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Authors

Lea Wilkening

Lea Wilkening is a member of ClearView CRC in Oakville, Ontario. She believes that the Bible was written first to communities and then to individuals and sees doing justice as following the biblical mandate to work together to share the gospel in word and deed. She previously served as Community Engagement Specialist at ClearView CRC in Oakville Ontario and is currently an mDiv student in the distance program at Calvin Theological Seminary. She received a BS in Accountancy from the University of Illinois-Urbana and worked as a public accountant in Illinois for 13 years before moving to Canada with her husband, John, and their two sons. Her experience in the public sector, along with her ministry work in community development has sparked a desire to tap into the power of communities, by the work of the Spirit, to promote reconciliation and healing as a witness for Christ in the public sphere.

Miranda Williams

Miranda is a fourth-year International Studies student at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. She is passionate about learning from others and seeking justice. Although her home is in central Texas, Miranda is part of an extension program at TWU and is spending her semester at the Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa. She spent five weeks interning full-time with the Centre for Public Dialogue.

Idella Winfield

Idella Winfield is the Administrative Coordinator for the CRC Office of Race Relations. 

Karla Winham

Karla Winham is a member of the Justice League at John Calvin Christian Reformed Church in Truro, NS. She serves as a Diaconal Coach with Diaconal Ministries Canada, helping deacons animate their congregations to show God’s love in their communities. She is currently finishing her MBA in Community Economic Development. After 20 years as a Speech-Language Pathologist, her experiences in church leadership and community development prompted her to return to school for more learning on the subject. She lives in Truro, NS with her husband and three teenage children.

Nicholas Wolterstorff

Nicholas Wolterstorff is Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale University, and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia. Among his publications are Art in Action (Eerdmans, 1980), Works and Worlds of Art (Oxford, 1980), Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Princeton 2008), Justice in Love (Eerdmans 2011), and Hearing the Call: Liturgy, Justice, Church, and World (Eerdmans, 2011). Art Rethought is forthcoming from Oxford University Press (2015).

Neil XYZ

Neil (not his real name) is an employee of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, serving in the Middle East. Neil is a Do Justice columnist. (Learn more about our columnists here!)

Helen Yip

Helen is a Canadian-born Chinese woman who was born to two immigrant parents and raised on Treaty 6 territory, amiskwacîwâskahikan | ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ, also known as Edmonton, Alberta. She is a biologist by training, having earned her Masters of Biology with a focus on marine biology in Los Angeles. Helen currently works at a university where her focus is to increase equity, diversity and inclusion in science, engineering and technology fields. Helen previously interned at A Rocha Canada as a conservation science intern and lived in community with others at the Brooksdale campus. She strives to weave narratives of social and environmental justice into her life work.

Faye Yu

Faye Yu is a Taiwan born American living in Malawi working with World Renew. Her introduction to God’s heart for justice and those living in poverty stem from her time interning for International Justice Mission and a campaign to end Sexual Trafficking. Through exploring what God had to say about justice and poverty, she realized that if she really believed that was what God’s heart ached for, her life needed to reflect a bit of that as well.  This led her to work with the homeless population in northern Virginia and with those living in poverty and disability in Malawi, Sierra Leone and India. When not working, she loves being outdoors and eating good food.

Melody Zhang

Melody serves as the Climate Justice Campaign Coordinator at Sojourners, a role she hopes to honor by lifting up the stories of people who bear the brunt of climate change (and who contribute the least to it) and cultivating leadership on earthkeeping within the Church. She is compelled to advocate for urban sustainability and climate justice because of Jesus' calling to love the least of these and His invitation to love her neighbor as herself. As Jesus draws himself nearest to the people most oppressed and ostracized in society, so she seeks to do the same.  She believes deeply that although the Church is historically late to this conversation, it can and must play a critical role as the people of God through embodied practice of environmental justice.

Melody was born in Anhui, China and was raised in metro-Detroit, where she grew up in Asian American community and fellowship. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Philosophy from the University of Michigan, and serves as Co-Chair at Young Evangelicals for Climate Action. Upon graduating, she traveled and volunteered through Rome, Zurich, and Copenhagen on an independent study and worked as an urban design assistant in the Netherlands out of a passion for understanding how the distinct culture and values of local people spell out its city infrastructure. In the past, she has led creation care conversations at her church, apprenticed on a small organic farm, helped start the first sustainable living community at U-M, and worked as a graphic designer.

In her free time, Melody loves exploring parks of all shapes and sizes, reading, jamming out to indie rock, and listening to the smooth, velvety voice of Krista Tippett on On Being. She looks forward to making ugly pottery to provide a home for her indoor plants.

Hope Zigterman

Hope Zigterman is the Mobilizing and Advocacy Fellow for 2019-20 for the Office of Social Justice. She spent the last three years teaching English to fourth and fifth graders at American Academy Jordan in Zarqa, Jordan. While there she took the opportunity to participate in a local symphonic band playing the flute and assist coaching little league baseball teams. She studied Political Science and History with a minor in Biblical Studies at Gordon College, and is interested in the intersection of faith and politics.

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