Keynote Speaker and Workshop Leaders
Michele L. Roberts
National Co-Coordinator Environmental Justice Health Alliance
For over 25 years, Michele Roberts has provided capacity support, organizing, and technical assistance on the connections between chemicals management, oil and gas extraction, energy systems, and toxics exposure and legacy. All of which now have a monumental legacy impact on the global climate crisis. She supports communities in their efforts to make connections regarding the impacts of toxins on human health and the environment.
Michele is the National Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA), a national network of grassroots Environmental and Economic Justice organizations and advocates in communities that are disproportionately impacted by toxic chemicals from legacy contamination, ongoing exposure to polluting facilities and health-harming chemicals in household products.
Prior to advocacy, Michele was an environmental scientist for state and local governments. She has firsthand experience with local responses to chemical hazards and releases, and hails from Wilmington, Delaware where she continues to provide support to local organizing, in addition to being a leader in the local to national environmental and economic justice movement.
(Copied from https://brainandenvironment.org/speakers/)
Brian Mateer
Director of Missional Engagement, Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church
Brian Mateer is the Director of Missional Engagement at the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. He has over two decades of leadership experience in the United Methodist Church and educational institutions. Brian holds a BS in Environmental Science from Averett University. Notable, he leads the Hurricane Helene Recovery efforts for the WNCC UMC and serves as the Conference liaison to the Creation Care team. Brian lives in Charlotte NC with his wife Amy, their four daughters, and two furry friends.
Melanie (Mel) Fleisher
Director of Youth and Children’s Ministry, Welborne UMC (Three Notch’d)
Mel (she/her) is a second-year MDIV/MACE student at Union Presbyterian Seminary and a graduate of Randolph-Macon College’s A. Purnell Bailey Pre-Ministerial Program. She is the Service Deacon in UPSEM’s student government, a soprano in the chapel choir, and a member of the Queers and Allies (Q&A) group on campus. Mel is currently serving as the Youth and Children’s Director at Welborne United Methodist Church in Henrico. Mel has been working closely with R-MC’s Convergence program for many years and her favorite part of the program is watching young minds expand to new ways of understanding the relationship between faith & science!
Kim Richmond
Convener of WNCC Creation Care Ministries
Kim Richmond is the Convener of WNCC Creation Care Ministries and working in Creation Justice as UMC Global Ministries EarthKeeper since 2017. She is the author the 2024 General Conference resolution on “Church Land Use” that directs church trustees to assess ways to bring property “back in harmony” with God’s creation and updates the Energy Policy Statement urging Conferences, churches and agencies to develop plans for using more renewable energy sources.
Pat Watkins
Retired Elder and first “Missionary for the Care of God’s Creation”
Pat Watkins is a retired ordained elder and member of the VA Conference of the UMC. He was formerly a missionary for the UMC General Board of Global Ministries as our first “Missionary for the Care of God’s Creation.” His mission position involved integrating care for God’s creation into the greater overall global ministry of the church. Currently he is part of the leadership team for the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. Pat tries to live out his passion for God’s creation by living his life in such a way as to make a smaller footprint on God’s earth. His passion is to raise the awareness, particularly among people of faith, that there is a connection between faith and a responsibility to care for and heal God’s creation.
Jane Wilson
Lay Leader and Leadership Board member of Burke UMC
Jane Wilson is the Lay Leader and Leadership Board member of Burke UMC and has been active in outreach, mission and social justice activities for most of her adult life in churches. Burke UMC has an active Green Team, and “long ago committed to doing our part for the environment, as we feel the Bible calls us to do.”
Alex Joyner
Pastor, Charlotteville First UMC
Alex Joyner is the pastor at Charlotteville First United Methodist Church having served a variety of capacities in the United Methodist church. His church, with a slate-roofed sanctuary in historic downtown Charlottesville, recently added roof-top solar panels.
Brandon Praileau
Pastor, Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church (Norfolk, VA)
Virginia Program Director, Solar United Neighbors
Brandon Praileau is the Pastor of Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church in Norfolk VA ,and Virginia Program Director for Solar United Neighbors non-profit. In addition to being a solo Pastor, he facilitates solar energy initiatives in Virginia through outreach, community engagement, policy advocacy, solar deployment and solar education.
Kendra Grimes
Chaplain & Director of Church Relations, Randolph-Macon College
Kendra Grimes is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Prior to her role as College Chaplain, Kendra was on staff at Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church, on the corner of campus. She has been active in VA as the convener of Convergence – High School Youth Theology Institute on Faith and Science.
Joseph Donoghue
Assessor, Waste Reduction Partners (Asheville NC)
member, UMC Western NC Creation Justice Team
Joe holds a PhD in geology and a BS in engineering. He has been doing volunteer energy audits for churches as part of a state-funded agency in Asheville, Waste Reduction Partners. He and his wife retired to western North Carolina three years ago from a faculty position with the National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, Planetary Sciences Program, Department of Physics, at the University of Central Florida. He is a United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries Earthkeeper and part of the Western North Carolina Creation Justice team. His church, (Hendersonville FUMC) has recently installed a large rooftop solar array, which is the largest on any church in the state.
Jennifer Secki Shields
Founder & Director of Discovery & Faith
Certified Lay Minister
Jennifer Secki Shields is a Certified Lay Minister who brings her science background, teaching experience, and passion for ministry to inform her mission to help the church engage science. She is the founder and director of Discovery & Faith, a nonprofit ministry doing faith & science together for the next generation.
Jaydee Hanson
Policy Director for the Center for Food Safety
Jaydee Hanson is the Policy Director for the Center for Food Safety and has a Master’s in Biogeography and Resource Management. He directed the bioethics work of the General Board of the United Methodist Church from 1986 to 2004 and, while there, began the United Methodist environmental justice movement. He is the current Lay Co-Chair of the VAUMC Board of Church and Society and active in the life of the church at every level, including Fossil Free UMC, and a member of Mt. Olivet UMC in Arlington, VA.