Conversation Circles
Being Chaplains in a Climate-Changed World

Abraham Ndungu

I am 62, a migrant to the US from Kenya. I am married and have three children. I hold two doctorates – in spatial/environmental planning and in theology of social justice. I have worked as a prison chaplain for and am currently a chaplain in warehouses and business premises. I live in Springfield, Ohio. My recent publication of my recent doctoral dissertation The Influence of the Church on the Local Community for the Kingdom of God Through Social Justice Initiatives (2021), a copy of which can be found here: The Influence of the Church on the Local Community: Fruition of the Kingdom of God through Social Justice Initiatives: Ndung’u, Abraham G., Reuschling, Wyndy Corbin: 9781725273481: Amazon.com: Books

I am an ordained minister with the Mennonite church and have held various leadership roles including pastoral work and university teaching in Kenya and in the United States. Two key traditions of my Mennonite faith that have had a great impact on my life are missio Dei (the mission of God) and social justice. My dream is to become an educator to help train others how to deal with emotions occasioned by social/economic/environmental injustices while also promoting justice and holistic transformation of individuals, communities and societies.

Alanna Birch

I am a holistic health practitioner and eco-chaplain based in Vermont, in service through clinical herbal medicine, education, spiritual care and deep nature connection. I support people to discover belonging and connection to their earthly and spiritual roots through nurturing relationships with the more than human world. 

I offer earth oriented spiritual care in service to groups and individuals. As a clinical herbalist, I work with clients 1:1 to support optimal vitality though plant based medicines, nutrition, mindfulness practice and other complimentary modalities. In addition to my clinical work, I facilitate workshops on herbal medicine and deep earth connection throughout New England.

Debra Hayes

Debra Hayes had a 40-year career in teaching, both in high schools and universities. From 2019 to 2023, she led the University of Sydney’s School of Education and Social Work. She is a student of Tibetan Buddhism and, since retiring,  is working toward becoming a spiritual caregiver. She has completed an Introductory Clinical Pastoral Education course with the Buddhist Council of NSW. She is a volunteer Surf Life Saver and enjoys ocean swimming. She lives in Avalon Beach, Australia.

Dennis Testerman

Dennis Testerman serves as the Stewardship of Creation Enabler with the Presbytery of Charlotte and lead organizer for the annual Cabarrus County CROP Hunger Walk. Dennis has served as a commissioned agricultural missionary to Nigeria—where he taught agriculture and managed a school farm—and to Pakistan, where he served with an agricultural and community development project. His three decades of bivocational ministry as a local, state and federal public servant include environmental education; preserving working farms, forests, and state-designated natural areas; and environmental restoration. He currently collects farm reports for the United States Department of Agriculture, and serves as a volunteer preserve steward at the Suther Prairie with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture’s Plant Conservation Program.

A native of the Roanoke Valley in Virginia, Dennis’s roots run deep in Appalachia. He grew up in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Parkway, his favorite national park. Dennis has a degree in forestry with a major in environmental conservation from Virginia Tech and a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in environmental stewardship from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

During college, he worked with Virginia’s water quality agency as a cooperative education student. Dennis’s graduate studies included a field ministry placement with the interfaith Land Stewardship Council of North Carolina, in addition to service as a student chaplain with A Christian Ministry in the National Parks and a park volunteer in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He is a fellow with GreenFaith and with the Natural Resources Leadership Institute at North Carolina State University. In addition, Dennis was trained as a Climate Reality Project leader by Vice-President Al Gore, and serves as a Blessed Tomorrow ambassador. Dennis is a certified environmental educator, master gardener, permaculturist and therapeutic horticulturist.

Dennis’s sense of place is rooted in his family’s circa-1789 Appalachian mountain cove farm in Northeast Tennessee on land of the Cherokee. He is the first out of ten generations born off of this farm. This farm features a state-recognized old-growth forest natural area and a century-old restored Southern heirloom apple orchard.

Both Dennis and his wife Paula homestead on the land of the Catawba in the unincorporated historic New Gilead community in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. They are the second owners of 50 year old brick ranch house with a geothermal heat pump and an 1100-gallon rainwater cistern that sustains their vegetable garden and native plant habitat.

Jennifer Wilhoit

Jennifer J. Wilhoit, Ph.D. is a spiritual ecologist, published author, interfaith practitioner, hospice volunteer, and the founder of TEALarbor stories. She compassionately supports people’s creative and healing processes by drawing from nature’s wisdom. Jennifer is a long-time active member of the global compassion, interfaith, and gratitude movements. www.tealarborstories.com

Kate Cowie-Haskell

Kate was raised between the Florida Keys and Marshfield, MA. Their formative experiences playing among mangroves and tropical fish laid a foundation for an earth-based spirituality that they continue to put into words and practice. After eight years spent working in public radio and agriculture in the Boston area, Kate moved to Minneapolis in 2023 to pursue an M.Div in Social Transformation at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Kate considers dancing, knitting, and gardening to be foundational to her spiritual practice. They hope to live in a way that supports the preservation and proliferation of beauty.

Kirsten Johnsen

Kirsten Ellen Johnsen, PhD is a mythologist, ceremonialist, writer, and weaver living on an off-grid homestead in her home community comprising 5,000 acres of coastal range headwaters in Northern Pomo territory, Mendocino County California. She is active in bioregional networking, community facilitation, and land-prayer through ancestral meditation, poetry, and song. She follows a self-directed path of Celtic and Norse animism and faery faith as guided by the spirits of place of her home, which requires much deep listening and never-ending learning.

Rhoda Toperzer

Samantha Janes

Hello! My name is Samantha Janes and I reside in sunny Klamath Falls, Oregon. I am both a Community Chaplain and Urban Farmer. I believe that time in nature has the potential to heal and restore balance in our lives, relationships, and connection to the earth. 

After more than 3 decades of serving in a Chaplain capacity for members of various communities, I went back to school and received my Chaplain and Minister credentials through online classes at Christian Leaders Institute. I continue to serve as a Community Chaplain. 

Most days you can find me at the farm or participating in various community activities in which I have a chance to interact, work with, and console those looking to ‘talk to someone’.