Nigel Lee, 20, was incarcerated at 16 after a string of arrests as a gang member. While at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, awaiting trial, Lee wanted a way out of the world he had known in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, a world overrun with gang wars. He decided to break away from gangs and its life of violence. Nigel, now a sophomore at Parkland College in Urbana, is featured in a recent Chicago Tribune article, an AT&T commercial, and most recently was recruited to audition for Michael B. Jordon’s next movie.

Dr. Tasha Davis is founder and CEO of Save One Life Foundation. She was born and raised in Cabrini Green and on the Westside of Chicago. Dr. Davis was a tutor/mentee of The Montgomery Ward Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program. “Tutors from Moody Bible Institute were dedicated; they broke cultural/racial boundaries and helped nurture my undying love for learning and fostered my relationship with Christ. Though I was born in poverty, my life was saved because I took advantage of the opportunities that were given to me through education.” Dr. Davis holds a Doctorate degree in Leadership and Education, and a Master’s degree in Business Administration-Finance.  

Dr. Davis served as the Associate Dean of Correctional programs inside of IYC St. Charles from 2016-2018, where her calling was to help bridge the gap by offering ways for incarcerated youth to return home, and not go back to prison. Dr. Davis implemented traditional programs to help marginalized youth return to the community by providing self-sustaining resources (i.e. education, jobs, mentoring, traditional housing, and music enrichment).

Marilyn Borst is Associate Director for Partnership Development for The Outreach Foundation. She works with churches around the United States to help them discern God’s call to global engagement while connecting them to that work alongside the Global Church in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and the Middle East – a particular area of specialty for her. She travels extensively, nurturing relationships with church leaders, assessing ministry initiatives, and leading short-term vision teams. Just within the past five years, her journeys have taken her to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Oman, Israel/Palestine, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi. She has participated in four archaeological digs in Jordan and Egypt and taught as adjunct faculty at the University of Houston for 20 years. She is ordained as a Presbyterian elder.

Download Marilyn’s Handout Where is God in the Persecuted Church

Joel Hamernick is the Executive Director of Sunshine Gospel Ministries, a 114-year-old urban ministry in Chicago. Joel’s work focuses on youth outreach and enrichment, service learning, business incubation, violence reduction, and facilities development. Joel recently developed a business incubator to combat poverty through business growth on the Southside of Chicago with the launch of Greenline Coffee – a for-profit impact investor model of business and job creation.

Joel is a sought-after speaker, often appearing at universities, conferences, and churches around the country speaking on the topics of the gospel and justice; biblical perspectives on race, poverty, and the city; as well as a wide range of other subjects both theological and organizational in nature. His undergraduate studies were in Bible and Theology at Moody Bible Institute, and graduate work was in Organizational Leadership at Cairn University.

Alana Murphy is from Oak Park, and grew up attending First Pres. She has spent the past nine years studying international migration and providing services to displaced people in Jordan, Morocco, the Philippines, Ecuador, and China. Murphy interned with the U.S. Department of State—Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. She has spent time working with World Relief, World Vision, and the International Organization for Migration. In 2018, she biked 4,380 miles across the United States as part of project called The Beautiful Crossing. Along the way she interviewed former refugees about their experiences starting life over in the United States.