Ongoing Mission and Transitions at De Pree Center

The mission of the Max De Pree Center for Leadership is to equip leaders to respond faithfully to God’s callings in all seasons of life and leadership. We do this through spiritual formation resources—experiences and tools that help you do the inner work necessary to deal with issues that matter in a changing world. We do this because we can envision the good fruit that results from leaders across industries who are guided by the hope of Christ and energized to join in God’s redemptive mission through their work.

Part of what makes this work not only possible but also energizing is the talented and faithful team at the De Pree Center. So, today, I’m pleased to update you on a couple of team transitions.

As of July 1^st, Wayne Park, our Program Director who has faithfully and successfully led our Road Ahead work to new heights over the past year, has been promoted to Chancellor of Fuller Texas! While I’ll miss working with Chancellor Park in a more hands-on way, I am thrilled about this opportunity for him, Fuller, and all those who will benefit from his leadership. Plus, I see it as quite fitting that people who come to work at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership would go on to lead in critical roles.

Chancellor Park will continue to help both envision and be the chief liaison for De Pree Center’s work in Houston, which thanks to Wayne is quite vibrant. This includes leading and recruiting for Road Ahead Cohorts and overseeing Making Sense of Change events. We are grateful that Wayne’s heart for issues related to faith/work guides ongoing opportunities to collaborate. You can the official announcement about Wayne’s transition here.

Stepping into the gap created by Wayne’s transition, is W. Ryan Gutierrez, who has joined us in the role of Program Specialist. In this role, Ryan is charged with building and maintaining systems related to the growth of Road Ahead. I literally cannot imagine a better fit for this work as Ryan formally served as the Director of Operations for Fuller’s Vocation and Formation office, running numerous programs and initiatives all dedicated to helping seminary students develop the capacity for vocational discernment and agility within the increasingly unstable world of work and ministry.

In addition to Ryan’s strong programmatic experience, he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in New Testament at Fuller under Dr. Joel B. Green (exp. 2024). His proposed dissertation will read the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts to cultivate practices that lead to peaceful relations with the land and all who live on it.

I am also pleased to report that Senior Researcher, Meryl Herr has transitioned from part-time to full-time work at De Pree Center. First hired for one research project in September 2021, Meryl was so good that we kept inviting her into more and more projects until she agreed to come on full-time last month. With her expanded hours, Meryl will continue to oversee our research but will now also oversee the process of converting that research into resources as well as creating resources herself. Here is a recent piece on compassionate leadership that Meryl wrote.

I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Ryan, and congratulating both Wayne and Meryl. Like you do with me, reach out to them if they can be helpful to you in some way by responding to any of the emails we send.