Maria Garriot

Maria and her husband Craig moved into urban Baltimore in 1981 to plant Faith Christian Fellowship, a multiethnic, socio-economically diverse PCA church, which they served until 2018. Maria worked in urban education reform at the Johns Hopkins University for 20 years and for Parakaleo, a ministry to church planting spouses, from 2009-2020. She joined her husband Craig and Rev. Stan Long to start Baltimore Antioch Leadership Movement (BALM) in 2018 to build cross-cultural disciple-making leaders. She authored A Thousand Resurrections, a memoir of urban church planting, and other articles and essays. She has five adult children and seven grandchildren.

Maria has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since 2017.

Leslie Johnson

Leslie is the Cross-Cultural Training Specialist for MNA’s Refugee and Immigrant Ministry. She works to equip volunteers with churches and non-profits to support and minister to refugees and immigrants with cultural sensitivity. Leslie also coaches families in their mission organization about living overseas with children.

Leslie lived in Eastern and Central Europe with her husband Thomas K Johnson from 1994 to 2019. After home schooling her children, she served in local Christian schools. Following an M.Ed. from Covenant College, she became director of the Christian International School of Prague for 11.5 years. She also became an educational consultant for the Association of Christian Schools International.

Though she experienced being an immigrant in post-Soviet Europe, it was while leading the international school with children from more than 20 countries that she became aware of the impact of cultural differences on students, parents, and teachers. Because of that interest, she developed workshops for teachers and others to help develop intercultural competence.

Leslie has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since September 2020 and certified in the CQ Assessment tool since April 2017. She is available for individual and group debriefs, mentoring, and/or workshops.

Barbara Jones

Barbara D. Jones currently serves as Founder and President of Walking Anew, Inc., a nonprofit organization seeking to create dignified and unified communities for Black and Brown people locally and globally. As a consultant and missionary for over twenty years, she has developed training modules to coach, disciple and train hundreds of leaders in ministry, government, and corporate spaces. She has served in various countries, leading teams around the world, and can now more effectively recognize the difference between cross-cultural and intercultural engagement. Because Barbara has personally experienced the benefit of embracing the concepts of intercultural competencies in her own life she graciously invites others into this crucial conversation.  

Barbara is married to Ernest T. Jones, mother to adult twin sons, and grandmother to two. She would enjoy the opportunity to aid you, your team or organization in further developing intercultural competencies. 

Barbara has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since September 2019. 

Robert Kim

Robert Kim is the Associate Professor of Applied Theology and Church Planting and holds the Philip and Rebecca Douglass Chair of Church Planting and Christian Formation at Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, MO. In this role, he is working to equip students with the gospel with an emphasis on raising up church planters. 

Robert is a second-generation Korean-American who was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He earned a BA in Sociology from UC Irvine, M.Div from Gordon-Conwell, Th.M from Fuller in Intercultural Studies, and a D.Min from Reformed Theological Seminary.  Prior to teaching at Covenant, Robert served for 13 years as a church planter, pastor, and regional network director in Philadelphia. 

Robert has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since December 2019.

Melissa Littlepage

Melissa Littlepage is the Founder and President of Jam & Bread, LLC, a consulting firm that facilitates spaces of creativity and guides groups through nourishing experiences to cultivate diverse, thriving communities. She formerly served as the Chief of Staff and Intercultural Consultant at the Institute for Cross-Cultural Mission. In addition to leading Jam & Bread, Melissa is an active community organizer, often working part-time as campaign staff in local elections and initiatives.

Melissa grew up just outside the nation’s capital, and was indelibly influenced by its vibrant multiculturalism and artistic depth. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Composition from Belmont University, and a Master of Music degree in Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Her work as a musician focuses on the preservation of the African American heritage in classical music. Melissa is married to Joel and they have three sons.

Melissa has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since July 2019.

Omar Ortiz

Omar Ortiz is the pastor of Harbor City Church in San Diego, CA. He is also a certified coach with Church Multiplication Ministries. As a pastor and coach he has used his knowledge of the intercultural competence to help church leaders, churches and Christians organizations learn how to move effectively cross lines of diversity.

Omar was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and grew up in Miami. He earned an M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL. Before moving to San Diego he served in various pastoral roles for churches in Boston, West Palm Beach and Miami. He is married to Kate and together they have four children.

Omar has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since November 2017. He is also certified in the CQ Assessment tool.

Wy Plummer

Wy Plummer is the African American Ministries Coordinator for Mission to North America (PCA). He is primarily responsible for recruiting African Americans into the Presbyterian Church in America.

 Wy was born in New York City and earned a BS from Howard University and an MS from Johns Hopkins University, both in electrical engineering. He earned an M.Div. from Chesapeake Theological Seminary in Baltimore MD. Before moving to Chattanooga, he was an assistant pastor at Faith Christian Fellowship and before that a co-pastor at New Song Community Church, both in Baltimore. He has been married to his wife Shirley for almost 50 years.

Wy has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since February 2017. 

Ann Powers

Ann Powers is currently the Executive Director at Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Hinsdale IL and the Administrator for the Midwest Alliance, a movement dedicated to planting PCA churches in 14 midwestern states. Previously she worked for Mission to North America (PCA) as a Midwest Regional Church Planting Administrative Assistant, MNA’s Assessment Center Administrator, and as an Assistant to the Church Planting Coordinator. She was heavily involved in church planter assessment as well as event planning and resourcing church planting and church planters in a variety of ways.

Ann was born and raised in Michigan, where she graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in History. She lives in Chicago. Ann and her husband, Ted, have an adult daughter.

Ann has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since November 2015. She is available for individual and small group debriefs and/or mentoring.

Ted Powers

Ted Powers is Director of the Midwest Alliance, a movement dedicated to planting PCA churches in 14 midwestern states. He also coaches church planters and pastors and is the Director of Church Planting for Central Indiana Presbytery (PCA). He is the former Church Planting Coordinator for Mission to North America (PCA) where he was involved in identifying, assessing, training, and coaching church planters and working with other MNA staff, church planting leaders and church planting network directors to provide vision and catalytic leadership for church planting in the PCA.

Ted was born in Maryland and grew up in Michigan. He earned a degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan, an M.Div from Gordon Conwell, and a D.Min from Covenant Seminary. He lives in Chicago, where he previously planted and pastored a church prior to joining MNA staff. He is married to Ann and they have one adult daughter.

Ted has been a Qualified Administrator for the IDI since November 2015.

Keren Wright

Keren currently works alongside her husband Alex Wright, who is an assistant to the pastor at New City Fellowship Beechwood in Rochester, NY. They have one son together. Keren previously worked as a Pre-Licensed Professional Counselor with a diverse population at a domestic violence shelter in Mississippi. Prior to completing her MA, she worked for other non-profits, such as the the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga.

Keren was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN. She is from a biracial family and grew up at a cross cultural church. She earned her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling from Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson, MS, and her B.A. in Psychology from Covenant College. . 

Keren has been a Qualified Administrator of the IDI since May 2017.