MEET OUR TEAM

Rich loves to encourage others to greatness and has ample opportunity to do that as a Founding Partner at Mission:Leadership. As a senior recruiter at both Slingshot Group and The Dingman Company, he specialized in finding executive-level leaders for key positions in a broad array of industries including Christian nonprofits, large churches, Christian schools and colleges, and mission-minded businesses. He was the former President of Paramount Builders, Virginia’s largest home remodeler, and the Vice President of Operations for a multi-store, luxury jewelry business. Rich has operated a consulting practice, serving clients from small businesses to large nonprofits focused on organizational and personal development, as well as talent acquisition. In the local church, he has worked in roles from janitor to Senior Pastor (sometimes simultaneously), ranging from small church plants to large multi-staff churches. Later, he became Director of Campus Ministries for Regent University, where he also taught in the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Divinity.

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Rich is a graduate of the College of William and Mary where he was a Presidential (Monroe) Scholar, holds an M.Div. from Trinity International University, and a Doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Bridget, live in Virginia Beach, Virginia and have three children and two dogs. They enjoy watching their boys play soccer and football, visiting their daughter in Colonial Williamsburg, traveling, sampling new restaurants, and volunteering at their church. Rich is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

With more than 35 years of senior leadership experience in the corporate, nonprofit and church worlds, Neal has forged a career marked by creativity and innovation, all the while developing and growing successful business operations and successful people. He serves as Founding & Managing Partner of Mission:Leadership and prior to this, was the Vice President over the Nonprofit division of Slingshot Group, another Christian search firm. Prior to that, Neal served as Senior Vice President for International Partner Development at Compassion International, one of the world’s largest nonprofits, as Executive Pastor of a growing and vibrant megachurch in Nashville, and as the very first Chief Operating Officer of Generous Giving.

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For twenty years prior, Neal was a senior executive in the Christian music industry in Nashville; first as a Vice President at Word Entertainment and then as a Divisional President at Warner Bros. Records. He has produced well over 100 Christian albums—including a dozen Dove Award-winning projects—and is a five-time Grammy Award winning producer. He has served on the board of American Leprosy Missions for 20 years (including six years as Chairman), an organization devoted to restoring the lives of people affected by leprosy worldwide; the Accord Network, an association that serves more than 100 international, faith-based relief & development agencies; as well as A.C.T. International and Free Guitars 4 Kids, which he also co-founded. Neal has also been privileged to travel to 50+ countries, both Western and developing. After many years in the Nashville area, he now resides in Central Florida with his wife of 41 years, Wendy. They have two grown and married children and one granddaughter.

Greg brings more than 30 years of experience in retained executive search and global recruitment strategy consulting to his role as Senior Advisor at Mission:Leadership. He was founder and president of Halftime Talent Solutions—one of the country’s premier faith-based recruiting firms prior to its merger with FaithSearch Partners in early 2018, where he then served as Vice Chairman and President of the Mission Enterprise division. After passing the torch to his successor in 2022 he served as a business development advisor and lead consultant on selected projects.  Prior to the founding of Halftime Talent Solutions, Greg was the Managing Partner of Korn Ferry International’s Houston operations and served as a Senior Client Partner in the firm’s global healthcare service practice. Later, he became Vice President of U.S. Search Operations and Managing Director of Global Healthcare and Life Sciences Practice for Futurestep, the online talent solutions subsidiary of Korn Ferry.

Greg earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology/Religion from Baylor University and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from the University of North Texas. He resides in Dallas with Rachel, his wife of 30+ years, and they are so grateful for three thriving adult children.

Myka is passionate about encouraging others to worship God with whole life generosity. She has more than 15 years of fundraising experience, focusing on major and principal gifts, and has been part of two comprehensive campaigns, raising nearly $30 million. Her experience spans higher education, medical development, and faith-based nonprofits.

 

Myka shares that the highlight of her career was serving stateside with the International Mission Board (IMB), as she was tasked to come alongside givers in their act of worship through giving. Having been discipled by IMB missionaries in South Florida, this role was deeply meaningful.

 

She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from Florida International University, is a native of Brazil, is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, and lives with her husband and baby daughter in Dallas, Texas.

Chad is a proven senior HR leader, having served world-class organizations like Mars, Sony Music and The Gideons International. He possesses progressive experience in complex organizations ranging from 200 to 4,000+ employees across as many as 38 U.S. states and 100+ nations. He is truly … Multi-Site. Multi-State. Multi-National.

Chad’s passion for helping organizations grow healthier has helped him develop a reputation for delivering trusted-results through people. He provides a practical focus on real business issues and moves from issues to relevant actions. He has authored The Five Attributes: Essentials of Hiring and also speaks about The Predictive Hiring Model. As a proud Lee University graduate, he also has his SPHR certification as well as a certification in Compensation & Benefits from the Kellogg School of Management. Chad recently moved from Nashville back to his hometown of Chattanooga, where he leads the work of C12 there in the city.

Dr. Melissa Davis is passionate about equipping men and women to be able to interpret and apply God's living Word in their lives and ministry. She has served in church and parachurch ministries for over 15 years in Canada, the United States, and overseas. She has served as an Associate Pastor, Pastor of Discipleship, director of Adult Education, Elder, and worship team member. Since 2017, she’s been a team member of Women's Discipleship International, discipling women pastors and lay leaders in the Bible, theology, leadership, and discipleship. In 2023, she also became a Teaching Associate with Empowered Living International Ministries, a ministry that seeks to educate, equip, and empower pastors, leaders, congregations, and individuals through sound, biblical teaching and humanitarian action.

Melissa earned her M.Div from ACTS Seminary in Langley, BC, and her Ph.D. at Regent University, where she serves as an adjunct professor in hermeneutics and systematic theology. She and her husband, Mac, live in Virginia Beach with their German Shepherd, Tori. They are puppy raisers with Blue Path Service Dogs, an organization that raises, trains and places service dogs with children with Autism.

Bridget brings a desire and passion to serve others whether through community-based counseling or volunteering for faith-based ministries. Compassion comes naturally to this mother of three, honed in a counseling practice that has spanned three decades.

Bridget received a B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Georgia (Cum Laude) and a M.A. in Counseling from Regent University (Summa Cum Laude). Bridget began her career in Therapeutic Foster Care and has provided mental health counseling for adolescents and families in crisis for the past 30 years. Bridget is a Licensed Mental Health Provider and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor. Bridget has served on the local Board for Child Evangelism Fellowship and served as the Prayer Coordinator for Young Life Virginia Beach. Bridget has been married to Rich for 28 years and together they have 3 children. Bridget enjoys spending her free time with family, boating with friends, watching her son’s soccer games, and of course cheering for her Georgia Bulldogs. GO DAWGS!

Yale has made it his life’s mission to help people and ministries make Jesus famous. All around the world, Yale breaks bread with people, making friends out of strangers. He has served in Africa, Asia and across the USA. Yale believes in the power of the local church, Kingdom ministries, and a good cup of coffee. 

He began his career in IT consulting and project management, and since 2008, has been involved with organizing large scale events, including building a network of over 3,500 volunteers that gathered 300,000 people on the National Mall for an event in the summer of 2016. He has also managed a group of three companies that started in business plan writing for attorneys and spawned two other companies focusing on project management and foreign direct investment.  

Yale then founded Catalyst Convergence, an organization that helps nonprofits craft strategy, achieve their mission, find talent, build strategic partnerships, and execute large scale stadium events. He continues to serve on the board of directors or advisors of organizations like America Prays, Collegiate Day of Prayer, Contend Global (formerly known as TheCall), and The Prayer Council. Notable clients have included Promise Keepers, Awaken The Dawn, and Together 2016 DC. Yale and his wife Annie reside in Frisco, Texas and plan to be missionaries to Japan after raising their three boys.

Lorie is a life-long learner with strengths in strategy, communication and collaboration. With a hunger for learning, she has acquired two Master’s degrees in Theology and Christian Education as well as an Educational Doctorate in Christian Ministry and Administration. As a natural born teacher and leader, she has over twenty years of experience working in and with Christian, nonprofit ministries including publishing and events at Lifeway and global holistic child development and church engagement with Compassion International.

Lorie lives in a home with all males, including her husband, Scott, their exuberant little boy, Maddox, and their mini-Golden Doodle, Winston. They reside in Colorado and love to experience God’s beautiful creation while riding motorcycles.

Brenda brings more than 30 years of professional experience in IT, operations and marketing with Food for the Hungry and the Christian Leadership Alliance where she also earned her Credentialed Christian Nonprofit Leader certification. She's driven by her passion for serving others and strives to understand the unique needs of each organization she works with in order to provide them with the necessary resources and support to help them accomplish their mission.

Brenda attended Bible College in Arizona, where she still lives with her husband of 27 years, Jake. They have two young (and awesome!) adult children. In their spare time, you can find them embarking on dirt road adventures, paddle boarding the river, or sitting around a campfire with their favorite people, as they welcome hundreds of Harvest Host members each year to their little farm, where donkeys, goats, and chickens roam. It creates an opportunity to be a welcoming host and to point people to Christ through casual conversation and engagement. Plus, who doesn't want to hang with donkeys?

Leslie brings a heart to see people matched to opportunities that fit their God-given talents and desires. She gets to exercise that passion by helping candidates create their digital portfolios and guiding them through our evaluation process. From a nonprofit perspective, Leslie served on Josh McDowell’s ministry team for a number of years, designing sets for their video projects. Prior to this, she was an executive assistant at Word Records and also worked in their A&R department.

Leslie has been married to her husband, Dave, for 30 years and they have three grown children. They have served churches throughout Texas and Arkansas and most recently moved to Raleigh, North Carolina to serve alongside Southbridge Fellowship. Excited with their new adventure, they look forward to exploring the beaches, mountains and locating a new favorite Mexican restaurant in their new hometown.

Naomi has helped organizations grow, as a two-time CEO at Stonecroft Ministries and at MOPS (now known as TheMomCo), and as a director at both Compassion International and World Vision. Before ministry, she advanced innovation and strategy for Fortune 50 companies like Apple and Hewlett-Packard, and at the Los Angeles Times and others in the tech, news, publishing, retail, and government sectors. Her award-winning doctorate research from Fuller Theological Seminary created the Re-storey™ Transformational Narrative Model. She also holds an MBA from UCLA and a bachelor's from Stanford. Through ministry leadership, academic research, and writing, Naomi Cramer Overton—who also serves as the general editor of Tyndale's Every Woman's Bible—has helped more than a million people get into God's story and discover their own.   

 

She and her husband, Frank, have a son, daughter-in-law, and three daughters—one in heaven. Along with her 4-pound dog (and chief lap warmer), Osito, they split their time between Southern California and Colorado, where they have together climbed more than twenty peaks over 13,000 feet.

Donna is a certified public accountant who has been practicing for forty years. Her specialty is helping companies set up an accounting system tailored to the specific needs of their business, particularly with the several small nonprofits she currently serves.

Donna is excited to be part of the team at Mission:Leadership. She and her husband, John, are newlyweds and have six children and seven grandchildren among them, with whom they always enjoy spending time. She has been part of Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, Tennessee for many years and particularly appreciates being part of her community group as well as helping teach with the church’s Heart of the Home ministry. In her spare time, Donna loves spending time outdoors, especially bike riding, hiking and paddle boarding.