About Us

 

Volunteers in Global Service (VGS) connect experienced people with justice-based projects for the global good. The program, with roots in religious commitments and a vision for social change, is in its start-up phase with eight volunteers and six placement groups proving what VGS can be. We have learned some important things already. 

VGS, in the form of its Board, functions as a clearing house for these exchanges. We aim to create connections—sparking links that simply would not exist if we did not make them happen. For that, we rely on our members’ broad and diverse contacts around the world as well as our personal and corporate commitment to the value of service work. In fact, board members are encouraged to be volunteers ourselves. 

VGS generates meaningful alliances among partners around the world. Our hope is that these connections, one by one and as an aggregate, will contribute to the cosmic unfolding of love and justice, the task and privilege of human life. Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Our Board

  • Reverend Jon Brown

    Rev. Jon Brown is pastor of Old Bergen Church, a multi-cultural Presbyterian (PCUSA) and Reformed (RCA) congregation in Jersey City, NJ. Jon served as Director for Mission Interpretation at the national offices of the Presbyterian Church and as a program director at Montreat Conference Center in NC. As a seminary student, Rev. Brown spent a year as a fellow at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and participated in an exchange program with the Presbyterian churches in Ghana. He has written curriculum for adults and youth and was the editor for Embracing God’s World: A Handbook for Congregational Mission. In 2019 Jon spent his sabbatical volunteering at Diyar Academy and Dar Al Kalima University College of Arts and Culture in Bethlehem, Palestine. He currently resides in Jersey City, NJ. 

  • Heidi Hadsell, PhD

    Heidi Hadsell holds a Ph.D. in Social Ethics from University of Southern California; M.A. in Comparative Religion from Columbia University; and B.A. in Political Science from University of Southern California, Berkeley. Dr. Hadsell has served in a variety of academic settings including McCormick Seminary in Chicago where she served as Dean; The Ecumenical Institute at the World Council of Churches in  Switzerland, where she was Director; and Hartford Seminary where she served as President.

    Currently Dr. Hadsell's activities include service on the Board of Trustees of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, service on the Board of The Friends of Kaduna Centre, and activities with Globethics.

  • Eileen Lindner, PhD

    Rev. Eileen Lindner is a retired Presbyterian minister and is Treasurer for VGS. She served as a site supervisor for an early VGS placement in the US from a Scots pastor who co-ordinated a Festival of Faith and the Arts. Her long term interests have been in the Middle East and in child advocacy. 

  • Scott Powell, MA

    Scott retired from a career in the property casualty insurance claim world.  He’s a lifelong educator and now teaches English as a Second Language at Elgin Community College. He works to help settle recent immigrants in the Chicago area with World Relief. He also works online with students from An-Najah University in Nablus, Palestine. In 2019 he volunteered to teach English at Dar al-Kalima University of Fine Arts and Culture in Bethlehem. He’s married with three adult daughters and four grandchildren.

  • Bruce Rigdon, PhD

    Rev. Bruce Rigdon is a Presbyterian pastor who has served as professor of church history at McCormick Theological Seminary (Chicago) and at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary (Detroit) where he also served as president. He has been the chairperson of the Board of VGS since its inception and is confident that today's technology is opening new opportunities for volunteers to make significant contributions to people's lives across the world.

  • Rev. Bobbi White

    Bobbi, a retired Presbyterian minister, recently served as General Presbyter of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina. She has a passion for global partnerships, participating in long term partnership in Malawi and Guatemala. Bobbi, a second career pastor, first worked in business in management, leadership and consulting capacities and also in a family business. She has a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta and a Master in Business from Columbia University, NYC. She studied at the World Council Churches School at Bossey, Switzerland and did an internship in Kenya with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa.