Stephen (Doc) Hunsley
President
SOAR Special Needs
Stephen “Doc” Hunsley, M.D. is the Executive Director and founder of SOAR Special Needs in Lenexa, Kansas. SOAR (Special Opportunities, Abilities, and Relationships) serves over 1000 individuals with disabilities through regular respite events and Special Needs Day Camps. Doc is currently assisting over 500 churches locally, nationally, and globally in starting a Disability Ministry. Doc also organizes the Wonderfully Made Conference held annually every October in Kansas City. Doc is a retired pediatrician while his wife, Kay, continues practicing pediatrics. They are proud parents to three beautiful children: Luke, Mark, and Sarah. The Hunsley’s middle child, Mark, is presently running the halls of heaven. During Mark’s five-year earthly stay, he gave his family the opportunity to learn from and love a child with autism. You can follow SOAR on Facebook or Connect with Doc on Twitter: @DocHunsley SOARSpecialNeeds.org.
Joanne Van Sant
Secretary
Presbyterians for Disability Concerns
Rev. Dr. Joanne Van Sant is the pastor of the Friends-to-Friends Community Church, an RCA congregation of people living on the entire spectrum of developmental, intellectual, physical and neurodiversity concerns as well as with their friends and family. She also serves as a part time chaplain for Hope Christian Services, located in Wyckoff NJ, a human services agency providing support services for similar communities. Joanne is a graduate of New Brunswick Theological Seminary, ordained in the PCUSA, and also completed her D.Min. through NBTS in 2017 in Pastoral Care and Counseling. Her work, A Place at the Table, works toward the identification of the gap that prohibits inclusion in church communities for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Joanne also serves as Moderator of the PCUSA Presbyterians for Disability Concerns and in the Reformed Church of America’s Disability Advocacy Leadership program.
Beth Golik
Treasurer
Key Ministry
Beth Golik is the Ministry Director for Key Ministry, an organization that provides knowledge, innovation, and experience to the worldwide church as it ministers to and with families of kids with disabilities. She hosts Key Ministry’s monthly Idea Share and the Disability Ministry Video Roundtable for church leaders across the country and is a co-host for Key Ministry: The Podcast. Beth also serves as the Director of Disability Engagement at Bay Presbyterian Church in suburban Cleveland. She has a passion for connecting people to resources through networking and relationship building.
Erik Carter
Board Member
Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities
Dr. Erik Carter, Ph.D., is Luther Sweet Endowed Chair in Disabilities in the School of Education at Baylor University. He also erves as Executive Director of the Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities, which aims to promote the thriving of people with disabilities and their families. He joined the Baylor faculty in 2023 and the DMN Board in 2024. His research and writing focus is on strategies for promoting full participation, relationships, and valued roles for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). One strand of his research addresses the intersections of faith and disability. Dr. Carter’s work in this area addresses the spiritual lives and flourishing of people with IDD and their families, the practices and postures of inclusive churches, and faith-based partnerships with disability service systems. A second strand explores the pathways to inclusion and belonging for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). He is particularly interested in capturing the reciprocal and lasting benefits that come through friendships and life lived together in community.
At Baylor, he is collaborating to launch a new initiative aimed at advancing empirical and theological scholarship focused on disability, faith, and flourishing. In addition to rigorous research, it will focus on leadership training, resource development, and strategic partnerships that serve to change the current landscape within and beyond the church. He encourages interested scholars and partners to reach out to him about this new endeavor.
Jeanne Davies
Board Member
Anabaptist Disabilities Network
Jeanne Davies serves as Executive Director of Anabaptist Disabilities Network. She is ordained in the Church of the Brethren, has a Master of Divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Indiana and a Graduate Certificate in Disability and Ministry from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.
Tom Jones
Board Member
Faith Inclusion Network
The Rev. Tom Jones is the executive director of the Faith Inclusion Network. He is the chair of the steering committee for the Texas Faith and Disability Network. Tom Jones has taught children with special needs for 25 years in Midland, Texas. He and First Christian Church started SHARE, a respite care ministry for children with special needs in 2005. In 2006, Tom initiated a collaboration to provide Sibshops, a support program for siblings of children with special needs. In 2009, SHARE became a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit which focuses on the unique needs of family members. As a person who had epilepsy for 40 years, Tom saw first hand how his disability impacted his family and the relationships within the family. SHARE became his way of providing supports to families of children with special needs that his family did not have. SHARE’s mission is to partner with families to support and strengthen their efforts to become strong and successful families. Tom guided SHARE as it developed a variety of respite care, parent support, and sibling support programs to support each family member and strengthen the family unit. In 2011, Tom led SHARE’s expansion to Odessa, Texas. In 2015, Tom became an ordained minister by the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) which recognized SHARE as the ministry Tom was called to serve. Tom served SHARE as the executive director until 2020.
Sarah Lund
Board Member
United Church of Christ
The Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund’s mission is to partner with others to share hope and healing. She is an ordained minister in both the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Sarah currently serves as Minister for Disabilities and Mental Health Justice on the national staff of the UCC and as senior pastor of First Congregational UCC of Indianapolis, IN. She volunteers on the national boards of Pathways to Promise, Mental Health America, Bethany Fellows, and Piedmont University. In January of 2022, Sarah joined two US Department of Health and Human Services national Think Tanks, the first about faith communities and suicide, and the second Think Tank about faith communities and youth mental health. Sarah is the author of several books about mental health: Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family, and Church (2014), Blessed Union: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness and Marriage (2021), and Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness with Children and Teens (2022), and a pocket-sized mental health resource book for youth: Blessed Youth Survival Guide (2022). Sarah blogs at www.sarahgriffithlund.com.
Dr. Charlotte LV Thoms
Board Member
North American Division Seventh-day Adventists
Charlotte L. V. Thoms, M.S., is an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the College of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. She also is the coordinator of disabilities ministries for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.
Victoria White
Board Member
With Ministries
Victoria White is the program director at With Ministries, a parachurch organization coming alongside congregations to include disability and build belonging. Author of Devotions for Today, Devotions for Pilgrims, and editor of Worship As One: Varied Abilities in the Body of Christ as well as the updated Accessible Gospel, Inclusive Worship, she brings over twenty years of experience in education, ministry, chronic illness, and mentorship under the late Barbara J. Newman. Victoria is a writer, speaker, and consultant for communities that are faithfully building belonging with persons of all abilities.
Photo by Ability Ministry on Disability Is Beautiful