Nancy Watson is a native Californian who has been a trial lawyer and now serves as an Assistant Chief Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California, the agency responsible for attorney licensing and discipline in the state. She is the Church Council President of Grace Lutheran Church in Culver City, where she lives, and also enjoys working on the church’s Christian Service Committee.

David Carpenter is Pastor/Head of Staff at Brentwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. He graduated from Eastern College in Philadelphia and obtained his Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary. During seminary, he was involved in Young Life and spent a year in South Africa during the time when apartheid laws were being dismantled, working with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the South African Council of Churches and a host of reconciliation ministries. After marrying, he and his wife Yvette took a 16-month honeymoon to 45 countries, meeting with churches and mission organizations. Dave and Yvette have one daughter and live in Los Angeles, California.

Randy Brewer is the President and CEO of Brewer Direct, Inc., a full-service direct marketing agency and fundraising consultancy. Randy has served as a marketing consultant to non-profit organizations, agencies and advertisers and has been helping non-profit organizations raise money for over 25 years. He is an ordained minister with degrees in Christian Education and Youth Ministry from Azusa Pacific University and has completed studies in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and business management from the University of Phoenix.  Randy lives in Monrovia, California, where he attends Restored Life Fellowship.

Michael Cassidy is the Founder of African Enterprise and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Enterprise Leadership Training Center in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He was born in Johannesburg, grew up in Lesotho and received a Master in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge University in England and a Bachelor of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in California. Cassidy launched AE in 1962 with the assistance of four seminary friends via an evangelistic mission to Pietermaritzburg. He has since become a significant Christian leader in South Africa and across the African continent, leading hundreds of evangelistic mission and calling Christians together via the South African Congress on Mission and Evangelism in 1972, the Pan African Christian Leadership Assembly in 1976 and 1994, the South African Christian Leadership Assembly in 1979 and 2003, the National Initiative for Reconciliation in 1985 and the National Initiative for the Reformation of South Africa in 2008. Cassidy and his wife Carol have three children and seven grandchildren and live in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  >>Find out more about Michael Cassidy

Leif Gjestland

Leif Gjestland was born in Swaziland to missionary parents. His African missionary heritage stretches back to the 1850s, when his great-grandparents and then grandparents served the Zulu people under a Norwegian Lutheran mission. A fluent Zulu-speaker, Gjestland graduated from Kearsney College in KwaZulu-Natal and then Natal University in South Africa. He completed an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley, and then started his own software company, which offered products able to capture and tabulate survey data, used in many countries by companies such as Gallup. He and his wife Nan live in Atherton, California, and have three grown children and two grandchildren.

Curtis May

Curtis May is Director of the Office of Reconciliation Ministries for Grace Communion International (formerly the Worldwide Church of God) and a Ministry Development Trainer for church leaders.  He is also a former Grace Communion pastor and district superintendent and a current elder and member of the church’s Board of Directors. He and his wife, Jannice, have served in full-time pastoral ministry for 38 years in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C; Richmond and Norfolk Virginia; and in Los Angeles and Pasadena, California. He received his pastoral credentials through the then Worldwide Church of God through service and studies at Ambassador College, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Regent College and the Biblical Research Institute. He is also certified in Mediation and Facilitation through UCLA and the Western Justice Center Foundation. The Mays have two married children and live in Banning, California.

Sharon Hart Morris May grew up in South Africa and came to the U.S. in 1972 where she earned a degree in psychology from UCLA, followed by a Master’s in Christian Leadership and a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from the Fuller Theological Seminary Graduate School of Psychology. She is now a licensed marriage and family therapist and director of the Haven of Safety Relationship Center where she specializes in Emotionally Focused Therapy. She has a heart for working with couples, leaders, pastors, missionaries, as well as training counselors and helping people foster close and secure relationships with their Creator and their loved ones. Sharon and her husband Michael live in Arcadia, California, and have four grown sons.

James Morrison

James Morrison grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Tennessee before earning a Bachelor of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a chaplain in the U.S. Army before serving as associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, executive pastor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church and senior pastor of Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church. He has made 12 visits to Africa, both as past chairman of the AEUSA Board and in a personal capacity. He and his wife, Sarah, have two children and four grandchildren and live in Pasadena, California.

John Pentecost was born in Mexico to parents who were involved with student ministries, which stimulated in him a natural interest in working among young people of other countries. He studied cultural anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, leading to a decade of service with World Vision, including two years in Senegal, in West Africa, as part of a large-scale development team. After returning to the U.S., he began work with a real estate firm which provides housing and commercial leasing in the San Gabriel Valley of California. He has been a long-time member of Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena and currently participates in Providence Mission Homes, which provides 43 furnished apartments for overseas missionaries.

John Reynolds

John Reynolds serves as executive vice president of Azusa Pacific University in southern California where he provides leadership for the administration of the university and its strategic initiatives. Originally from South Africa, he has worked in the mining industry and as the global CIO for World Vision International. Reynolds earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science and information systems in South Africa, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in leadership and organizational effectiveness at Azusa Pacific University, where he also teaches as adjunct professor in leadership, change management, and strategic thinking. Reynolds also serves as President of Doulos International, a non-profit organization providing organizational and management consulting to non-profits and NGO's, and on the boards of Cornerstone Christian College in South Africa and LCC International University in Lithuania. He is married to Carole, is the father of two sons, Dustin and Byron, and lives in San Dimas, California.