Our Team
John Aden
John Aden is a student at Yale Divinity School and a recent M.Div. graduate from Vanderbilt Divinity School. His academic work explores how churches can imagine and embody alternative models of economic cooperation. He is a former graduate fellow with the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt where he currently works on program development
Mary Lee Bartlett
…has lived in Nashville since 1981 when she came here to attend Vanderbilt University. After graduating from Vanderbilt and for most of her adult life, Mary Lee has been a community volunteer. She is currently serving as the Advisory Board Chair for her sorority at VU. She is a Past President of the Junior League of Nashville, a volunteer organization with over 1,900 members whose main focus is to improve our community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.
Dr. Juan Floyd-Thomas
… is an Associate Professor of African American Religious History at Vanderbilt Divinity School. In his teaching and research he emphasizes: religious pluralism, the intersection of race, ethnicity, and religion in United States; the history of new/alternative religious movements; interdisciplinary approaches to the academic study of religious thought; the varieties of African American religious experience; and African American churches and sociopolitical reform.
Rev. Francisco Garcia
… is a PhD Student at Vanderbilt Divinity School and an ordained Episcopal priest. Prior to ordination, he worked in the labor movement for a decade in various organizing, negotiating, and leadership capacities with workers in both the public and private sectors. Francisco has over fifteen years of experience in faith and community organizing, advocacy, and leadership development, particularly in the labor/economic justice and immigrant rights movements.
Rev. Stephen Handy
… is currently the lead pastor at McKendree UMC and the executive director of Congregational Solutions. He is a strong advocate of restorative justice, serving the poor and needy, and participating in life groups for spiritual formation and accountability.
Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger
… is a community organizer, author, lecturer, and a co-founder of the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development, which is educating the public about building community wealth and creating good jobs through employee owned businesses. Before working in non-profit and cooperative development, Rosemarie worked in biotech research for many years and was a Montessori educator.
“I am excited to learn whether our cooperative toolkit for churches and faith communities can spark as many lively discussions as we have had together. This project has reaffirmed my resolve to be a part of creating an economy that puts people over profits and works for all.”
Rev. Dr. David G. Latimore
… is the Director for the Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary and most recently served as the sixth Senior Pastor of the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his Doctorate of Ministry in Homiletics from McCormick Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School. Before seminary, Rev. Dr. Latimore enjoyed a successful career in investment management and economic development. Most recently, serving as President and CEO for the Initiative for A Competitive Inner City (ICIC), an economic research firm focused on economic development in America’s inner cities.
Vonda McDaniel
Vonda McDaniel is an active member and leader on economic issues at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill and is also president of the Nashville and Middle Tennessee Labor Council, a member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute Nashville Chapter and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. She was recently appointed to the TN State Workforce Investment Board and serves as Vice-Chair of the Board for the Music City Center (Convention Center). Growing up in Nashville, Vonda’s activism is influenced by the church she grew up in. First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill was an early center of student organizing during the civil rights movement. Vonda is a graduate of Tennessee State University.
Eli Motycka
Eli Motycka is a Nashville native helping coordinate projects and grant funding at the Southeast Center. He’s worked in several different roles at community organizations and non-profits, including as a regional organizer for the Sunrise Movement and case manager with the United Methodist Church in the wake of the 2020 tornadoes in Middle Tennessee. Eli is involved in the ultimate Frisbee community in Nashville and writes for the Tennessee Lookout. He has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, where he studied history and English.
Robert “Benny” Overton
Robert “Benny” Overton is president of United Auto Workers Local 737 in Nashville. He is the former vice chair of Nashville Organizing for Action and Hope (NOAH), president of the Dickson County Branch NAACP, and vice president of the Tennessee AFL-CIO. He is also a co-founder of the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development. Along with Rosemarie, Benny is the liaison to national groups working on cooperatives.
“The CIT work is an incredible avenue for sharing the good news of a way to build an economy that gives priority to people and in so doing, lifts those who have been marginalized and grappling with the very real hardships of inequality and deprivations. It’s about an opportunity to build a better world.”
Ellen Peterson
After graduating from Auburn University, Ellen Peterson moved to Houston where she worked in the non-profit sector doing everything from program coordination and communications to event planning and fundraising. She has over 20 years of experience working with charitable organizations, and most recently served as the Executive Director of a Franklin-based non-profit organization, Ordinary Hero, which serves impoverished communities in Ethiopia. A Nashville native, Ellen and her family happily returned to Franklin five years ago to raise their children in the beauty of Middle Tennessee.
Dr. Joerg Rieger
Dr. Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Studies, Founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice, Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion at Vanderbilt University. He is author and editor of 24 books, including Jesus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God (2018), No Religion but Social Religion: Liberating Wesleyan Theology (2018), Unified We Are a Force: How Faith and Labor Can Overcome America’s Inequalities (with Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger 2016), and No Rising Tide: Theology, Economics, and the Future (2009).
“The church talks about salvation, but it also needs to be saved, sometimes from itself. Engaging worker cooperatives can contribute to doing that, building on some of the charity and advocacy work that is already going on, but moving it towards new forms of solidarity that bring together people of various backgrounds and the divine. I’m convinced that some real alternatives are emerging here that will transform the status quo in both church and world.”
George Schmidt
George Schmidt is the husband of Larissa Romero and the son of Judy and Steve Schmidt. He was born along the banks of the Ohio River in southern Indiana. He is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary under the watchful eye of James Cone. After seminary, George worked as a community organizer in NYC working primarily for housing and labor rights. George is ordained by the Disciples of Christ and served as a chaplain in both the prison and hospice setting. A number of years ago he was commissioned into the United States Navy as an officer and a military chaplain where he served with the navy, the marines, and the coast guard. He is PhD student at Vanderbilt University and serves on the board of directors for the Institute for Christian Socialism.
“As someone new to worker-cooperatives, I came to this project with fresh eyes. Now, I believe cooperatives can serve as the model for building an alternative economy for all of us.”
Dr. Aaron Stauffer
Dr. Aaron Stauffer is the Senior Research Fellow at the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School. In May 2020, Aaron completed his PhD in Theology and Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Before that Aaron was the executive director at Religions for Peace USA, where he ran national programs countering islamophobia, mass incarceration and training clergy and faith leadership in interfaith community organizing. Before Religions for Peace USA, Aaron was an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation.
“I had only read about cooperatives in the past, now I’ve met leaders in the solidarity and cooperative economy movement and have witnessed how important the work of the church has been to this work. This project has provided me with relationships and knowledge to help the church continue this important and rich legacy.”
Marcus Trammell
Marcus Trammell is the former Associate Director of the Wendland-Cook Program Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School is a 2006 Masters of Theological Studies graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School and has served for over a decade as a community and economic organizer.