LaShauna Austria was inspired by the lack of Black, woman representation in the Alamance County farming industry to begin a seedling business in her own home. This led to a partnership with the Elon University Love Business School, which helped LaShauna to really think about how Kindred Seedlings could be beneficial to Alamance and surrounding areas.

Rev Dele is a grandmother-spiritual leader who opens the environmental narrative to include the voice of Mother Nature so we may create JOY with our impact. Merging contemplation and permaculture, Dele launches national initiatives, including Soil & Souls, to calm our social and climate chaos. Dele maintains Christian and Indigenous affiliations.  Her books include Daughter of the Tree, Breath of Life, and Let Heav’n Nature Sing.

Bryant Holsenbeck is an internationally-known environmental artist who makes art out of stuff that other people throw away.  In addition to her public installations and sculpture, Bryant is a compelling teacher and environmental advocate. Her book, The Last Straw: A Continuing Quest for Life without Disposable Plastic documents her year living without single-use plastic and the creative alternatives she found.

Rhody Mastin currently serves as the children’s minister at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church. A former birth and postpartum doula, she is currently a doctoral student in homiletics at Duke Divinity School. Rhody received her BA from the University of Virginia, her MFA from Seattle Pacific University, and her MDiv from Duke Divinity School.

Yazmin Spearman is the current co-coordinator of the Women’s Center at Duke Divinity School. She is an MDiv student with a certificate in Faith-Based Organizing and Advocacy. She works at Duke University School of Nursing for their new racial equity initiative, Breaking Research Barriers. Yazmin is passionate about preaching that tackles the complex, both/and-ness of human life, as well as working alongside people healing from religious trauma/abuse.

Rev. Virginia H. (Ginny) Tobiassen is grateful for her call as pastor to Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, a church she attended in childhood.  In the intervening years, she majored in English at UNC-Chapel Hill, worked in book publishing for 25 years, took a master’s in divinity from Wake Forest, worked as a hospital chaplain, and completed ordination studies at Moravian Theological Seminary.  She misses the NC mountains, where she spent much of her life, but is also happy to be “dug deep” again into the soil of her hometown and her denomination. 

Stephanie Workman is Associate Pastor for Christian Education and Mission at Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church in Cary, NC. She has been at the Kirk since 2003 and was ordained in 2005. She received her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Religion from Wake Forest University and her MDiv from Princeton. She claims Louisiana as home, though she has now lived in North Carolina for longer than anywhere else.

Rev. Lisa Yebuah currently serves as the Lead Pastor of the Southeast Raleigh Table, a worshipping community in Raleigh, North Carolina. She’s a ’99 graduate of Wofford College and an ’04 graduate of Duke University Divinity School. What fuels her life in ministry is seeing people become their best selves, and in turn, seeing the world become more just and marked by liberation.