Staff

Since its beginning, the Poverty Initiative’s staff has consisted of committed, creative, and collaborative volunteers, work-study students, UTS Field Education students, interns, and the Scholar-In-Residence.

In recent years, the Poverty Initiative’s staff has expanded to include a few paid hourly/part time consultants and two full-time staff members

To contact Poverty Initiative staff members, e-mail poverty@povertyinitiative.org.

Liz Theoharis is the Coordinator of the Poverty Initiative. She has spent the past 15 years organizing amongst the poor in the United States. Liz received her MDiv from Union Theological Seminary in 2004 where she was the first William Sloane Coffin Scholar. Currently, Liz is PhD candidate and Henry Berg Scholar in New Testament and Christian Origins. Liz is certified for ordination to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Willie Baptist is a formerly homeless father who came out of the Watts uprisings, the Black Student Movement, and working as a lead organizer with the United Steelworkers has 40 years of experience organizing amongst the poor including with the National Union of the Homeless, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, the National Welfare Rights Union, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, and many other networks. Willie serves as the Poverty Initiative Scholar-in-Residence and is the Coordinator of the Poverty Scholars Program.

Onleilove Alston is in her fourth year of the Master of Divinity/Master of Social Work program at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University School of Social Work. As a member of the Poverty Initiative she is co-developing the Mary Magdala Welfare Queen Project. Onleilove is a contributing writer for Sojourners Magazine and Blogging Specialist at Ecumenical Women at the United Nations. She is also a member of NY Faith & Justice and The Beatitudes Society. A native of East New York Onleilove plans to return to do faith based advocacy and organizing. 

Nkosi Anderson is a second-year Master of Divinity student at Union Theological Seminary. This year he is a field-education intern with The Poverty Initiative. He remains active is a number of progressive struggles for social justice.

Adam Barnes has been working with the Poverty Initiative for over three years.  The knowledgeable and inspiring people who work at and with the Poverty Initiative continue to deepen Adam’s understanding and commitment to the Poverty Initiative's sophisticated vision of enduring social change.  Adam’s specific interests are in thinking about the process of communicating across diverse cultural and religious boundaries in order to help strengthen, enrich, and transform that vision.

Vanessa Cardinale is a 3rd year MDiv student at Union. Vanessa came to Union after working as an organizer with CATA - The Farmworker Support Committee, a member organization of migrant farmworkers in South Jersey and Southeast Pennsylvania. She also has worked for several years with U.S. El Salvador Sister Cities, an organization that provides support and solidarity to organized rural communities and the larger social movement in El Salvador. Currently Vanessa is in-care with the United Church of Christ. Vanessa is a work study student with the Poverty Initiative and is interested in religious strategy and language inclusion in the movement to end poverty.

Chris Caruso is a PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center and an Instructional Technology Fellow at City College. Chris is the founder of Human Rights Tech, a non-profit organization that trains grassroots community organizers how to use information technology to promote human rights and end poverty. Chris is an active member of the Poverty Initiative and married to coordinator, Liz Theoharis.

Charon Hribar is the Curriculum Development and Replication Coordinator at the Poverty Initiative. She became involved with the Poverty Initiative as a student at Union where she attained her Masters in Divinity in 2007. Currently, Charon is pursuing her PhD at Drew University in Christian Social Ethics.  In addition, Charon has a particular interest in the use of Poverty Truth Commissions to confront the structural violence that creates poverty in the United States and around the world.

Kymberly E. McNair graduated from with a Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Theology from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York in 2008 and 2009 respectively.  Kymberly currently teaches adult learners at the College of New Rochelle’s School of New Resources.  She also serves as the co-Chair of the Social Action Ministry of her home church, Antioch Baptist Church, in Bedford Hills, NY.  She works with the Poverty Initiative’s religious strategy team.  

Derrick McQueen is a native of Morristown, NJ and started singing in the church as a child. He received his BA from Drew University in Theatre Arts. He has worked in avant garde theatre companies, community organizing, arts programming, and African American History. He offers workshops on The Spirituals, The Songs of the Civil Rights Era, Vocal Movement, and Vocal Group Improvisation. He is a Union graduate (MDiv) inTheology and the Arts, a poverty scholar with the Poverty Initiative, co-facilitator of worship design, and the 2008 Hudnut Preaching prize winner.

Dawn Plummer has served as the Poverty Initiative's Development Coordinator since 2008, responsible for fundraising and working with PI supporters. Dawn has worked with poor people's organizations, NGOs,and social movements fighting poverty in the US and abroad. From 2001-2005, she was the National Coordinator of the Friends of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST). Dawn is among the first generation of her Pennsylvania-based family to attend college. Dawn studied Leadership Development in the MST and received an MA in Political Science from the CUNY Graduate Center. In 1999, Dawn was a Human Rights intern for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Charlene Sinclair works on the Poverty Scholars Program as a work-study student. Charlene has 20 years experience as a community organizer. Having coordinated campaigns for the Center for Community Change, ACORN and the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, Charlene has experience in providing comprehensive training in grassroots organizing and political strategy and targeted organizational development assistance.

Colleen Wessel-McCoy has been involved with the Poverty Initiative since 2004 and currently works as the Publications Coordinator. Originally from Georgia, Colleen received her undergraduate degree from Agnes Scott College in 2001 and worked for three years as a community organizer in Chicago before moving to New York to attend Union. She earned a M.Div. from Union in 2007 and is currently a PhD student in Ethics.

John Wessel-McCoy is a project organizer at the Poverty Initiative.  He is originally from Decatur, Illinois.  He earned an MA in Spring 2009 from Union Theological Seminary and was awarded the Charles Augustus Briggs Award, given to graduates who have demonstrated "qualities of conscience, commitment, and courage as exemplified in the life and work of Charles Augustus Briggs."  Prior to entering the MA program at Union Theological and working with the Poverty Initiative, he was a union organizer.

Poverty Initiative Fellows

Crystal Hall is a Master of Divinity candidate with a concentration in New Testament studies at Union Theological Seminary. After completing her field education internship with the Poverty Initiative in 2010-2011, she continues her work as a Poverty Initiative Fellow as a work-study student. Crystal’s areas of work include research on the economics and coordinator of the Homeless Union History Project of the Poverty Scholars Program. She is a candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), and is actively exploring intersections among the academy, ordained ministry and grassroots anti-poverty organizing in building the movement to end poverty.

Amelia Van Iwaarden graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 with a B.A. in History. Originally from Minneapolis, MN, Amelia is excited to join the Poverty Initiative as part of the Fellows Program. Amelia developed an interest in the systems and structures that keep people in poverty while conducting research on religion and citizenship in New Delhi, India, and on nineteenth-century Catholic workers’ movements in France.

Dan Jones is an undergraduate student at New York University doing an internship with the Poverty Initiative. As a high school leader of the Philadelphia Student Union, Dan has been a participant in the Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Scholars Program.

Lenora Knowles works with the Poverty Initiative as a work-study student. She is currently in her first year of the Master of Divinity program at Union Theological Seminary. Lenora comes to the Poverty Initiative from the student labor move- ment, having had the opportunity to organize with students and workers in Southern California and Providence, Rhode Island. She is excited to challenge and expand her current understandings of love, justice, and community through critical study, strategy, and action with others within the Poverty Initiative network.

Kathy Maskell served for six years as the U.S. Advocacy Director for Love146, a leading international anti-slavery organization. She also co-planted the Elm City Vineyard Church in Connecticut. Kathy graduated from the University of Chicago with an A.B. in English and from City College, CUNY with a M.S. Ed. She is currently pursuing an M. Div. at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she lives with her husband Caleb and son Josiah.

Emily McNeill is a third-year M.Div. student at Union Theological Seminary focusing on New Testament studies. She has been a Fellow at the Poverty Initiative since 2010, working on communications, the Homeless Union History Project and PI events for Union students and the Poverty Scholars Network. Emily is also the Project Manager at United Method- ist Kairos Response, a campaign to align the church’s investments with its support for a just peace in Palestine/Israel.

Thia Reggio is completing the third year of her MDiv program at Union and has recently moved to candidacy in her ordination process with the New York City Presbytery. Thia’s work with Poverty Initiative has focused on development and communications. As a mother of three, Thia sees great promise in the coming generations and is committed to helping build a future without poverty and promote a present without prejudice for all the children of the world.

Rose Schwab works with the poverty initiative as a work study student. She is a first year student at Union who is inter- ested in Unitarian Universalist ministry. She is active in the struggles against and dialogue about systems of dominance and submission within our selves, societies, and spiritualities.

Stephen Tickner is currently a second-year M.Div student at Union Theological Seminary. This year he is doing his field education at the Poverty Initiative. Stephen was formerly the Food Justice program director for NY Faith & Justice and Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice. He is very passionate about the struggle for justice and is excited about getting to work with all the people at the Poverty Initiative.

Suzy Ujvagi is currently attending Hunter College School of Social Work with a method in Community Organizing, Development, and Planning. She has been a Poverty Initiative work-study student for the past two years. Most recently, she has been working in development. Next year, Suzy will be interning at the LGBT Community Center. Suzy will graduate with both a Masters of Divinity and Masters of Social Work in 2012.

Jennifer Wilder is a 2nd-year Master of Divinity Student at Union Theological Seminary and Poverty Initiative Fel- low. With the Poverty Initiative, Jennifer coordinates the Romero Leadership Project, which develops faith leadership by learning from Monseñor Oscar Romero and the Christian Base Communities of Latin America. Jennifer came to Union and Poverty Initiative after living and working in the Christian Base Communities of El Salvador. Jennifer is pursuing ordination with the United Church of Christ. Her interests, studies, and work focus on the role of communities of faith in the movement to end poverty, led by the poor.

Staff Alum

Alix Webb is the Program Manager for the Poverty Initiative. Alix came to the Poverty Initiative having worked in and with poor people’s organizations and in non-profit management and program design. Alix has worked around the United States and particularly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with welfare rights activists, low-income Asian young people, leaders of local non-profits, college students, artists and other community leaders and members.

Mary Ellen Kris came to Union Theological Seminary following a career in law and public service. An active volunteer in outreach ministries and disaster relief work with the United Methodist Church, Mary Ellen’s passion for outreach ministries and social justice led her to enroll in the Masters of Divinity program at Union and become an intern at Union’s Poverty Initiative. She helped coordinate the Poverty Initiative’s Immersion Course in January and assists with the Poverty Initiative’s outreach to faith-based organizations.

Julia Bertalan is in her third year of the M.Div program at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University School or Social Work. She is a work study student with the Poverty Initiative and is currently working on fundraising and Poverty Scholars Program planning.

Rachel Barnhart is a work-study student with the Poverty Initiative, in her third year of the M. Div program at Union Theological Seminary. She is currently working on Poverty Scholars Program planning with the Religious Strategy curriculum. A certified candidate for ordination as an elder for the United Methodist Church in Upstate New York, Rachel’s primary interests are in leadership development for pastors and congregations of mainstream churches and their role in a social movement to end poverty.

Jessica Chadwick currently serves as an Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church of Greater Des Moines in Iowa. In 2007 she received an MDiv. from Union Theological Seminary and MSSW from Columbia University. Jessica has been involved with the Poverty Initiative since 2004 and continues to help develop curriculum and programs for religious congregations.

Susie Hermanson recieved her MDiv from Union in 2007. Susie is currently a Community Minister at Judson Memorial Church, initiating Step By Step services there, and serving as part-time minister with the South Lyme Chapel in Connecticut.  She is under care toward ordination with the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme CT, and had been active with Poverty Initiative Immersions and fund-raising.

Megan Joiner A Union graduate (MDiv) in Systematic Theology, Megan is an aspirant for ministry in the Unitarian Universalist Association. Megan's main interests lie in the intersection between race and class and in public communications concerning progressive religion and the movement to end poverty. 

Aaron Scott is a Union graduate (M.A., New Testament Studies) who has assisted with Poverty Initiative staff childcare, immersion programs, religious strategies, and Bible scholarship.  Aaron currently lives in Vancouver, WA, works for the Oregon Health Study, aids in youth education with the Episcopal Church, and occasionally telecommutes to NYC for Poverty Scholars Strategic Dialogues.

Marlene Smith

Joe Strife

The Poverty Initiative Committee is dedicated to working with, fundraising for, and advising the Poverty Initiative. Alumni, Trustees, and former Trustees from Union also serve on the Committee. Members include: Douglas Ades (co-chair), David Callard, Aiyoung Choi, Barbara Fiorito (co-chair), Susan Hermanson, Stephen Hudspeth, David McAlpin, Ted Pardoe, Art Trotman, Michaela Walsh, Marian Warden, and Mitchell Watson (co-chair).

Back to Top