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Executive Director
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Emily Eastwood is the Executive Director of ReconcilingWorks and the Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Program. She is a lifelong Lutheran, would-be pastor, story-teller, organizer and sometime stand-up comic. She and her partner, Jan Bailey, are members of the first RIC congregation. Emily is a graduate of Texas Lutheran College and attended both Gettysburg and Luther Seminaries before choosing a career in business to support her church habit. For the next 18 years, Emily worked as a volunteer in ministry with and on behalf of LGBT people, their families and friends. In May of 2002, Emily was hired to run the Reconciling in Christ Program. In July of 2004, Emily was named Executive Director of the entire organization. Emily travels throughout North America working to promote the mission of the organization and the need for all of God's children to be welcome in their church. Using the principles of faith based community organizing she is building and training teams to foster the expansion of the RIC program in the Lutheran church.
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Lutheran Volunteer Corps Intern
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Brit Barkholtz is thrilled to be working with ReconcilingWorks as the 2012–2013 Lutheran Volunteer Corps intern. A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, Brit recently received her BA in Honors Music with emphases in Composition and Piano Performance, and a minor in Environmental Studies. A passionate advocate for “liberty and justice for all,” Brit spent a significant amount of time during her college years volunteering with organizations including the campus environmental groups, the Women’s Awareness Center, and the Gustavus chapter of Queers and Allies. She also is a 5-year member of the street-team volunteer corps for the national non-profit organization To Write Love On Her Arms. Brit’s favorite things include playing piano, laughing with friends, making kids smile, drinking strong church-basement coffee, speaking French, cheering at her siblings’ hockey games, talking about Tanzania, watching the Weather Channel, and wearing pink. |
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Director of Financial and Information Systems
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Brett Bowman's duties include the oversight of the finances, information technology, and office management. He also has a direct hand in development work, specifically working with donors and grantors to match their desires to help our programs and advocacy. Brett began work with LC/NA in 2000, as a volunteer. Subsequently, he was brought onto staff in 2006, serving as Operations Manager across a wide spectrum of internal and external programs. He has been an ever present spirit for more than 12 years and his gifts in finance will strengthen the organization that has brought many the ability to become involved on the front lines of its ministry. (Photo by Richard W. Garnett)
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Grassroots Organizing and Training Coordinator
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Tim Feiertag joined the staff in February of 2012. He first joined ReconcilingWorks as a member of the Kansas City-Lawrence chapter in 1993. He served as a regional director from 1995 to 1998 and as co-chair from 1998 to 2002. It was during his time as co-chair that he began to sense a call to ordained ministry in the ELCA. He left behind his work in the foster care system in Kansas City and headed to seminary in Berkeley, California, in 2005. After receiving the Master of Divinity degree in 2009, Tim returned to Kansas City and became a church secretary. He might still become your pastor some day. Until then, he is pleased to help congregations become places of more intentional, wide-spread, and public welcome!
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Communications/Legislative Assistant
Tim Fisher
Tim Fisher is honored to work for positive change in the church and has served as a member of the ReconcilingWorks staff since March 2007. He has worked toward the goal of full inclusion in a number of settings, including local congregations, synod assemblies, the Joint Committee for Inclusivity (Minneapolis and St. Paul Area Synods), online discussion groups, newspaper op-ed pages, and four (and counting!) ELCA Churchwide Assemblies. He and his wife Christine are members of Nokomis Heights Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They enjoy restoring their 1921 bungalow and hunting for treasure at estate sales and antique stores. |
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Regional Director for Region 3
(Minnesota and the Dakotas)
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Anita C. Hill is the Regional Director of Reconciling Works assigned to work with congregations in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to help them live into the new policies of the ELCA in both pulpit and pew. Pastor Hill is called by the Saint Paul Area Synod to serve in specialized ministry with ReconclingWorks. Pastor Hill served St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church as pastor from 1994 to 2012. Her “irregular” (read extraordinary) ordination in 2001 helped the movement for full inclusion on the journey to policy change in the ELCA. Anita is a former Co-Chair of the ReconcilingWorks Board (1980-82) and has ministered with and on behalf of LGBT people, their families, and friends for most of her adult life. As a child of the old South, Anita actively seeks to establish racial and economic equity through faith based community organizing. Anita and her partner, Janelle Bussert, welcomed an African family seeking asylum in the United States into their home and their hearts in 2009. Anita loves being “Gramanita” to Thabiso, an active pre-schooler.
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Regional Director for Region 1
(Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho)
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Kari is an approved candidate for ordained ministry in the ELCA. She lives with her spouse, Joanne, and their dog, Stella, in Seattle. Kari grew up on a farm in Minnesota. She earned her BA at Gustavus Adolphus College in 1998, her M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School in 2011. She worked at Gustavus from 1998 to 2008, first for two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA organizer, organizing literacy and tornado-recovery projects in the St. Peter community, and then for eight years as an administrator in the Chaplains’ Office and Community Service Center. During these years, Kari volunteered extensively at First Lutheran Church in St. Peter, serving as a volunteer youth director, a member of the Christian Education team, council chairperson, and as part of the team that shepherded First Lutheran’s successful RIC process. Kari also taught yoga in St. Peter, both on campus and in the community, including a weekly group for offenders at a local juvenile facility. In 2008, Kari entered candidacy in the ELCA and began formal theological education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During her three years there, she worked for University Lutheran Church as the Coordinator for Young Adults and Graduate Students. In the last two years, she also served as lead confirmation teacher.
On May 22, 2011, Kari and Joanne were married at University Lutheran. The two moved to Seattle that summer: Joanne to a new call as pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church and Kari to a seminary internship at St. John United Lutheran Church.
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Executive Assistant
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As the Executive Assistant, Ben Masters supports the work of the Executive Director and other staff in a variety of areas, including calendar management, expense reporting, and development. Ben has lived in the Twin Cities since he arrived for a year with Lutheran Volunteer Corps in 2009, and in the work of widening the church’s welcome he continues to be encouraged by the words from the Salvadoran hymn “Vamos Todos al Banquete” (#523 in the ELW for you folks singing along at home): “May we build such a place among us / Where all people are equal in love! / God has called us to work to work together / And to share everything we have!” |
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Operations Manager
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Kurt Neumann served as the first Youth and Young Adult Representative for ReconcilingWorks from 2005-2008. After receiving a Dual Bachelor’s degree in European Studies and German in 2008, he worked for the U.S. State Department in Berlin, Germany. He returned to the U.S. later that year and has since been working at the Marriott Austin Downtown as a Front Desk Manager. Continuing his passion for International Relations, he began his Master’s degree in Diplomacy in 2010. While on the board of directors, he advocated at annual Lutheran Campus Ministry gatherings for greater youth participation in ReconcilingWorks. He also worked during the summers of 2006 and 2007 at the ReconcilingWorks St. Paul headquarters to prepare the organization for the 2006 Biennial Assembly in Toronto and the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Chicago. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is an avid runner.
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As the Executive Assistant, Ben Masters supports the work of the Executive Director and other staff in a variety of areas, including calendar management, expense reporting, and development. Ben has lived in the Twin Cities since he arrived for a year with Lutheran Volunteer Corps in 2009, and in the work of widening the church’s welcome he continues to be encouraged by the words from the Salvadoran hymn “Vamos Todos al Banquete” (#523 in the ELW for you folks singing along at home): “May we build such a place among us / Where all people are equal in love! / God has called us to work to work together / And to share everything we have!”
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