Our People: Advisory Council

Vera Ayers Bowen

Vera is a third generation owner of the Shield Ranch which manages ranch lands for conservation and nature education. Currently she serves as the President of El Ranchito, a nature immersion camp for under-served children. She is also President of the Shield Ayres Foundation, a nonprofit family foundation supporting human services, social justice and environmental conservation. She earned a BA from the University of the South. She lives in Austin, Texas

Heidy Sumei Chuang

Jason Fileta

Dr. Steven Garber

Steve is the Senior Fellow for Vocation and the Common Good for the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. A teacher of many people in many places, he was the founder and principal of the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, and recently served as Professor of Marketplace Theology and Director of the Masters in Leadership, Theology and Society at Regent College, Vancouver, BC. The author of several books, including Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, his most recent is The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work. One of the founders of the Wedgwood Circle, he continues to serve as a consultant to colleges and corporations, facilitating both individual and institutional vocation. A husband, a father and a grandfather, a he has long lived in Virginia, near Washington DC, living a life among family, friends, and flowers.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe

Katharine is Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy and Distinguished Professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX. She is an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change, one of the most pressing issues facing humanity today. But Katharine may be best known to many people because of how she’s bridging the broad, deep gap between scientists and Christians— work she does in part because she’s a Christian herself. She’s been named by Christianity Today as one of their 50 Women to Watch, she serves as the World Evangelical Alliance’s Climate Ambassador and as the science advisor to the A Rocha USA, the Evangelical Environmental Network, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and she currently hosts the PBS digital series, Global Weirding: Climate, Politics, and Religion.

Katharine is currently the Political Science Endowed Professor in Public Policy and Public Law and co-directs the Climate Center at Texas Tech University. She has a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Colgate University and Victoria University at the University of Toronto.

Liuan Huska

Liuan is a freelance journalist and writer at the intersection of ecology, embodiment, and faith. She is the author of Hurting Yet Whole: Reconciling Body and Spirit in Chronic Pain and Illness, a book weaving memoir, theology, and sociocultural critique. Liuan’s reporting and essays have appeared in many places, including Chicago’s WBEZ, Borderless, Grist, Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and NPR’s Here and Now. She is a regular columnist for Sojourners magazine.

Liuan lives with her family on the ancestral lands of several Native tribes, including the Potawatomi, near Chicago. When not writing, she might be found gardening, trying to identify edible plants, dancing in the living room, and breathing.

Dr. Ruth Padilla-DeBorst

Ruth serves as a Professor of World Christianity at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. She yearns to see peace and justice embraced in the beautiful and broken world we call home. A wife of one and mother of many, theologian, missiologist, educator, and storyteller, she has been involved in leadership development and theological education for an integral mission in her native Latin America for several decades. She serves with Resonate Global Mission, leading the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI – www.ceticontinental.org, a learning community with students across Latin America), coordinating the Networking Team of INFEMIT (International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation –www.infemit.org), and furthering missional leadership formation processes with the Christian Reformed Church of North America.

She serves on the board of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. She lives with her husband, James, in Costa Rica as a member of Casa Adobe, an intentional Christian Community with a deep concern for right living in relation to the whole of creation (www.casaadobe.org). Her studies include a Bachelors in Education (Argentina), an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Wheaton College), and a PhD in Theology (Boston University).

Perri Rosheger

Perri is Vice President of Community Engagement at the H.E. Butt Foundation. She has been in leadership with the Foundation for almost two decades.

In addition to oversight of two programs based in the Foundation’s nearly 2,000-acres of pristine Hill Country property, Perri leads an effort to build and launch programs and initiatives based in communities where the Foundation’s employees live and work.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Perri worked in fundraising leadership roles in the mental health, healthcare, and social services sectors. She is a graduate of Texas Tech University and lives in Boerne, Texas with her husband, John, and lively cat. They have three adult daughters.

Steven Purcell

Steven has been the Executive Director of Laity Lodge since 2006. From 1997-2002, he was the Director of Conferences and Retreats at Schloss Mittersill, in Mittersill, Austria. Prior to that, he attended Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., where he studied Spiritual Theology with an emphasis on its integration with the arts. Steven lives with his family in Boerne, TX.

T'Noya Thompson

T’Noya is a consultant for the North American Association for Environmental Education. Being born and raised in the Bahamas fostered a deep connection to the ocean that inspired a career path at an early age for T’Noya. She began her career at Moody Gardens in the Animal Care Department, where she served several roles including, connecting with communities in various capacities for twelve years. After Moody Gardens, she worked at Galveston Bay Foundation for two and a half years as the Advocacy Programs Manager. She educated and encouraged action to improve the overall health of Galveston Bay, Texas’ largest estuary. T’Noya is now the Environmental Education Specialist at the North American Association for Environmental Education. Here, she works with various partners on eeWORKS, eeBLUE, and developing an evaluation portal with Duke University.

Currently, T’Noya is also the Conservationist-In-Residence with Conservation Nation, and a Conservation Impact Fellow, Marine Conservation with the Cincinnati Zoo. Additionally, she serves as a Community Learning Leader for Miami University’s Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program. She serves as the Board Chair for the Vermilion Sea Institute. She is currently in Class Eight of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders Program. T’Noya is also a member of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation governing council, Science Partnerships Committee, serves as the Vice-Chair for the Public Participation and Education Committee for the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, and is on the Advisory Council for A Rocha USA.

T’Noya holds a B.S. in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University at Galveston and an M.A. in Biology from Miami University through Project Dragonfly’s Global Field Program. She is passionate about wildlife, environmental education, and supporting conservation and equity through community engagement. In her spare time, she enjoys growing in her faith, spending time with her wonderful family, meeting new people, and exploring when traveling.

Dr. Kyle S. Van Houtan

Kyle is a Research Scientist at Duke University. Previously he served as CEO of Loggerhead Marinelife Center and chief scientist of the Monterey Bay Aquarium where he oversaw the Aquarium’s research, including programs devoted to sea otters, white sharks, and plastic pollution.

Dr. Van Houtan concurrently holds an adjunct professorship at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and is an adjunct at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). His research explores global change, biodiversity conservation, historical ecology, and ethics. In 2012, he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama for his pioneering research on how climate regulates sea turtle populations.

Dr. Van Houtan earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, a Master of Science from Stanford University, a Ph.D. from Duke University, and completed postdoctoral research at Emory University. Before joining the Aquarium, he served as a program leader for NOAA in Hawaii where he led initiatives across the Pacific in protected species and climate.

His work has been featured on National Public Radio, The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Nature, Science, National Geographic, Wired, Smithsonian, Scientific American, and more. He lives in Florida with his wife and two children.

Jonathan Walton

Jonathan Walton is the creator of the Emotionally Healthy Activist Course and podcast, and the author of 5 books, including “Twelve Lies that Hold America Captive.” He is also a co-founder of KTF Press, and co-host of the Shake the Dust podcast. He has a degree in Creative Writing from Columbia University and an MA from the City University in New York in the Study of the Americas.

Currently, he works as a Senior Resource Specialist for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He develops resources around Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, including execution of one-off workshops, cohort experiences, and conferences.