Team

Jelicer Sanders

Jelicer began her journey with YouthWorks in the summer of 2021 as a Site Director in Milwaukee, where she initially anticipated the experience would merely earn her internship credits. However, the experience profoundly transformed her perspective on mission trips and leadership. She graduated from Liberty University in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology.

After her summer role, Jelicer transitioned to a full time role at YouthWorks, joining the Recruiting Team and later serving as a Trip Specialist. In her Trip Specialist role, she loves using her experiences to foster strong relationships.

Residing in Katy, TX, Jelicer shares her life with her husband, two children, and their dachshund, Thor. Outside of work, she actively serves at her local church with her family and is dedicated to building a family business.

Stephen Garcia

Stephen began working with Youthworks in the Summer of 2024 after serving for over a decade working with youth and families within the local church. His passion for helping youth along with his experience in churches are what drew him to the mission of Youthworks.

Outside of Youthworks, Stephen enjoys spending time with his wife and family in the Sunshine state of Florida.

Katharine Hurlburt

Katharine’s passion for missions started when she moved overseas to China to serve with her family as missionaries. Since that time, she has also had opportunities to serve in Mongolia, Africa, and Central America. She loves to see people engage in the work of God’s kingdom cross-culturally, whether that’s traveling within their own state or to a different continent. Katharine connected with Border Perspective in 2019 and had stayed engaged as a friend/volunteer until the opportunity came to join as a staff member in 2024.

Katharine attended Torchbearer’s Bible School in Austria and after a few rounds of different colleges received her Bachelor’s in Psychology/Counseling.

She has been married to her high-school sweetheart since 2008 and together they have two children. Her husband works for a non-profit that trains leaders in effective cross-cultural ministry for short term mission trips. As a family, they love to hike and explore Georgia state parks.

Caroline Quintero

Caroline joined the full-time team in January of 2023. Prior to joining the team, Caroline and her husband took part in several service learning trips with Border Perspective. Prior to joining the team, Caroline has served on mission trips in South East Asia, Central America, and East Africa. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Culture in and a Master of Arts in World Language Education. Her favorite part of her role is getting to play a small role in helping people understand the deeper parts of God’s heart and character. She enjoys watching them respond to that knowledge with a changed mind and heart empowered towards action in their faith, in their relationship with the Lord and in their communities.

Caroline and her husband live in Weslaco, TX. In her free time, she loves to read, write, cook, be outdoors, explore new places and invest in relationships. A fun fact about her is she began learning Spanish at age 12 and speaking Spanish by age 15.

Bethany Dollard

Bethany was introduced to YouthWorks through her role as a 2019 summer staff in Louisville, KY. After returning for a second summer, she joined the full-time team in October of 2021. Bethany is passionate about giving a voice to people’s unique experiences, finding creative ways to share those stories with others, and loves the opportunities to do so in YouthWorks communities.

With a background in music education, Bethany loves just about anything that connects people through music, whether that be teaching voice lessons, performing herself, or attending musicals or concerts. In her spare time, she can be found exploring the beauty of Upstate New York or the best independently owned bookstores around.

Jenn Moya

Jenn joined the Border Perspective team in October of 2021. However, is she no stranger to the team as she joined her brother and parents on the Border Perspective team. Prior to joining the team, Jenn has over 12 years of public relations, marketing, and development experience. She has worked for both national and international nonprofit organizations. Her favorite part of her role is getting to walk alongside others in their search of biblical and social justice.

Jenn lives in Pharr, TX with a spoiled 50lbs Labrador retriever named Ollie. When asked how she spends her weekends she said she enjoys spending time in nature. If she’s not outside, then reading she is reading a book with a good Cup of Joe in hand!

Robby Williams

Robby started with YouthWorks as a summer staff on the Leech Lake and Lake Traverse Reservations. He then worked with the recruiting team for a few partials seasons before joining the recruiting team full time in 2021. As a summer staff, he was inspired by the way his own worldview was shaped, informed, and challenged by the experience, and loves bringing that passion to his role to give others the same opportunity to experience it as a summer staff or participant. Outside of work Robby enjoys fishing around Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes, finding new coffeeshops with his wife, and exploring parks and trails with their dog Casserole.

Madalyn Weber

Madalyn’s YouthWorks journey started during the summer of 2023 as a Site Director in Nashville, TN. She quickly fell in love with the organization and its mission and joined the full-time team as the Recruiting Associate after graduating from college with a degree in Human Development and Family Science in December of that same year. Madalyn has loved getting to share about her YouthWorks experience with potential summer staff to help them see how they can be a part of Christ-centered mission trips and respectful service as well! Outside of YouthWorks, Madalyn loves to travel with her family, have movie nights with her friends, and settle in at a coffee shop with a good book.

Carlos Piñero

Carlos started at YouthWorks in September of 2022 after serving for 15 years in local churches and Christian non-profits. In this role, Carlos mobilizes and forms partnerships that help connect people, churches, and organizations to Christ-centered service opportunities across the US.

Carlos and his wife Lydia live in Arlington, TX with their 5 kids and corgi named Bonhoeffer. On the evenings and weekends, you can find them playing flag football, visiting the zoo, or exploring new restaurants. Carlos’ love language is craft coffee, fajitas, and the Dallas sports scene.

Dave Berg

Dave has been with YouthWorks ever since his first summer on staff in Bayou La Batre in 2003. A math major in college, Dave still generally prefers spreadsheets to PowerPoint.

Husband to Lea and Daddy to Hawkin, Freya, and Inga. Dave keeps busy playing baseball or constructing forts with the little ones, and can also be found scheming about keeping bees, riding his bike or planning his next trip “up north.”

Becky Fuller

Becky brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and leadership to our recruiting team. She has worked 14 summers in the field in a variety of capacities in over 20 YouthWorks communities. Though the majority of Becky’s time at YouthWorks has consisted of recruiting and placing summer staff, she has also done community set up in Puerto Rico and the East Coast as well as many special projects for the organization. Becky loves experiencing the beauty and diversity of the Kingdom through YouthWorks partnerships with communities, staff and participants. Outside of work, Becky enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures, spending time at the beach, enjoying a cup of coffee with friends and games at Wrigley Field cheering for the Chicago Cubs.

Barry Foster

After going on YouthWorks trips in high school and serving on summer staff as a Service Coordinator for two summers in Louisville, Barry joined YouthWorks as a full-time staff in May of 2014. With a background in business management, he enjoys being able to use his business skills in a ministry setting.

Outside of the office, Barry enjoys spending time with his wife, family and friends, going to the lake and volunteering at his church.

Yonathan Moya

Yonathan Moya has spent his life serving in ministry throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. He has been involved in community development projects in Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, and Cuba. Yonathan is the Founder and Executive Director of Border Perspective. In 2017, Yonathan embarked on a 2,000 photographic journey to document the reality of life and ministry on the U.S. and Mexico border. This journey changed the trajectory of his life and was the inception of a ministry that now serves border communities. He grew up on the South Texas border and now lives with his wife, Megan, their sons Jude and Samuel, and mini-Goldendoodle, Fitz, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Heidi Mitchell

Heidi started her journey at YouthWorks in 2024 after spending several years in full time ministry. She studied Photography in college and has spent her career in Marketing and Creative roles of all kinds. She has a passion for missions that began as a child when her parents took her on her first mission trip. She spent every summer of her teenage years serving in places across the world and learned firsthand the impact missions has on students.

Heidi lives in Orlando, Florida, with her husband, sons and her dog, Lucy. She loves to read books, go boating, play pickleball with friends and travel every chance she gets.

Aimee Sodenkamp

Aimee was first introduced to YouthWorks in 2015, when she hosted a YouthWorks team in her community in Louisville, KY. Aimee joined the full time YouthWorks team after serving as the Site Director in Brooklyn, NY. She has a passion for youth ministry, community and service. Aimee spends most of her free time volunteering and serving with local nonprofit agencies. Aimee also loves spending time outdoors finding cool parks, trees to use for hammocking and reading a good book. She also enjoys exploring new cities especially with beaches and learning fun historical facts.

Suzanne Seidel

Suzanne started her YouthWorks experience as a participant way back in 2002 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since then, she has been on a number of YouthWorks sites in a number of capacities. After graduating with a degree in Education in 2012, Suzanne moved to the Dominican Republic where she was an English teacher (among other things) for eight years – her summers spent working with YouthWorks when possible, of course! In 2020 she moved back to her hometown in Michigan and was very excited to join the Training and Programming team full-time early in 2022.

Outside of work Suzanne enjoys walking her dogs, reading lots of books, listening to podcasts, and learning to play the keyboard.

Rachel Nelson

Rachel was introduced to YouthWorks as a participant on trips to Montana and Niagara Falls. She served as the Niagara Falls Site Director in 2022. She graduated from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, in August of 2022 with a degree in Missional Ministries. Rachel is most passionate about connecting with service partners and helping to connect them with Custom participants.

In her free time, Rachel enjoys going thrift shopping and grabbing a cup of coffee with friends. She loves traveling, staying active outdoors, reading, and crocheting.

Geoff Derks

Geoff began his YouthWorks journey by working as a summer staff in Pine Ridge. He was hired on to the full-time staff after that summer in 2008. One of his favorite parts of his role at YouthWorks is working behind the scenes to enable YouthWorks and the staff live out its purpose & vision. Geoff is passionate about finding ways to explain payroll and benefits to employees in easy-to-understand ways utilizing HR technology. When Geoff is not working at YouthWorks, he enjoys comic books, watching movies and TV, traveling to new places, exploring new restaurants in the Twin Cities, going to concerts, volunteering at events and spending time with his family in Illinois.

Stefan Kuhl

Stefan’s first experience with YouthWorks was as a trip participant from 2004-2007. Stefan also worked on our Summer Staff in 2009 and 2011. He joined our full time team in 2017 and is now YouthWorks’ Technology & Project Management Director where he enjoys problem solving and implementing new tech initiatives to keep YouthWorks fresh.

When Stefan is not playing the role of YouthWorks tech nerd, he enjoys playing in multiple music projects as a musician, watching movies, playing video games and hanging out with his wonderful friends and lovely wife.

Julie Christensen

Julie’s journey with YouthWorks started in the fall of 1997 when she was working for a CPA firm with YouthWorks being one of her first clients. In October of 2000, Julie left the CPA first to be the first full-time Accountant for YouthWorks. After having her first child in 2004, Julie switched to working part-time on the Finance team. She enjoys using her accounting skills and attention to detail to support the ministry staff.

Outside of work, Julie loves spending time with her family, cheering on her kids at sporting events, running, playing piano and listening to news and podcasts.

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