Advisors

Bethany Stolle is the founder of Stolle Creative, and is an interaction designer, curriculum developer, and instigator. She put her youth and family ministry degree to work at Augsburg Fortress, designing physical and digital products for children, youth, and adults, and helped launch Sparkhouse, which developed a number of award-winning youth ministry resources under her leadership. Bethany studied Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship under Jon Kolko at the Austin Center for Design, and facilitates design and strategy workshops across the country. She now collaborates with education technology companies, non-profit endowments, and religious organizations. She is passionate about working on “wicked problems,” developing empathy through design research, and making space to create stuff with others. Bethany and her husband live in the Seattle area and attend Central Lutheran Church (ELCA).

Jared Aldwin Crooks is an astrophysicist (no, really…), serial entrepreneur and author in Princeton, New Jersey. In addition to creating innovation platforms for NASA, Jared has founded and led numerous start-ups, including biotech, IT, food and children’s educational ventures. He is also a contributing board member for the Princeton Prison Teaching Initiative and founding member of the Legacy Christian Ministries at Princeton University. Jared and his wife Veneka live in Princeton, NJ.

Brenda Bertrand is a consultant, life coach and ordained minister who offers spiritual direction, coaching and mastermind groups to budding entrepreneurs. Her eclectic 20-year career spans work as a news anchor, a political appointee, interfaith university chaplaincy, teaching in higher education and consulting at leading global firms. With master’s degrees from the University of Texas and Princeton Theological Seminary, Brenda recently spent a year teaching communication and business management in the People’s Republic of China.

Formerly a Senior Accounting Associate for Prudential Financial in Philadelphia, Jake Higgins now serves as a commercial real estate underwriter. He is treasurer for Because of Hope, a Santa Barbara, CA non-profit and scholarship program for Ugandan widows and orphans. Jake and his wife Ashley are active at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, where Jake serves as a youth advisor and pianist for Sunday night worship.

Kendy Easley is the Executive Pastor/Head of Staff at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Seattle, and has offered spiritual direction and coaching to fellow church leaders and academics and for more than twenty years. An expert in leadership, strategic planning and organizational development, Kendy describes her passion as “helping vision become reality” and has helped launch countless new ministry initiatives through churches in the Bellevue/Seattle area. A graduate of UCLA and Princeton Seminary, Kendy and her husband Tyler are the glad parents of two young adult children, Maddie and Mason. Kendy likes to take on challenges in her free time, such as learning to raise chickens and cycling to Vancouver, Canada on a tandem.

Jordan Brady Loewen is a film and video essayist (and veteran of the wedding cinematography biz)—and also the lead consultant for New Street Creative Consulting (you can see some of his work here. As a millennial new media specialist, Jordan puts his film and theology degrees to work for pastors, educators, theologians, and administrators who want to enhance their ministerial projects with creative energy and visual expression. He currently resides in Syracuse, NY with his wife, Amber, and is working on a Ph.D in Religion and New Media at Syracuse University.

Derek is the Practice Leader for Dickinson Wright’s Entertainment Law practice, counseling various entertainment and media executives and company owners. He represents some of the hottest songwriters, publishers and producers in the country as well as some the most active entrepreneurs in the entertainment and IP sectors in the South. He works with each client as a “primary care physician” of sorts assisting with LLC funding deals, real estate sales, asset purchase agreements, recording agreements, audits, employment agreements as well as tax and wills and trusts matters. He is “go-to” counsel for mid-sized publishing companies, indy record labels, songwriters and artists who own their copyrights, and mid-sized worldwide publishing administration companies, advising each on licensing, lawsuits, and liability issues daily. Oh…and he’s been a voting member of the Country Music Association since 1996.

Cam Caldwell represents and counsels a wide array of clients, ranging from artists and songwriters to consumer product manufacturers and entertainment-related businesses, and has experience forming and negotiating a variety of entertainment and business related transactions. He also focuses his practice in intellectual property litigation, as well as employment litigation and general civil litigation. He is licensed to practice in all Tennessee state courts with a particular working knowledge of the Federal Middle District Court of Tennessee.

Chad Mihevc is an attorney with Flores & Mihevc, LLC in Deerfield, Illinois with over twenty years of legal experience in commercial, financial and real estate transactions. He also advises owners and entrepreneurs on the formation, operation and governance of local and national business enterprises and nonprofit organizations. Chad and his wife Jenny live in McHenry, Illinois with their three children, and are active members of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church (ELCA), where Chad has served as council President, a youth director, and a musician in the church brass quintet.

As a financial coach and accountant for over 15 years, Tim Vaughn helps churches and nonprofits understand the stories their numbers tell. Tim’s unique approach as an “accountant pastor” helps persons and communities of faith reduce their financial stress by providing direct financial services, coaching, and sometimes through complete outsourcing. Tim is also a pastor and aspiring church planter who believes the combination of accountant-pastor gives him a unique perspective on both. Tim, his wife Alicia, and their three children are based in Southern New Jersey though he works with most of his clients virtually. He loves to read, travel and spend time with his family and friends.