a spiritual director and spiritual retreat leader and is a member of the Academy Forum, the Spiritual Directors International, the Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association and the Advisory Board of the Academy for Spiritual Formation. With more than two decades of serving Hispanic churches and extensive experience in missions in Latin America, Rubén is a catalytic agent for work in diverse communities. In his role of CBF Latino Field Coordinator, Ortiz is responsible for charting a future for the Fellowship in Latino contexts and implementing related short- and long-term strategies, as well as working to more fully integrate the CBF Latino Network into the life of the Fellowship.
Development and Chaplaincy Speakers
Shauw Chin Capps
President of CBF Foundation and as CBF’s Chief Development Officer
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Shauw Chin Capps serves as president of CBF Foundation and as CBF’s chief development officer. She provides overall leadership and management of the work of the CBF Foundation and leads CBF’s fund development strategies. Shauw Chin is passionate about walking alongside churches and individuals to help them best use God’s resources to fund the work of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment now and into the future. With deep Baptist roots, Shauw Chin came to faith as a result of the work of Baptist missionaries in Singapore. An experienced nonprofit leader and social worker, she is a graduate of Baylor University and the Carver School of Social Work (Master of Church Social Work). She can address subjects such as growing your church’s legacy giving program, the ministry of fund raising, best practices for fund raising for churches, and estate planning and charitable giving.
Renée Lloyd Owen
Director of Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling
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Renée Lloyd Owen is a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed healthcare chaplain with more than 20 years of experience in meeting the unique spiritual, religious and cultural needs of patients, their families, and healthcare providers. She has served in pediatric hospitals, adult hospitals and hospice in North Carolina, Miami, and Los Angeles. In August 2020, she became the third individual and the first woman, to serve as CBF’s Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care Ministries director and endorser. Just prior to joining the CBF Global staff, she served as the executive director of Spiritual Health for the Wellstar Health System in Marietta, Ga. She earned a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Campbell University. Prior to entering chaplaincy, Renée served on staff at several CBFNC churches in associate minister roles, working with children, youth and in the area of congregational care.
Schedule a Speaker
Thank you for reaching out to schedule a speaker through the CBF Speakers Bureau. Please fill out the form below. An automated response will be sent to you letting you know your request was received. Ellen Sechrest will then follow up via email. Currently, most of our engagements are being done virtually, but we hope to begin scheduling in-person engagements when it is safe to do so.