inVocation Fellows Faculty
David M. Bailey
David M. Bailey is a public theologian, cultural anthropologist, and catalyst focused on building reconciling communities. David is the founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon, a spiritual formation ministry that equips the American Church to actively and creatively pursue racial healing in their communities. He is the co-author of the study series, A People, A Place, and A Just Society; the executive producer of the documentary 11 am: Hope for America’s Most Segregated Hour and the Urban Doxology Project. David is rooted at East End Covenant Fellowship serving on the preaching team and his most tremendous honor is to be married to his wonderful wife, Joy.
Andy Crouch
Andy Crouch is partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship. His writing explores faith, culture, and the image of God in the domains of technology, power, leadership, and the arts. He is the author of five books (plus another with his daughter, Amy Crouch): The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place, Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, and Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. For more than ten years he was an editor and producer at Christianity Today, including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. His work and writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing.
Rev. Dr. Bill Fullilove
Bill Fullilove is the Executive Pastor at McLean Presbyterian Church in McLean, VA, where he also serves as the Principal and Senior Fellow of The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture. Bill is Professor of Old Testament and Dean of Students at Reformed Theological Seminary, New York City. He previously served for seven years as the director of the Capital Fellows Program. He is certified as a Belbin Team Roles Consultant, a Highlands Ability Battery Consultant, an MCORE Coach, an EQi and EQi 360 Assessor, and a SIMA (System for Identifying Motivating Abilities) In-House Field Associate. He uses these tools to help organizational clients improve effectiveness and individual clients discern career direction.
Dr. Kristen D. Johnson
Kristen Deede Johnson is Dean and Vice President of Academic Affairs and G.W. and Edna Haworth Professor of Educational Ministries and Leadership at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. In partnership with International Justice Mission, she and co-author Bethany Hanke Hoang wrote the award-winning The Justice Calling: Where Passion Meets Perseverance (Brazos Press, 2016). Kristen’s scholarship focuses on theology, culture, formation, and political theory and her other publications include Theology, Political Theory, and Pluralism: Beyond Tolerance and Difference (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Donna Lowry, MD
Donna Lowry leads the mentor program for the inVocation Fellows initiative, matching Fellows with mature encouragers keen to support them in their faith formation and vocational stewardship. Prior to this consulting role, Donna was the President/CEO of Ready for School and Medical Director of Reach Out and Read Michigan, initiatives focused on creating equitable communities for children to thrive from the beginning of life. Before this, Donna served patients as an OB/GYN in both academic and private practice settings. In addition to professional work, her call to “awaken the possibilities in others” has looked like serving the greater Holland community on multiple Boards and through mentoring college/public health/medical students and young professionals. She resides in Holland with her husband, David, and is the grateful mother of three grown sons who live across the United States.
Laura McDaniel
Laura is an ordained minister, attorney, entrepreneur, mentor, wife, and mother who sees possibility everywhere. After becoming a Christian at age 35, she reframed her work as a Washington DC corporate attorney to a mission field and began hosting ‘beer and theology’ nights at a local pub. Since 2009 she has co-developed UPTICK which discovers and invests in the next generation of Jesus-shaped leaders in North America and around the world, and NEXUS which equips the everyday people of God to integrate their faith in all aspects of life. Laura and her husband, Henry, own a farm in Virginia where they raise honeybees and grow hot peppers. Her son, Patrick, lives in Vienna, Austria and ministers to refugees fleeing Afghanistan and Iran.
Jen Michel
Jen Pollock Michel is an award-winning author and speaker. Her fifth book, In Good Time: Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace and Change, released in December 2022. She holds a B.A. in French from Wheaton College, an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University, and is working to complete an M.F.A from Seattle Pacific University. You can follow Jen on Twitter and Instagram @jenpmichel and subscribe to her weekly letters at jenpollockmichel.com. Jen lives in Cincinnati with her family. Pronunciation Guide: Pollock, like Jackson Pollock, the painter; Michel, like Michelle, a woman’s first name.
Dr. Michaela O’Donnell
Dr. Michaela O’Donnell is the Executive Director of the Max De Pree Center for Leadership where she oversees the center’s vision, strategy, program, and team, all with the goal of helping leaders like you respond faithfully to God in all seasons of your life and leadership. Michaela is the primary visionary and content creator behind De Pree Center’s blossoming Road Ahead program, and authored Make Work Matter: Your Guide to Meaningful Work in a Changing World. In addition to her academic work, Michaela has over ten years of experience as a leader in the marketplace as the Owner and Managing Director of Long Winter Media. It is a vibrant creative agency that helps brands make social impact through multi-media content.
Dr. Amy L. Sherman
Amy is a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research. Named by Christianity Today in 2012 as one of the fifty most influential Evangelical women in America, she is the author of seven books and over 100 articles in a variety of Christian and secular periodicals including First Things, Books & Culture, Common Good, The Christian Century, Philanthropy magazine, and Christianity Today. Sherman’s book Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good seeks to help marketplace Christians live missionally, advancing foretastes of the Kingdom of God through the strategic deployment of their vocational power. Her most recent book (2022) is Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society.
Dr. James K.A. Smith
James K.A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University and serves as editor in chief of Image journal, a quarterly devoted to “art, mystery, and faith.” An award-winning author, his books include Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? (2006), Desiring the Kingdom (2009), How (Not) To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (2014), You Are What You Love (2016), Awaiting the King (2017), On the Road with Saint Augustine (2019) and The Nicene Option: An Incarnational Phenomenology (2021), and How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now (2022). His popular writing has appeared in magazines such as Christianity Today, The Christian Century, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Website: http://www.jameskasmith.com
Beth Snyder
Beth Snyder leads The inVocation Project, a five-year, $1.5 million Lilly Endowment grant awarded to Hope College in 2018. The purpose of this grant is to work with Christian congregations on programs related to calling. In 2022, the inVocation Fellows Program was launched to specifically support the faith formation and vocational needs of recent college graduates in West Michigan. Prior to Snyder’s move to Hope College, she resided in Dallas, Texas, and worked with the ExxonMobil Foundation handling the foundation’s philanthropic investments in health, environment, and women’s economic development and education. Beth lives in Holland, MI and serves on several boards including Western Theological Seminary, Holland Bureau of Public Works, Upward Bound, Evergreen Commons, Max De Pree Center for Leadership, and Camp Geneva.
