REDEMPTIVE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Partner, Theology & Culture
As Partner for Theology & Culture, Andy Crouch serves as a teacher, mentor, and framework builder for our team, fellows, and community. He is the author of The Life We're Looking For (2022), The Tech-Wise Family (2017), Strong and Weak (2016), Playing God (2013) and Culture Making (2008). Andy was executive editor of Christianity Today from 2012 to 2016. His work and writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Time-and, most importantly, he received a shout-out in Lecrae's 2014 single "Non-Fiction." Andy studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. He lives in Swarthmore, PA.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- CEO of WorkFaith
- WorkFaith, Amazing CEO
Anthony Flynn serves as CEO of WorkFaith, which has a mission to build faith and career skills for the marketplace. In addition, Anthony increases productivity, profitability, and sustainability for CEOs, key executives, and their companies through his newest venture, Amazing CEO. Anthony founded Gifted in 2012 and represented the organization as a 2014 Fellow in the Praxis Nonprofit Accelerator. He has spent the last 20 years in high-capacity leadership roles in the public and nonprofit sectors, including work with three Fortune 100 giants. He is the author of The Execution Pipeline: A Step-by-Step Guide to Moving Your Business Idea From Dream to Reality and co-author of The Happiness Map: Finding Fulfillment in Life and Work.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- CEO of Generous Giving
April is the CEO of Generous Giving, founded to grow a movement of believers who demonstrate God's love through extravagant generosity. Previously, she worked in the tech industry for 20 years including a tenure at Microsoft building consumer websites and managing key partnerships. She invests in Christian-led organizations locally, nationally, and internationally to help maximize their economic, social, and spiritual impact. April serves on the Praxis and NCF Northwest boards, as well as several small/medium business boards. She was also Co-Chair of the World Vision Innovation Fund. She holds an Oxford Diploma in Strategy & Innovation and a BS in computer science from UC Irvine.
Ariel Eide knew she loved the startup world but found her passion in the space when it collided with social impact and infused her faith in action. She is a process and systems thinker with experience in project management and client engagement. Prior to joining Praxis, she worked for a software company and helped them with process optimization, as well as with Samaritan's Purse in partner relations and event execution. Ariel obtained an MBA in Global, Social, and Sustainable Enterprise from Colorado State University, and her undergrad is in business from Colorado Christian University, where she met her now husband. In her free time, you can find her doing some outdoor activity with him.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Business Portfolio
Ben Bohannon loves building ventures. He has worked with hardware and software startups, built mobile communication apps, and most recently, led Sseko Designs. Sseko is a pioneering fashion brand that connects consumers to producers and creates opportunity by providing college scholarships and living wage jobs, while pursuing sustainable production practices. Ben cares deeply about the founder's journey and is passionate about building community for leaders. He lives in an intentional community in Portland, OR, where he seeks to live a life rooted in proximity and express the love of Jesus to his neighbors. Ben is married to Liz (co-founder of Sseko) and father to Theo, Will, and Jack.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Co - Founder
- Founding Partner
Ben Chelf, Co-founder and CEO of Sol and Founding Partner at Elementum Ventures, previously was a co-founder of Coverity, a company birthed from his research as a PhD student at Stanford. Coverity attracted investment from the likes of Benchmark Capital and Foundation Capital, employed hundreds of people, and, in 2014, was acquired by Synopsys. Ben served as both COO and CTO, defining product strategy and working closely with customers and the press and analyst communities. He's been named to ComputerWorld's Top 40 under 40 Innovative IT Professionals and is in the Stanford Inventor Hall of Fame. Ben has lived every part of the entrepreneurial cycle.
Dan Reed is animated by the power of generous, risk-forward capital to transform culture. At Praxis, he helps cultivate a community of funders committed to activating capital towards redemptive purposes. Previously, Dan served in leadership roles at National Right Work Committee, Denver Public Schools Foundation, and Morris Animal Foundation. In 2015, he founded Seed, a training and coaching company designed to help social entrepreneurs fundraise for scale. He loves the work of building new things and those that put their hands to the task. Dan lives in Beaver, PA, with his wife Melissa, two kids, Emma and Aiden, and dog, Norma the Newfie.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Co - Founder
- Co - Founder & CEO of Praxis
Dave Blanchard is the Co-Founder & CEO of Praxis, a venture-building ecosystem advancing redemptive entrepreneurship. Praxis has supported over 200 global ventures through their Business and Nonprofit Accelerators, while also organizing a broader community of founders, funders, and innovators working on the major issues of our time. Previously, Dave was a Principal Designer at IDEO and founded two companies in music and technology. He is a co-author of From Concept to Scale and a contributor to Praxis's various publications. He has a BA from Babson College and an MBA and MEM from Northwestern, and he lives in New York City, where Praxis is headquartered.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder, Life Design Lab / Venture Partner
Dave Evans joined the Stanford Design Program in 2007, where he co-founded the Stanford Life Design Lab that teaches the popular Designing Your Life courses. His passion is helping people apply design thinking to the wicked problem of designing their lives. Dave is actively pursuing that mission on three fronts: higher education, the marketplace, and the church. He holds his BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford and his diploma in Contemplative Spirituality from San Francisco Theological Seminary. His NYT #1 bestseller, Designing Your Life, released in fall 2016. Dave has been a mentor with Praxis since 2014.
Debra McCoy collaborates with leaders of investment firms, privately held companies, and public corporations to advance strategic decisions. As an investor, she was part of both public market and private equity fund allocation teams. Her general management and capital markets roles have included asset management and allocation, banking, academia, and strategy, which brought her around the world to Bangkok, Delhi, Dubai, Johannesburg, New York, Washington DC, the Bay Area, and Houston. Debra graduated from Howard University (BA) and Harvard (MBA). She also served as a nonpartisan, presidentially appointed White House Fellow at the U.S. Department of State.
Donna Harris is Founder of Builders + Backers, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 1776 Ventures, and was previously Managing Director of the Startup America Partnership. As a board member of both the Global Entrepreneurship Network and the National Center for Entrepreneurship, an Advisor to the Economic Innovation Group, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at The Busch School, Donna works to inspire entrepreneurs to create companies of impact and to become leaders in their communities. She avidly believes in the power of entrepreneurial thinking to drive culture change and collective flourishing and she frequently gives keynote talks to inspire it at conferences and on college campuses around the world.
Job Titles:
- Lead, HQ Operations & Hospitality
Emily Parker is motivated by the relational and memorable experiences generated through personalized service and excellent hospitality. Before Praxis, she worked in private city club management where she developed skills in concierge services, vendor relations, event and facilities management, and executing capital projects. Her professional and personal cross-cultural experiences have influenced her desire to shift from the lifestyle and leisure industry to a missional organization with lasting impact. Emily hails from Okinawa, Japan, and the Florida Panhandle yet considers New York home. She holds a BS in Hospitality Management from Florida State University's College of Business.
Haleigh Ly cares deeply about fostering meaningful relationships and intentional community. In her previous position in refugee resettlement, she pursued her passion of empowering the vulnerable among us. Haleigh earned a degree in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship from Messiah University. She first connected with Praxis as a participant of Praxis Academy while developing her own social enterprise, a handcrafted coffee mug company that supported a cooperative of self-employed women artisans in Acámbaro, Mexico. In her free time, Haleigh loves grabbing coffee with friends, trying fun restaurants with her husband, and training with the Central Park Running Club.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Founder of East of Weird & Company
Haley Robison Dake is the founder of East of Weird & Company, where her executive coaching and project work support CEOs and early-stage ventures with strategy, organizational design, team building, and personal growth. Other roles include Venture Partner at Praxis, Senior Advisor at Openfields, Instructor at American Enterprise Institute, and Lecturer at UT Austin. Haley draws from a variety of perspectives and experiences, including time at IDEO, Bain & Company, Trinity Forum Academy, and National Outdoor Leadership School. Haley holds a BA in Business and Finance from UT Austin and a joint MBA and MEd from Stanford University. She lives in Bastrop, TX, with her husband and two sons.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Founder of FiveStone
Jason Locy is the founder of FiveStone, a design agency started in 2001. FiveStone helps global nonprofits and social enterprises through strategy, branding, and awareness campaigns. Jason's authored two spiritual living books (Harper Collins) as well as his latest book Culture Bending Narratives: Moving Beyond Story to Create Meaningful Brands.
Jeff Dykstra is passionate about bringing together unusual partners. In his role as Co-Founder and CEO of Partners in Food Solutions, he leads international food companies, promising food companies in Africa, the US government, private donors, NGOs, and impact investors as they come together to improve food security, nutrition, and economic development across Africa. Jeff has spent half his career in business and the other in international development working for both global organizations and several start-up ventures. Ashoka Fellow and Bush Fellow, Jeff is a Westmont College graduate and recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Organizational Leadership at Oxford University.
Jena has just begun serving as the founding Executive Director for a philanthropic foundation of a major wealth holder in Boston. Prior to that, she led the fundraising & communications efforts for Justice Defenders, a 2017 Nonprofit. She spent 7 years as Partner for the Nonprofit Portfolio at Praxis, and served as a primary coach for 100+ Fellows from 6 cohorts. As a co-author of the Redemptive Nonprofit Playbook, Jena is a passionate advocate for a redemptive rethinking in the nonprofit sector. At the start of her career, Jena served as co-founder and Executive Director of Blood:Water, which she founded alongside the band, Jars of Clay. She and her husband, James, have two children and live in Boston.
Jessica Kim is the Co-Founder & CEO of ianacare, which is on a mission to encourage, empower, and equip family caregivers. It is one platform that organizes and mobilizes all the support and social determinants of health. At the age of 19, she started Jessica's Wonders, a baked good company, out of her college dorm room, raised $1M her senior year, and grew it to national distribution. She then worked at Kraft Foods in brand management. In 2008, Jessica launched BabbaCo to invest in the future of parenting through subscription activity boxes. BabbaCo was acquired in 2014 by Barefoot Books, where she served as President for two years before becoming an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at Charles River Ventures. She was honored as Crain's Top 40 under 40, Women in Digital Health Award, and the inaugural EIR at Brown University. She graduated from Brown University and has an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. She lives in Boston with her three children and husband, Peter. She is a caregiver for her dad.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Local Ecosystems
Jon Hart loves working with builders and entrepreneurs to connect their heart and purpose. At Praxis, he develops programs, products, and tools to advance redemptive entrepreneurship through local ecosystems, including Redemptive Labs. His prior experience includes helping launch a new brand at a Fortune 100 company, designing and teaching a collegiate entrepreneurship class, serving as a founding advisor of QuarterZero, and executive producing a feature film. Jon is a founding board member of 100cameras, a nonprofit that empowers youth through photography. His favorite roles are as a husband to Maegan and dad to Nora.
Jono Eshleman is a relationally-motivated problem solver who optimizes processes to build community. As an Associate, he supports Praxis's program delivery by tackling event logistics and maintaining data systems. After graduating from Taylor University with a BA in Film & Media Production, Jono gained professional experience in the film, nonprofit, and hospitality industries. He was introduced to the Praxis community as a host team member in 2022 and has been eager to advance redemptive entrepreneurship ever since.
Jordan Terranova loves working with community-building innovators and the upcoming generation of entrepreneurs. She gets excited by deep conversations, new ideas, and crafting strategy. Jordan holds a BS in Business Administration, Management, from Biola University and a Master's Degree in Social Entrepreneurship from USC's Marshall School of Business. Previously, she served as the Director of the Office of Innovation at Biola University, building entrepreneurship programs for undergraduate and graduate students. She lives in LA with her husband and can frequently be found at Disneyland.
Job Titles:
- General Partner
- General Partner at Elementum Ventures
Kurt Keilhacker, a General Partner at Elementum Ventures in Menlo Park, CA, has been a co-founder and CEO of several Silicon Valley companies. Before co-founding Elementum, he invested in over 50 U.S. and European startups with TechFund Capital and TechFund Europe. Alongside his corporate board commitments, Kurt serves as the Board Chair at Praxis, a Trustee at Wheaton College, and a member of the Dean's Council at Harvard Divinity School. He also teaches graduate courses in strategy, analytics, and entrepreneurship at the University of San Francisco. A Wheaton graduate, Kurt earned an MBA from the University of Chicago, an MLA from Stanford, and an MTS from Harvard.
Job Titles:
- Executive Chair
- Founder of CloudFactory
As the Founder of CloudFactory, Mark Sears has scaled the company into a leader in AI data labeling with a global team of 7000. After 15 years at the helm, he recently transitioned to the role of Executive Chairman and is now channeling his expertise into a new endeavor-a redemptive AI venture studio. The studio is looking to co-build with other redemptive entrepreneurs to leverage AI to address the major issues of our times. Residing in Durham, NC, this proud Canadian continues his aim to inspire and lead in the ever-evolving world of technology and AI.
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Chief of Staff at Praxis
Mary Elizabeth Ellett is the Chief of Staff at Praxis. She completed her undergrad at Wheaton College, where her participation in a startup pitch competition introduced her to Praxis and the vision for redemptive entrepreneurship. Immediately following college, she was the Director of Donor Relations for a workforce development nonprofit in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. She now lives in Queens with her husband and daughter and makes frequent trips into Manhattan to collaborate with the Praxis team at their HQ in Hell's Kitchen or to worship at Emmanuel Anglican in the West Village.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Global Community
Job Titles:
- Director, Content & Communications
Job Titles:
- Partner, Nonprofit Portfolio
Job Titles:
- Senior Lead, Finance & Operations