Board of Directors
Rick Bishop, US Chair, is a CPA and Tax Executive with United
Parcel Service. Rick grew up in Georgia and has lived in the Atlanta
area for over 30 years. Rick met his wife, Leigh Ann, while at his first
job out of college. Rick and Leigh Ann have 3 children (Lawson – 13,
Parker – 10, and Chase – 6). They attend North Point Community Church
and live in Alpharetta, Georgia. Rick also serves on the Board of
Directors for Christian Youth Theatre – Atlanta.
Rick and Leigh Ann were on one of the initial Dream for Africa trips
to Durban in 2004, where Never Ending Gardens were planted in the
community. Since then the entire family has traveled to Swaziland to
serve at El Shaddai, and Leigh Ann has served in Kenya at Tumaini as
well as Merciful Redeemer (with Lawson). Rick most recently traveled on
the fall, 2008 J-9 trip to Kenya. The Bishop family definitely has a
heart for Africa, and we look forward to seeing where the Lord takes us.
Dr. VandenBrink, US Vice-Chair, a retired physician, has spent his life serving the needs of others. He attends the Community Reformed Church in Charlevoix, Michigan. Dr. VandenBrink serves as a physician volunteer at The Community Free Clinic in Petoskey, MI., and also on their Board of Directors. After a distinguished career in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital, he continues to serve on the hospital’s Institutional Review Board. Ron also serves on the board of SAME (South African Medical Expeditions).
Dr VandenBrink has participated in numerous mission trips to Puerto Rico, Ukraine, Canada, South Africa, Kenya and Swaziland. His wife, Jan Biddick, MSW, is also a Heart for Africa volunteer serving as Social Work Coordinator - They now travel as often as possible to Africa!
Ian Maxwell is the President of Heart for Africa. Ian’s
vision for self-sustainable food security for all people is at the core
of community transformation. Ian successfully unites and partners people
from many nations to work together for comprehensive and lasting
solutions.
Ian has a degree in economics from Bishops University in Lennoxville,
Quebec and is the former vice-president of operations for Onyx
Marketing Group in Toronto, Canada.
Tim Hunt is currently the
principal with Hunt Enterprises, a communications and government affairs
agency. Previously, he spent 39 years in the newspaper business with
the Tri-Valley Herald and he has continued to write his Sunday column on
a freelance basis. Tim traveled to Swaziland in 2005 for his first trip
and since then has been to Kenya twice and Malawi twice. He lives in
Pleasanton, CA with his wife, Betty Gail, and their daughter, Glenalyn.
God has given Heart for Africa a bold and huge vision – to be the heart
of transformation Africa and in the American church. It's an immense
undertaking, doable only with God's leading and blessing. We look
forward to being obedient to God and coming along side the partners he
leads to us as we labor side-by-side, prayer-by-prayer, to help God care
for and transform his kids in Africa.
Howard Hodel, CFA, is a financial and investment consultant living in Honolulu, Hawaii. He currently advises clients with assets exceeding $800 million. He also serves on several boards and investment committees locally.
Prior to establishing his consulting business in September 2006, Mr. Hodel headed Bank of Hawaii’s Asset Management Group, a department of 50 professionals who managed $8 billion of client assets. His main responsibility was to reorganize the unit from top to bottom, which he successfully completed in 2005.
Prior to joining the Bank of Hawaii, Mr. Hodel spent 15 years with Bank of America, where he established and headed the analytics and market risk unit assigned to the bank’s Asset Management Group. He managed a team of ten market risk managers and analysts, who developed analytic models and quantified investment risks in $250 billion of client portfolios. Prior to establishing this unit, Mr. Hodel served in the Bank’s Treasury Department.
From 1978 to 1987 he worked for British Petroleum (Amoco and Sohio), where he held various financial, economic, and planning positions.
Mr. Hodel received a B.A. Magna Cum Laude with High Distinction in Economics from Dartmouth College, as well as an M.B.A with Distinction in Statistics and International Business Management from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium while on fellowship from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, where he earned an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting. He received his CFA Charter designation in October 2006.
Lisa McGuire is the Director of Admission and Marketing at King’s Ridge Christian School in Alpharetta, GA. Her responsibilities include the areas of enrollment management, marketing and communication functions of the young, but rapidly growing, college preparatory school. She also serves on the Leadership Team of the school and is a member of the Nominating Committee and Marketing Committee of the Board of Directors. Originally a volunteer the year before the school opened in 2001, she transitioned into the role of the founding Director of Admission, utilizing skills from a previous sixteen-year career as a classroom teacher and school administrator. In her position she has worked with families through the admission process to admit every student who has ever attended King’s Ridge.
She has earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Consumer and Family Sciences from Miami University, a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Wright State University, and an Educational Specialist Degree from the University of Georgia.
Lisa had never traveled on a mission trip anywhere until she was awarded the Loveday Summer Study Grant from the Georgia Independent School Association in 2007 as a way to explore the potential launch of a mission program to Africa for King’s Ridge families and students. She traveled to New Hope Center, in Swaziland in June 2007 to be followed by a return trip to the same location in summer 2008 with her two children and nearly 60 people from King’s Ridge Christian School. She has a great heart for Africa with a desire to pull back the curtain on the beauty of how the African people continue to weather through their suffering to capture the importance of relationships with each other and their connection with their Heavenly Father.
Lisa and her husband, Jon, live in the suburbs of Atlanta with their two teenage children, Matt and Kelsey.
Carl Watry is Vice President of Finance for Kids II, Inc. which is a manufacturer and distributor of zero to three age graded toys, activity sets, walkers, etc., to the infant and small furniture departments of major retailers such as Babies-R-Us, Wal-Mart and Target. He is also involved in the Secretary and Finance functions of the Kids II Foundation, a 501(c)3 whose charter is to support one major philanthropic effort every year and two additional local, national and global charities that primarily benefit children. Carl was also one of the original founders of Kings Ridge Christian School. As a volunteer for the Middle School ministry at North Point Community Church, his small group of 15 middle school boys "graduated" to high school. He had been praying and asking God what was next when he and Janine got together for coffee to discuss this opportunity with Heart for Africa. Carl, his wife Lisa and two daughters participated in a trip to New Hope in 2008 and have been forever changed. Carl's desire is to use his gifts in finance to make this mission self-sustaining not only in Africa but here in the States as well.
Rob Cassell - Rob Cassell is the Minister to Students at Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro, NC. Rob graduated from Wake Forest University and has an MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Seminary. He has served in churches in Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Rob and his wife, Kirstin, have two children (Riley – 4, Allyn – 2) and are in the process of adopting their third from Ethiopia.
Rob first traveled with Heart for Africa to Swaziland in 2008 and had a heart to see the Western church and the African church partner for the glory of God.
Ann Williams - Bio coming soon
Laura Moss -