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Meet the Network

Annie Allen

Annie Allen is an Ordained Minister with a focus on Faith in Action, Ecumenical and Inter-faith relations. She is committed to serving the poor, oppressed and left out in society. She is a consultant to churches and social-profit organizations. Her ministry includes community development initiatives, teaching, training, and retreats. She writes and performs liturgical ceremonies for each stage in the human journey.

Northwind

Institute

Cheryl Groce-Wright

Cheryl Groce-Wright is a seasoned non-profit executive with a career spanning over thirty-five years in education, program management and community development. She has held positions in nonprofit management, youth programming and development, fund-raising and fund development, academic and social science research, substance abuse and family counseling, and college student development. Cheryl was the 2015 Pat Asch Fellowship for Social Justice Recipient awarded by the YWCA and used the fellowship to delve more deeply into the area of Asset-Based Community Development and brought that knowledge and experience back to Richmond VA to continue working toward community change that involves community residents in every aspect of community development work.

Monika Grasley

I am Monika Grasley the Executive Director and I have a heart for seeing people develop their potential. I teach individuals and groups on Asset Based Community Development and coaches community workers.

I grew up in Germany and came to the US at 24 to learn English and go to school. I have worked on my degree in Community Development when I met my husband who was on his way for a 1 year commitment to China. After our marriage in 1987 we continued to live in the Los Angeles area until we moved to Merced to be closer to family before we returned to China. Over the years my passion for Holistic Community Development grew. While working at Gateway Community Church I had the opportunity be more active in the community and realized the tendency of individuals, churches and groups to give ‘hand-outs’ which often only perpetuated the problem of people in poverty. I received training on ABCD principles and practices and now I am involved in various communities to equip community members and in the region to coach churches and organizations.

Terri Larson

Terri coaches, leads strategic planning, facilitates spiritual formation, trains in asset based community development and builds capacity for leaders and their organizations. In addition to her role as a gifted coach, she provides facilitation in Participatory Strategic Planning and Results Based Management.

Terri has worked in the community for three decades, most recently as the Co-Director of City Net, an organization focused on collaborative leadership in Southern California cities. She is certified as a coach by the Christian Coach Institute and certified as a trainer in Group Facilitation Methods with the Institute of Cultural Affairs. Terri also serves as a senior leader, coach and board member with Communities First Association.

Wendy McCaig

Wendy McCaig is the founder and Executive Director of Embrace and the author of “From the Sanctuary to the Streets” (CASCADE books 2010). Wendy holds a Master’s degree in Divinity from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and a Bachelors in Accounting from Texas A&M University. Wendy started her career as an auditor, initially with Ernst and Young before finding her way into leadership in the local church where she served for more than twenty years. In 2005, Wendy started Embrace and launched a career in community development. In 2009, Wendy was trained and certified in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) by Communities First Association.

She has spent the past twenty years doing community building in communities across Metro Richmond using ABCD principles and practices and began coaching and training institutions in how to strengthen communities from the inside out using ABCD in 2012. As a coach and a trainer in ABCD, Wendy has gained experience working a variety of stakeholders including community leaders, congregations, non-profits and governmental agencies. Wendy is married to her high school sweetheart and they have three lovely young adult daughters.

Eric Smith

Building flourishing communities in which ALL people can thrive and attain their highest potential has not just been a career choice, but the fulfillment of Eric’s life’s purpose. From the villages of Uganda, Africa to the urban neighborhoods of Ohio and the rural communities of Central Appalachia, Eric has been applying community development principles and practices for two decades, honing his ability to tackle tough social and economic issues in the process.

Eric received a BA from Taylor University and a MA in Community Development from North Dakota State University with a concentration in leadership, community and economic development. He holds professional certifications in such areas as Asset Based Community Development, Energizing Entrepreneurial Communities, Community Coaching, TOPS Facilitation and Bridges Out of Poverty, to name a few. Additionally, he has developed and taught curricula, such as the Building Leaders to Build Communities course.

Eric and his wife and two children in the foothills of the Appalachian mountain range, a great setting from which to train, coach, network and support a growing network of social change practitioners.

Amy Moritz

Amy is a Social Change Consultant who specializes in organizational development and community engagement with over 25 years of professional experience. Consulting led her to found and lead two faith-inspired nonprofit organizations: Uptown Alliance Community Economic Development Corporation (2001-2004) and Center for Transforming Communities (2008-2018). At Center for Transforming Communities (CTC), Amy was both practitioner and coach in authentic community engagement that leads to healthy and more vibrant neighborhoods. She trained and coached eight neighborhood coalitions in Memphis, TN and over 40 congregations.

Alongside training and coaching at the grassroots level, she has shared the practices that lead to deep, sustainable change with institutions such as Memphis Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt Divinity School/Turner Center, Tennessee Episcopacy of the UMC, and Texas Rio Conference of the UMC through Transformational Communities of Praxis.

Amy has an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MAR from Memphis Theological Seminary. She has been certified as a national training for Communities of Shalom and a trainer/coach for Communities First Association.