Emerging Leaders Cohort

Michael VanHuis serves as the Executive Director of Missio Nexus.  He and his wife Laura have served as field missionaries in Ghana, West Africa and in international and home office leadership with Pioneers.  He has also served as the mission’s pastor and chief of staff at Northland Church.  Prior to coming to Missio Nexus he managed a private family foundation and served as Vice President for OneWay Ministries.  Michael is passionate about leadership and helping to liberate leaders and organizations to reach their full potential.

Michael holds a Masters in Global Leadership from Fuller School of Intercultural studies.  He is an avid reader, serves as an Elder at his local church, and loves to be outdoors.  He and his wife Laura live in Aurora, IL and have five children.

Jenn Williamson, DMin, is the Director of Leadership Formation for Missio Nexus. She is passionate about equipping and encouraging Christian leaders to guide their organizations to greater effectiveness by developing and employing strategies and systems that reflect and reveal the Kingdom of God. Jenn and her husband David live in Lyon, France.

Ted Esler is the President of Missio Nexus, an association of agencies and churches representing hundreds of mission agencies and churches. Ted worked in the computer industry and then served in the Balkans during the 1990’s. He then held various leadership roles with Pioneers. He was appointed the President of Missio Nexus in 2015. He is the author of The Innovation Crisis., Ted has a PhD in Intercultural Studies (Fuller Theological Seminary, 2012).

Andrea Buczynski has served as the Global VP for Leadership Development and HR for Cru for the past twenty years. She came to Christ through the Four Spiritual Laws while a chemistry student at Penn State. Called to campus ministry 47 years ago, her formative ministry and leadership experience started with 15 years of campus assignments throughout the Midwest before coming to serve at the headquarters in Florida in 1993. Nine years as National Director of Staffed Campuses preceded a short time as Global Campus Ministry Leadership Development specialist, before taking on the Vice President role in 2004. She is currently serving as a Leadership Development consultant and coach with Cru, and a Board member for Christian Leadership Alliance. She enjoys coffee, good books and the beach.

Jacob Hancock is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Pioneers and an adjunct professor of innovation at Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business. He has lived overseas for over six years in India, Albania, Greece and South Sudan. He has been privileged to work with over 100 organizations within the spaces of Design, Innovation and Strategy through the Seeds Innovation Lab.

Jacob has expertise in Pre-Empathy of Design, Design Thinking, Cultures of Innovation, Innovation Implementation, Change Management, and Organizational Strategy. He holds an MBA in International Business from Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business and a BS from Moody Bible Institute. He is also a Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner with specialties in Change Resistance and Resolving Change Barriers.

Julie Whitmore serves as a Pre-Field Coach at Pioneers. While pursuing her degree, God grew Julie’s heart for missions among people who have little or no access to the gospel. Before even going on a short-term mission trip Julie made a three-year commitment to church planting in South Asia. She loved those years, but afterward God led her to work at Pioneers in Orlando. Over the last 8 years she has served in multiple roles in Pioneers with the last 4 as a pre-field coach, helping people move into cross-cultural, church-planting ministry with unreached people groups. In Julie’s role she gets to interview, train and coach people who are planning on serving long-term from the time they attend orientation until departure.

Doug Hill grew up in Canada and moved to Orlando in 1992 with a vision to mobilize more workers for the harvest. The last 30 of 39 years of marriage, Doug and his wife Lisa have had the privilege of assisting in sending over 2,000 long-term workers all over the world, including the joy of sending their daughter and son-in law who served in South Asia. Two of their grandchildren were born there. Doug and Lisa have spent extended time in India and Bolivia serving with teams and visiting over 25 PI teams over the years. Their passion and vision have not wavered in ministry, to empower young leaders to move beyond where they are now to where good desires for them to be through encouraging, motivating, and challenging. Doug currently leads the team of 9 coaches who oversee over 300 appointees going to the field.