Meet the CareLeader team! They produce CareLeader as part of their work for Church Initiative’s editorial team. Find out their specific roles below.
Sam Hodges
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Sam leads the CareLeader team. As a seminary-trained, ordained pastor, Sam knows firsthand a pastor’s desire to provide effective care to hurting people in the church and community. He directs and oversees CareLeader’s content, making sure the articles and videos equip pastors with information and ideas that are strategic, do-able, and originate with sound theology.
Sam also leads Church Initiative’s editorial team and has written and produced a number of Church Initiative’s video-based small group curriculums. They include GriefShare second and third editions (2006, 2014), DivorceCare third edition (2012), and Single & Parenting (2011). Sam is also coauthor of Grieving with Hope: Finding Comfort as You Journey Through Loss.
Sam graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. After that he received a Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Christian education. Sam has also served on staff as a discipleship pastor at Infinity Church in Laurel, MD.
Sam is married to Rachel. They have four children: Katrina, Sam, Nadia, and Amber. Sam enjoys preaching, watching basketball, teaching his family, watching movies, rooting for Washington-area sports teams, and playing video games with his son.
Jeff Forrey
Senior Writer/Content Developer
An expert in the field of biblical counseling and education, Jeff contributes regularly to CareLeader. With his knowledge of theology and his skill as a writer, he brings valuable contributions to the Church Initiative editorial team.
Jeff has been a counselor and trainer for the Center for Biblical Counseling & Education (St. Louis, MO) and Biblical Counseling Center (Arlington Heights, IL). He has taught biblical counseling for Evangelical Theological College, Trinity College of the Bible & Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, and Reformed Theological Seminary.
Jeff is a graduate of Delaware Valley College (BA, biology), Westminster Theological Seminary (MAR, counseling/theology), the University of Alabama (MSPH, health behavior), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (PhD, educational studies). He and his wife, Debbie, have two children.
Kathy Leonard
Editorial Director
Kathy, a regular contributor to CareLeader, has been involved in the creation of multiple Church Initiative resources. She has specific knowledge of what hurting people are going through as she’s interacted with hundreds of hours of interviews that people in life crises have shared for the curriculum videos and workbooks. As editorial director, she upholds the editorial standards of the CareLeader text.
Kathy has been writing and editing for over twenty-five years. After graduating with an English degree from the University of Maryland Asian Division in Okinawa, Japan, Kathy moved with her Air Force husband, Tim, to England. There she wrote feature articles for the Air Force base newspaper and worked as a publicist/graphic designer for the 48th Services Squadron. In 2000, Church Initiative hired her as a writer and editor.
Because of her time spent at Church Initiative, Kathy has developed a passion to minister to people in life crises through her writings. She is coauthor of Grieving with Hope: Finding Comfort as You Journey Through Loss, Through a Season of Grief: Devotions for Your Journey from Mourning to Joy, and DivorceCare 365 Daily Devotions.
Kathy and her husband, Tim, live in Palmyra, Virginia, and have three children: Jacob, Alanna, and Luke. Kathy enjoys reading, dancing, cooking, and leading a ladies’ Bible study at her church.
Greg Ottarski
Copyeditor
As CareLeader’s copyeditor and proofreader, Greg ensures that the text is accurate, logically structured, and maintains a professional standard.
Greg joined the Church Initiative team in the fall of 2015. Having been both a participant and a facilitator in DivorceCare, he knows firsthand the healing and blessings that come through these types of ministries. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Eastern Illinois University and has been doing copyediting and proofreading in some form his entire career.
One thing Greg loves is being on worship teams at church—whether singing, or playing drums or percussion. He also plays guitar and leads worship in small-group settings. He was part of a team of musicians who went on a missions trip to Haiti.
Greg lives in Nashville, TN, with his wife, Marlenis, and has two grown sons. Some of his favorite activities are reading, making music, listening to music, word play, hiking in the woods, and proofreading cereal boxes.
Linda Jacobs
DC4K Ambassador
Linda brings an informed viewpoint to the table as she writes posts for children’s pastors on how to provide nuanced care to children with behavior issues and to those who’ve faced life traumas, such as fractured families or the death of a family member. She also contributes articles on caring for single-parent families.
Linda is one of the forefront leaders in the areas of children and divorce, and single-parent family needs. Having been both divorced and widowed, Linda was a single mom who learned firsthand the emotional and support needs of broken families, and she developed a passion to help hurting families. As a children’s ministry director, children’s program developer, speaker, author, trainer, and therapeutic child care center owner, Linda has assisted countless single-parent families and their children.
In 2004, Linda created and developed the DivorceCare for Kids program, a ministry tool designed to bring healing, comfort, and coping and communication skills to children of divorce. For eight years she served as Church Initiative’s DC4K executive director and is now the DC4K ambassador. She spreads the word about DC4K and teaches ministry leaders how to create a family-friendly church for single parents and their kids and how to help children who have challenging behaviors. She contributes to many blogs and periodicals, including DivorceMinistry4Kids, Relevant Children’s Ministry, BiblicalParenting.org, CMConnect Radio, and K! Magazine.
Linda and her husband, Bruce, have ten grandchildren. She enjoys gardening and playing the piano. She also has a collection of teapots from different places and enjoys making flower arrangements to give away.
Joaquin Fernandez
Video Producer & Art Director
Joaquin is responsible for the look and feel of CareLeader. An experienced video producer and creative director, he oversees the production of the videos on the site and sets CareLeader’s visual standards from logos, colors, and typography to photography, video, and animation.
As part of the Church Initiative team, Joaquin helps create new teaching materials, update existing resources, and produce promotional and training materials. He is responsible for providing art direction to a team of contract and part-time graphic designers who work on our print, web, and video resources.
Originally from Miami, FL, Joaquin was raised in the Dominican Republic from the age of six until he graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in advertising arts. He returned to the US in the early 1990s to attend film school and subsequently moved back to Miami where he worked as a freelance graphic designer, and later as an art director and video producer at Florida International University. He eventually founded The Lighthouse Video and Graphics company.
Joaquin and his wife Monica live in Wake Forest, NC, with their four children, and are members of Hope Baptist Church where he is engaged in street evangelism. They operate a small online retail business, Storehouse Vintage Company, specializing in vintage and antique home decorative accessories.
Joaquin loves his local church life and enjoys traveling with his family, eating ethnic foods, reading books, listening to really good music (world, bluegrass, soundtracks, classical, modern hymns), and occasionally watching a really, really good film with his wife.
Joe Barta IV
Video Director
Joe, an experienced videographer, shoots and edits videos for CareLeader.
Joe has worked from coast to coast and around the world during his thirty-year career in video production, photography, advertising, and graphic design. He has experienced and learned a great deal—from working on a music video with Aerosmith to creating over a thousand thirty-second commercials.
Today, he is using his experience and skills to serve his Creator. At Church Initiative, Joe is directly responsible for filming, editing, and producing the video content for the curriculums.
Joe also has some unusual past experiences. He once created and opened The Candy Bar, a retail candy shop, located in Covington, KY, that specializes in hard-to-find and retro candies. It’s still in operation today.
Joe and his wife, Brittany, have been married for over thirty years. They have lived in seven states and eleven different cities. They have one son. Joe’s hobbies include photography (mostly of nature and abstracts) and collecting early twentieth-century cartoon art books. In line with his passion for classic candy, Joe and his son also have a collection of over three hundred vintage PEZ dispensers on display in their home.
Heidi Bowman
Production Coordinator
With Heidi’s ability to organize multiple, broad-gauge projects, Heidi keeps the CareLeader team on track so we’re able to produce CareLeader, as well as handle our other responsibilities, such as marketing projects and new curriculum development.
Heidi joined the ministry in 2010, and she also coordinates the video production of Church Initiative’s video-based, small group curriculums from preproduction to post production. She’s had the pleasure of serving the ministry through the production process of GriefShare’s third edition (2014), DivorceCare’s third edition (2012), and Single & Parenting (2011).
She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied business and earned a degree in economics. Heidi’s interest in video production began with an elective film course at UNC-CH.
Shortly after graduating, she cofounded a video production company with her husband, Matthew Bowman, Macobo ViewPoints. Heidi met Matthew in 2008 and the two have been partners in life and business every since! Heidi is an avid sports fan and especially enjoys rooting for her alma mater (go Tar Heels!).
In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling with her husband, watching films, video editing, and being a co-owner of a small business.
Micah Lang
Graphic Designer
As Church Initiative’s graphic designer, Micah helps create graphics, branding, and other forms of visual communication in print, web, and video resources.
Micah hails from Boston, Massachusetts, where he graduated from MassArt at the top of his class with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design. He has a diverse range of design experience, from designing toys at Hasbro and large-scale technology devices at EMC to designing local church branding and ministry conferences. In 2015, he moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina, to pursue a Master of Divinity in pastoral ministry from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Micah loves design and has a huge heart for ministry to the local church. He is currently a member of Imago Dei Church in Raleigh. He loves music, the outdoors, reading, cooking, hearing people’s stories, and serving alongside his fiancé, Felicia.