Board of Directors

Gayle Williams, M.Ed. Board Chair, is Executive Director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, NC, where her work focuses on nurturing the capacity and impact of individuals and nonprofit organizations who advance social and economic justice. Her current work weaves together threads from her previous work in the non-profit sector: increasing opportunity for young people, advancing equity and fairness, strengthening community life, and encouraging wholeness. Gayle is a Courage & Renewal Facilitator with special interest in cross-professional circles.

Rachel Boechler, Ph.D., currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for CPS Human Resource Services. Previous to this Rachel spent over twenty-five years in the field of education. Her doctorate is in Urban Education with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction. Rachel has worked as a consultant in a variety of areas including strategic planning, organizational culture and change, leadership development, instructional methodology, and curriculum development and alignment. She is a Courage & Renewal Facilitator and currently lives in Davis, CA.

Jay Casbon, Ed.D. is CEO, Vice-Provost, and Professor of Education at Oregon State University Cascades Campus in Bend, Oregon. Dr. Casbon serves on the Executive Committee for the Board of Central Oregon Development Council and is also a Senior Advisor for the Oregon Small School Project, a twenty-five million dollar grant awarded to Oregon by Meyer Memorial Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Debbie S. Dewitt, Ph.D. is a kindergarten and mentor teacher at Carolina Forest Elementary School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A former Early Childhood professor of the University of South Carolina and Coastal Carolina University, she has served as Horry County Chair of the First Steps state initiative. She has written and presented various articles on diversity in the public school classroom. Her response to "The Bridge" poem is included in the book Teaching with Fire—Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach.

Marcy Jackson, M.S.W., M.P.H. (Ex-officio) is Vice-President and Co-Director of the Center. She is primarily responsible for the Courage & Renewal Facilitator Preparation Program. She has been co-facilitating Courage to Teach and Courage to Lead retreats since 1996. For the past 25 years Marcy has worked extensively with individuals, groups, and families as a therapist and retreat facilitator in a variety of settings including in hospitals and health care, educational and retreat centers, community mental health, and tribal settings.

Rick Jackson, M.A.R., M.Div. (Ex-officio) is President and Co-Director of the Center for Courage & Renewal. Rick consults and speaks with non-profit organizations and foundations on a range of topics, including sustaining the identity and integrity of teachers and leaders, community leadership development, and strategies to foster long-term sustainable change. He was ordained a minister in the United Church of Christ in 1979, and was an executive with the YMCA for 25 years.

Cynthia T. Johnson, L.M.S.W.-A.P., C.F.R.E. is an independent consultant to religious and secular institutions, Executive Director of Courage & Renewal North Texas, and leads circle of trust programs in diverse community and professional settings around the country. She works with individuals and organizations to build bridges across borders that divide, to lead and govern in life-giving ways, and to develop support for initiatives that strengthen the fabric of community life. Past involvement has included executive leadership to numerous non-profit organizations and community-wide initiatives.

Russ S. Moxley, M.Th. is an experienced retreat facilitator, having led retreats for K-12 educators, health care leaders, and United Methodist ministers. In addition to facilitating retreats, Russ designs and leads leadership development workshops for for-profit and non-profit organizations, and is an executive coach. Russ is the author of Leadership and Spirit (Jossey-Bass, 1999), co-author of the Center for Creative Leadership Handbook on Leadership Development (Jossey-Bass, 2003), and a contributing author of chapters for four edited books.

Rosemary Jordano Shore, M.A., M.B.A. is the Founder and former Chairman and CEO of ChildrenFirst Inc., the nation's largest corporate backup childcare company. She serves on the Board of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association and is a member of the Wellesley College Business Leadership Council and the Dana Farber Leadership Council. Previously, she served on the Regis College Board of Trustees and was a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute. Ms. Shore was selected as The American Women’s Economic Development Corporation’s 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year and was named as one of Fortune Small Business’ Best Bosses.

Estrus Tucker is an independent consultant and keynote speaker specializing in small and large group facilitation, designing and leading conversations and retreats across the country in support of personal, professional, and community renewal and transformation.  Estrus is a seasoned Courage & Renewal Facilitator, and a practitioner of Social Change for Leadership Development and other models of civic engagement.  For the past twelve years, he has served as President & CEO of Liberation Community, Inc., a social justice network, and Past President & Moderator of the Minority Leaders & Citizens Council.  He has also served as President  & CEO of the Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of United Way of Tarrant County.  He is an ordained Elder in the Church of God in Christ, active in interfaith and ecumenical initiatives.  His mission is to inspire courage and life giving values that promote community, nonviolent and justice.

Becky van der Bogert, Ed.D. is Head of The Palm Beach Day Academy.  She was Superintendent of The Winnetka Public Schools in Winnetka, Illinois and Executive Co-Chair of the Urban Suburban Consortium at Northwestern University, and a member of the Illinois Advisory Board to CASEL (Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning). She has served as Co-Founder and Co-Director of the International Network of Principals Centers at Harvard and member of the Harvard Alumni Advisory Council. She was on the Editorial Board of the Harvard Educational Review and edited a quarterly journal for Jossey-Bass entitled New Directions for School Leadership. She is co-author of Making Sense as a School Leader: Persisting Questions and Creative Opportunities, and co-edited Voices for Democracy: Struggles and Celebrations of Transformational Leaders.

Val Ulstad, M.D, M.P.H.,M.P.A. has been a cardiologist for over 20 years. She is the Director of Cardiovascular Education at Hennepin County Medical Center, a safety-net, teaching hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She teaches and provides inpatient cardiology care for six months of the year. The other six months, she spends much of her time in her leadership development coaching and consulting practice. Her passion is to develop opportunities for individuals to recognize, celebrate and contribute their unique personal gifts in service of their own fulfillment and the common good. In 2003, she was prepared as a Courage & Renewal Facilitator went on to develop and lead an annual retreat series called Courage to Imagine for physicians and their partners.