Board of Directors

Douglas Clegg

As a musician and award-winning songwriter, Doug writes and sings about injustice, tough times, and peacemaking. In over thirty years of performing, he has recorded seven CD's, toured from coast to coast, and played in benefit concerts for many good causes. Also a massage therapist, he is dedicated to living simply and in harmony with the earth, and helping lift up the less fortunate members of the human family.

Dan Swanson

I am a strong advocate for immersion experiences to help change the way we believe and live. Over the past 30 years going back to my college days I have immersed myself in an urban studies semester in San Francisco, CA, and language learning in Cuernavaca, Mexico and Esteli, Nicaragua. Immersion experiences need also to be followed up with times of study and reflection. Throughout the 80´s I studied a year at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL and finished a degree at the New College for Advanced Christian Studies in Berkeley, CA in between more immersion experiences in Kofu, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Mexico City. During the 90´s I was immersed into the Mexican neighborhood of Chicago and worked with Latino students struggling between language acquisition, learning disabilities and identity issues. In 2002, I took my greatest plunge into the sea of marriage and this year, Angelica and I together, will plunge into parenthood. We are currently living in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico and enjoy immersing ourselves in the lives of indigenous people. We invite anyone to join us for one of JEM´s delegation immersions to Chiapas or Oaxaca.

Art Stevens

Art Stevens brings a background in secular politics and in the church to his passion for hope-based, Gospel social justice. Holder of a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan, he has taught at three universities and colleges. As a staff supervisor in the Congressional Research Service, he advised members of Congress on parliamentary procedure. An Episcopal priest for twenty years, Art has led discernment and healing sessions throughout the nation. Art also has been a longtime spiritual director and consultant on church planning, decision making, conflict, and healing of memories. In retirement, Art and his wife Judy are ambassadors for ACCION International, to spread the word about microfinance as an effective approach to alleviating poverty.

Marco Tavanti

I am a sociologist and a theologian with a commitment to social and economic justice. I teach graduate courses in the International Public Service School at DePaul University in Chicago and direct an academic program in Chiapas, Mexico, studying sustainable development and the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). I have worked in various community-based and economic development projects in Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, United States, and in Italy, my native country. I have conducted fieldwork research among the Civil Society Las Abejas, in Chiapas and continue supporting and accompanying the indigenous struggle for social, economic and political justice. I teach courses on global civil society, international ethics, sustainable development, servant leadership and intercultural communication. I am married to Liz and blessed by the gift of our daughter Julie.

Lee Van Ham

I'm especially interested now in paradigm shift. How do we shift the economic paradigm from the unsustainable one that prevails to one of sacred abundance, in which there is enough for all life, and as for the planet, she breathes instead of gasps? How do you and I need to change to be part of this deep conversion? I've volunteered (nearly full time) with JEM for the past 8 years, bringing to it my experiences in group processes, workshop leader, teacher, writer, and poet. I hold the conviction that the change now needed must engage our personal, communal, and societal spiritual energies along with energies. Addressing the economic (how much?), political (policy), cultural (habits and stories), and social (class) realities without the spiritual will not bring the deep change now needed to sustain life. My life experience includes growing up on an Iowa farm and being in pastoral leadership of three congregations (Presbyterian) over 32 years. Married to Juanita, we each have two adult children, two adult step-children, and two grandchildren. We love tent-camping.

Julie Young

Julie and her husband, Jake, live in Coronado, in the San Diego region. She worked as the Chief Operating Officer for Good News Partners, a faith based nonprofit that provided housing and support services for people who would otherwise be homeless in Chicago. Through Good News Partners, she met Tom Gyori who was on the Board there. She now works at City Heights Community Development Corporation as Associate Director, where she applies her management and finance training to the fields of affordable housing and community economic development. She has an MBA in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley. She and her husband have two sons.

photo by Michael Kramer

Dan and wife Angelica