Presbyterian Hunger Program Staff
Ruth Farrell- Coordinator
Prior to becoming the Coordinator for the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Ruth Farrell worked for nearly 10 years as a PC(USA) Mission Co-worker in Peru where she worked with over 200 very poor artisans who formed cooperatives and exported as an alternative to the sweatshops and piecework available to them. Before Peru, Ruth was a Mission Co-worker in the Congo working with community development on a seminary campus. North American experiences include working with immigrant business owners through a micro-enterprise program in Louisville, Kentucky; and working in the public policy arena in the office of Senator Richard G. Lugar (Washington D.C.). She has an MBA (international finance) from the George Washington University. She currently serves on the boards of Bread for the World, Food Resources Bank and Just Creations. Ruth’s husband Hunter is Director of World Mission for PC(USA) and they have three adult children.
(800) 728-7228 x5816
Jennifer Evans- Administrative Assistant
Jennifer Evans joined the PHP staff in 2012 in her current role and helps keep everyone in the office in line and things running smoothly. Additionally, she works very closely with the National Office grant process. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and comes from a background of home mortgage financing. She loves to run in her spare time, which there is very little of since her days are filled with the antics of her eight year old daughter.
(800) 728-7228 x5819
Jessica Maudlin- Program Assistant for Resources and Leadership Development
Jessica Maudlin has been on staff for just over three years. She works with educational materials and resource production, including the PHP Post. She is responsible for communication with the HAE network, special event coordination, directing general inquiry traffic for PHP, and connecting our constituency with the resources they need to do hunger work in congregations across the US. She is a graduate of Hanover College where she focused in the study of Liberation Theology as well as international studies. Her background includes volunteer work in Zambia, Mozambique, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Haiti.
(800) 728-7228 x5832
Valéry Nodem- Associate for International Hunger Concerns
Valéry Nodem, the former coordinator of the Joining Hands RELUFA Network and a Cameroonian human rights lawyer, joined the PHP staff in 2011. He coordinates both the international development work of PHP as well as the global advocacy work of the Joining Hands Initiative. Valery is married and has two sons, Imaan (6) and Koffi (3).
(800) 728-7228 x5834
Alexa Smith- Associate for Joining Hands Presbytery and Congregational Support
Alexa Smith coordinates the U.S. networks of the Joining Hands Program. She is a journalist, a Presbyterian minister and a longtime adjunct professor of preaching at Louisville Seminary. Her reporting background is strong in human rights and she has reported from Colombia, Central America and the Middle East in-depth. She has written for The Christian Century, Christianity Today and the U.S. Catholic. She has a doctor of ministry degree in marriage and family therapy.
(800) 728-7228 x5027
Eileen Schuhmann- Program Assistant for International Hunger Concerns
Eileen Schuhmann has her Bachelors in International Economics and French from the University of Kentucky. She served 3 years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Senegal as a small enterprise development agent. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Arts in Sociology at the University of Louisville. Eileen is married and mother to a five year old daughter.
(800) 728-7228 x5828
Andrew Kang Bartlett- Associate for National Hunger Concerns
Prior to coming to the Hunger Program in 2001, Andrew Kang Bartlett worked with non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area on human rights, environmental health, people-centered development and social justice issues. Kang Bartlett also lived in Japan and East Asia for five years, three of those as a Presbyterian missionary doing community organizing and civil rights work with Koreans in Japan.
(800) 728-7228 x5388
Rebecca Barnes-Davies- Associate for Environmental Ministries
Joining the Presbyterian Hunger Program in May 2012, Rebecca Barnes-Davies has been the Associate for Environmental Ministries for the Presbyterian Church (USA) since December 2011. Particularly she oversees the national PC(USA) certification program for Earth Care Congregations, coordinates the volunteer local leadership network called the Environmental Ministries Action Network, and works to help Presbyterians connect their Christian discipleship to ecological, economic and global justice concerns. Rebecca is a graduate of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary where she earned a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Art in Religion in 2011, with a thesis titled: “A Fuller Experience of God’s Grace: How the Sacraments Invite Us to Relationship with, and Care for, the Earth.” While in seminary, she authored "50 Ways to Help Save the Earth: How You and Your Church Can Help Make a Difference." In her local community, Rebecca also organizes the Eco-Justice Worship Collective, an initiative to create dynamic, ecumenical, inclusive worship spaces to engage in eco-justice concerns. She likes reading, writing, yoga, art, dancing, and playing imaginary games with her two children.
(800) 728-7228, x5624
Noelle Damico- Associate for Campaign Fair Food
The Rev. Noelle Damico coordinates the PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food, the church’s partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to advance human rights for farmworkers and socially responsible purchasing in the food industry. She sits on the PC(USA) human trafficking roundtable, facilitates human trafficking awareness trainings for the PC(USA) and writes and speaks on the church’s role in advancing a human-rights based approach to addressing modern-day slavery. Noelle is a published author of biblical, liturgical, and educational materials, including contributions to Horizons Magazine, Presbyterians Today, “Preaching God’s Transforming Justice” lectionary commentary from Westminster/John Knox and numerous other publications. She is on the advisory board and is a contributing editor for the new PC(USA) social justice online journal, Unbound. Noelle is ordained in the United Church of Christ and holds a M.Div. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She has also worked in the business world, managing teams of software developers, spearheading research and development, and creating new practices for collaboration and profit sharing within the workplace.She and her son, August, are active in the White Plains Presbyterian Church, a vibrant multi-cultural congregation in New York where her husband the Rev. Jeffrey Geary serves as pastor.
(631) 371-9877
Trey Hammond- Congregation-Based Community Organizing
Trey Hammond serves as a resource person with the Presbyterian Hunger Program for congregation-based community organizing grants. As part-time deployed staff, he has also served as the pastor of the La Mesa Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, since 1999. He previously served for three years as the coordinator for the Urban Ministry Office of the General Assembly and a pastor in urban parishes in Dallas, Texas. He has been the co-chair of a congregation-based community organization, Albuquerque Interfaith, for eleven years. In 2001, he edited an issue entitled “Homelessness: The Church Responds to an Enduring Tragedy” for the PC(USA)’s journal on social issues, Church and Society.
(505) 255-8095
