Staff and Directors
Meet the organizers, directors, and executive committee board members committed to bringing about justice in Pennsylvania.
Bishop Dwayne Royster | Executive Director
Bishop Dwayne D. Royster, a leading voice in modern faith-based activism, wants to change the world. Whether he is serving as a pastor, challenging the status quo as a political activist, educating and empowering communities as a radio show host, or encouraging and inspiring audiences around the country as a writer and public speaker, Bishop Royster’s work is fueled by deep faith and passionate commitment to bringing about social justice.
Bishop Royster has served in pastoral ministry for the past over 26 years in a variety of positions and denominations. Driven by his deep commitment to the four biblical principles of redemption, restoration, renewal and refreshment, Bishop Royster works diligently to meet people where they are and instill in the congregation a need to be like Christ: slow to judge always ready to offer grace and mercy.
Bishop Royster currently serves as Senior Pastor of Faith United Church of Christ in the North Michigan Park Section of Washington, DC. Bishop Royster is an advocate for preparing congregations for the ministry of availability. Prior to his current role as Senior Pastor, Bishop Royster has had the honor of presiding over the Living Water United Church of Christ (Founder and Senior Pastor); Mid-Town Parish UMC (Pastor); Way of Life Ministries Mennonite Church (Church Planter and Pastor); Harold O. Davis Memorial Baptist Church (Staff Minister) and Camphor Memorial UMC (Associate Pastor). Bishop Royster has also served the United Church of Christ in the following capacities: United Church of Christ Board of Directors (2013-2017); UCC Executive Committee (2016-2017); Penn Southeast Conference Consistory (2008-2012); Philadelphia Association Executive Committee (2008-2012); Philadelphia Association Committee on Ministry (2010-2014) and Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice Board (2010-2014).
Bishop is a graduate of Geneva College’s Center for Urban Theological Studies (BS in Urban Ministry Management), a graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary In Philadelphia (M.A. in Religion Degree- African American Church specialization), and has studied at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Bishop Royster is the General Secretary of Higher Ground Christian Fellowship International and serves on the College of Bishops.
Bishop Royster has extensive organizing, advocacy, political and faith leadership experience. He believes that it is imperative that a prophetic faith voice is heard in the halls of power calling for equity and respect for the moral value of every human life. He currently serves as the National Political Director of Faith in Action (formerly the PICO National Network), the nation’s largest faith-based organizing movement committed to racial and economic justice with 40+ federations in 26 States and 4 countries.
Bishop Royster serves as the Founder of the Society for Faith and Justice, an ecumenical religious order committed to a charism of social justice as a spiritual discipline and spiritual practice. Bishop is also the former Executive Director of the POWER (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild) and a former councilman-at-large for the Municipality of Norristown. And when he’s not blogging at “Change The Damn World,” Bishop Royster can be found co-hosting a radio show, “Solutions”, on Philadelphia’s WURD.
Bishop Royster’s work and ministry have been featured in the Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Magazine, Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Magazine, New York Times, RT Today, Fox News, Religion and Ethics Weekly (PBS), ThinkProgress, Huffington Post, Fresh Air (PBS), Voice of America, Washington Post, The Washington Informer and many other outlets.
Bishop Dwayne D. Royster is married to the lovely Suzette Royster and together they are the parents of two beautiful daughters.
Yvette Gimenez | Director of Operations
Yvette has a graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She comes to POWER from the world of Motherhood and the profession of Early Childhood Education. She has spent the last 20 years of her life working in her calling as a mom, doula, writer, grief counselor and an advocate for young children and families.
Christa Kerber | Director of Development
ckerber@powerinterfaith.org
Christa Kerber is a North Jersey native, transplanted to the Philly suburbs via the Lehigh Valley (graduating from Moravian College in 1992), since 1995. She is a “cradle Catholic” with a strong affinity for Catholic social teaching that’s led her to work for the common good in career and personal life. She’s been working in nonprofit fundraising since 1998, and spending a sizable chunk of free time in faith-based justice work since around the same time. Christa serves on the Vision Council of Call To Action, is active with the Havertown Area Community Action Network, is a restorative practitioner, and is enamored of knitting, gardening, kettlebells, and family (especially her spouse and two children).
Will Fuller | Director of POWER Metro
A son of western Kentucky, Will originally joined POWER in the fall of 2016 to complete a Community Organizing Fellowship through Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE). He currently organizes full-time for POWER’s suburban counties. A 2010 Teach for America alumnus, he is dedicated to the causes of educational equity, faith-based social justice, theological education reform, and racial reconciliation. He holds a Masters of Education from Lipscomb University and an M.A. in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Lilah Saber | POWER Philadelphia Organizing Director
A native of the Jersey Shore, Lilah is the daughter of Egyptian immigrants and grew up in an interfaith household with Muslim and Christian influences. She attended West Chester University where she completed a Bachelor’s of Social Work with a concentration in youth empowerment and urban community change. Since joining POWER, Lilah’s work has centered around organizing and training congregations in Northwest Philadelphia and developing youth leadership. She is passionate about combating adultism and promoting equity for young people.
Nathan Sooy | POWER Central PA Area Director
Nathan Richard Sooy has nearly 30 years experience working with social justice organizations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. Before coming to work for POWER, Sooy was Central Pennsylvania Campaign Coordinator for Clean Water Action for nearly 8 years organizing against the effects of fracking on water and air. Nathan was Executive Director of community organizing projects in Baltimore, Maryland and Muskegon, Michigan. Nathan built a successful Labor/Community Coalition in Wisconsin that developed increased progressive voting power in state elections. Sooy also the Associate Director of the Cleveland office of Ohio Citizen Action and got his first significant training in community organizing in Detroit during the 80’s.
Sooy has been trained as a leader and organizer in the traditions of the Gamaliel Foundation, PICO Network, and DART Network and is an alumnus of the Midwest Academy and National Peoples Action.
Rabbi Julie Greenberg | Climate Justice Director
jgreenberg@powerinterfaith.org
Julie grew up in the civil rights movement of the 1960s in Wash. D.C. and in Mississippi where she formed a lifelong commitment to building a world free of racism, sexism and economic oppression. She was trained in organizing in the feminist movement of the 1970’s and in Movement for a New Society from 1977 into the 80’s. Since then she has lived in Philadelphia for 35 years where she raised 5 children. Julie has served as Rabbi of a center city congregation for more than two decades and also teaches classes on Systems Thinking, Diversity and Equity and Organizational Development at the Council for Relationships. Since POWER’s founding, Julie has worked in a variety of roles. She currently coordinates POWER’s Climate Justice and Jobs work and organizes money to sustain POWER’s mission. Her role is now Director of POWER Climate Justice and Jobs.
Rev. Gregory Edwards | Chief of Staff
Rev. Dr. Gregory James Edwards is the Director of POWER Lehigh Valley, Founder and Senior Pastor of the Resurrected Life Community Church, United Church of Christ, and President and CEO of the Resurrected Community Development Corporation. Under his leadership the church and community development corporation have experienced exponential growth, evidenced by membership, financial self-sufficiency, and employment creation.
His contextual approach to urban ministry–based upon an understanding of the intersectionality of race, spiritual growth, educational empowerment, economic self-sufficiency, community development, and public policy–led to the creation of the Resurrected Life Children’s Academy, the James Lawson Freedom School, and the Campaign for Change community organizing initiative.
Dr. Edwards currently serves as Board Chair for Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, and board member for the Community First Fund, the financially largest Community Development Financial Institu- tion (CDFI) in Central Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley focused on improving the economic well-being of historically marginalized, and under represented communities in Eastern Pennsylvania. He previously co-chaired the Water Fountain Project, a regional task force comprised of African-American and Latinx political and community leaders committed to addressing educational and economic inequities in the greater Lehigh Valley. He is the co-founder of LVSU, (Lehigh Valley Stands Up), a multi-racial, class- crossing grassroots initiative purposed to create an equitable and just Lehigh Valley through policy change.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling | Senior Advisor to the Executive Director
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling came to POWER from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he founded and directed the Social Justice Organizing Program. Prior to that he was the Executive Vice-President of Jewish Funds for Justice. Earlier he was the Executive Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. Before attending rabbinical school, he was a community organizer in Boston.
He was a co-founder Shomrei Adamah the first U.S. Jewish environmental organization and of T’ruah: A Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. He serves on the boards of the Faith and Politics Institute and The Shalom Center of which he is President Emeritus. He has served on the boards of numerous national and international NGO’s. He helped create and was part of the leadership team of Green Justice Philadelphia that successfully stopped the development of a new Southport Oil Terminal in 2016.
Rabbi Liebling is part of a Faith in Action Training Team that leads workshops on Racism, Antisemitism and Christian Hegemony and, co-leads workshops on these issues in other venues. He and Lynne Iser, his wife, lead workshops and retreats on The Work That Reconnects developed by Buddhist scholar, deep ecologist and activist Joanna Macy.
Lena Glickman | Formation Coach and Trainer
Lena Glickman grew up in a small town in Southern Vermont. She attended Oberlin College, where she majored in history, focusing on race and class in America. As an organizer for Pennsylvania Working Families, she built power around economic and racial justice in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. Buddhist Vipassana meditation and Quaker faith and practice serve as guiding forces in her life and organizing–pushing her toward greater presence, connection and action for justice.
Rev. Matthew Arlyck
Rev. Matthew Arlyck is an organizer with POWER Interfaith and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA); before coming on staff with POWER in 2021, Matthew served as a hospital chaplain specializing in trauma for eight years. Over the past ten years Matthew has been involved with several faith-based justice movements including Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Justice, and has worked in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter Louisville and Mijente. Matthew lives in West Philly and organizes with POWER congregations in the Northwest.
Jamir Hubbard | Climate Justice and Jobs Fellow
After becoming a part of POWER, I am now able to assist those in our community in ways I didn’t know was possible before, leading us towards a more racially and environmentally just future for all. I am also working in the field of music production and as a security guard. I enjoy getting to play my saxophone now and then at POWER Climate Justice gatherings.
Amani Reid | Climate Justice and Jobs Fellows
Amani Reid is an Environmental Justice Advocate, steward and New Jersey Native. She has a bachelor’s in Political Science with an Environmental Studies minor from Temple University and is a former U.S. Army Reservist She joined POWER in January of 2022 as a Climate Justice Fellow. Her past work includes being a Student Career Peer Advisor for Temple University’s Internships and Career Development Department, Education Coordinator for Audubon Pennsylvania’s Discovery Center, and U.S. Census Bureau Enumerator. She has interned under State Representative Donna Bullock, Overbrook Environmental Education Center and the Department of Interiors’ Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance. Amani is dedicated to stewardship and advocacy work to include climate justice, environmental justice, equity and equality. She has been a panelist at the Palmer Seminary Science and Religion Symposium and helped lead a Climate Teach in Class as a graduate of Temple University. She has seen and done her own research on the disproportionate impacts facing our most vulnerable communities and wants to do all she can to make a change.
Jaisy Omollo | POWER Philadelphia Community Organizer
Jaisy B. Omollo is from the Pennsylvania area, born in New Jersey. Jaisy was raised her two parents who migrated from Kenya, East Africa in search for better opportunities for themselves and their children. As she watched her parents struggle in this country she believed that it was her duty to take advantage of the opportunities that the country had to offer in honor of her parents.
In 2014 Jaisy attended La Salle University where she received her Bacelor’s in Political During her time at La Salle University, she was recognized as a student leader in many organizations at the University and even the Surrounding community. She served as the Vice President of the African American Student League, Senator of Student Government, and even student member of the Board of Trustees. In her third year in college, she was offered an opportunity to work for the campaign of Pennsylvania’s current Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Immediately after that, she was offered to serve as a legislative intern in the office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass.
After earning her degree she continued her efforts as an organizer and Minority advocate and was recruited by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to serve as on Capitol Hill in the office of Congressman John Lewis, legendary Civil Rights leader. Through this experience she has built relations with the grandson of Nelson Mandela as well as the staff for Impact Strategies by Angela Rye of whom she volunteered for after her time on the hill.
Now that Jaisy is an organizer with power, she hopes to continue making an impact for others throughout Pennsylvania and even in the country.
Rev. Angela Brown-Vann, MBA | POWER Bucks County Organizer
Rev. Angela is an Associate Minister at St. Mark AME Zion Church in Newtown, PA. As the minister in the “second chair” her duties include co-laboring with Pastor Sandra Reed as preacher, teacher, director of ministries and community leader.
Rev. Angela’s ministerial career began after completing her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at La Salle University.
While working in ministry, Rev. Angela worked professionally as a Currency Trader, Mortgage Lender, Financial Planner, Financial Analyst, Financial Systems Architect and Real Estate Investor. Ministry was always her life’s work. During her years in Corporate America, Rev. Angela started several jobs programs that employed persons who were members of her church. She still provides low cost financial services to seniors.
Rev. Angela was a founding organizer and Director of Churches Take a Corner (CTAC), a ministry that began in Wilmington, DE as a way to get congregations of faith to galvanize their members to “take back the streets.” CTAC grew to become an organization that worked to reduce the rate of recidivism, increase rates of hiring persons from Wilmington’s inner city, housed men and women who were released from prison and improved relationships between the police department and the community.
Now, Rev. Angela continues to preach, teach, train and lead according to the words of the Lord spoken to Isaiah the Prophet, “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
Jana Korn | Lead Climate Justice and Jobs Organizer
jgreenberg@powerphiladelphia.org
Jana Korn was born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in Washington, DC, and has been calling West Philly home for almost a decade. She attended the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Urban Studies and studied patterns of violence in urban public space. As an organizer with SEIU, Jana organized alongside hospital and home care workers to build power both inside and outside of workplaces across Pennsylvania. Jana grounds all of her organizing in community-building, empathy, and visioning of a better, more just world. She is the lead Climate Justice Organizer with POWER across the state of Pennsylvania, and is passionate about using a moral voice and storytelling to connect the issues of climate, racial, and economic justice. Grounded in her Jewish faith, Jana believes that we have an obligation to care for our earth from generation to generation, and that a movement is incomplete without humor, food, and music.
Executive Committee for the Board of Directors
- Rev. Michael Caine, Co-Chair
- Imam Abdul-Halim Hassan, Co-Chair
- Francis Upshaw, Treasurer
- Hildegard Kent
- Erica Owens
- Lorie Hershey
- Rev. David Tatgenhorst
- Irv Ackelsberg
- Marlene Armato
- Maria Beatty
- Rev. Dawn Harmon
- Madiha Irfan
- Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu
- Rev. Kelly Wilkins