12 directors elected to GC departments

Image by Kenn Dixon

July 6, 2015 | Wilona Karimabadi, Kimberly Luste Maran, and Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review/ANN, with information from Adventist.org

General Conference (GC) session delegates elected 12 of the 15 department directors of the General Conference on Monday.

Eight directors were incumbents, and two of them replaced officers who are retiring.

The retiring department directors are Jonathan Kuntaraf of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries department, and John Graz, director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department.

Five department directors remain unannounced by the nominating committee, including for Publishing Ministries, Stewardship Ministries, and Planned Giving & Trust Services.

Delegates on Monday also elected Claude Richli, Hensley Moorooven, and Gerson Santos to serve as associate secretaries in Secretariat.

Here are the elected officers:

Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries
Mario E. Ceballos, the associate director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries (ACM) since the Spring Meeting in 2008, became director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries of the General Conference in 2010. Ceballos, who has experience as a pastor, a professor, and a chaplain in a health institution, is a board-certified chaplain and holds the rank of commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve Component.

Children’s Ministries
Linda Mei Lin Koh was born and raised in Singapore and has served as director of the General Conference Children’s Ministries department since 2003. She is married to Oliver Koh, former associate education director of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, and they have two grown sons, Terrence and Marvin. Koh enjoys writing and has authored numerous articles and co-authored God Loves Me 28 Ways.

Communication
Williams S. Costa, Jr., has served since 2010 as the director of the Communication department of the General Conference. Previously, he served in the South American Division as a television production manager and director of Adventist satellite television, among other positions. Costa is a musician and composer, and his songs are sung in Adventist gatherings and are included in the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Education
Lisa M. Beardsley-Hardy became director of the Education department of the General Conference in 2010 after an extensive experience in the field of education in various countries. Beardsley-Hardy holds British, Finnish, and United States citizenships, and her special interests include mushroom hunting, cross-country skiing, and music.

Family Ministries
Willie Oliver was first elected as director of the Family Ministries department in 2010. Willie and his wife, Family Ministries associate director Elaine, are the parents of two young adults, Jessica and Julian. They enjoy taking long walks, beach vacations, gardening, exotic cuisines, and spending time with family and friends.

General Conference Auditing Service
Paul H. Douglas served as an assistant and later as an associate director of the General Conference Auditing Service between 1997 and 2007. That year, he was elected director of that department of the General Conference. Douglas likes reading, action sports such as basketball, and visiting his home country, Jamaica.

Health Ministries
Peter N. Landless was elected by the delegates to the 2013 Spring Meeting as director of the Health Ministries department, where he had served for years as an associate director to Dr. Allan Handysides, who retired in 2013. Landless, a native of South Africa, is a certified cardiologist and a pastor. He enjoys classical and sacred music, reading, and bird watching together with his wife.

Ministerial Association
Jerry N. Page has been secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association since 2010. Jerry was the president of the Central California Conference and previously the Pennsylvania Conference. He is married to Janet and they have two grown sons and grandchildren. In his spare time, Page enjoys family vacations, hiking, camping, four wheeling, and photography.

Public Affairs and Religious Liberty
Ganoune Diop most recently served as associate director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department and liaison for United Nations relations for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Previously he served as director of the Global Mission Study Centers of Adventist Mission at the General Conference. Diop was born in Dakar, Senegal. He and his wife, Helene, have three children. He is a concert flute soloist, who also loves art and literature.

Sabbath School and Personal Ministries
Duane McKey, who served as vice president of evangelism and ministerial director of the North American Division’s Southwestern Union since 2008, is an experienced church administrator who has lived on four continents and has been involved in evangelism projects in Asia, the South Pacific, Eastern Europe, India, Inter-America and South America. Most recently he coordinated ShareHim evangelism meetings in Zimbabwe in May 2015. McKey and his wife, Kathy, have two grown children and several grandchildren.

Women’s Ministries
Heather-Dawn Small has held the position of director for Women’s Ministries at the General Conference since 2001. She is married to pastor Joseph Small, and they have two children, daughter Dalonne and son Jerard. Small likes air travel, reading, embroidery, scrapbooking, and stamp collecting.

Youth Ministries
Gilbert R. Cangy was born in the Seychelles Islands but grew up in Mauritius. He was elected General Conference youth director in 2010. He is married to childhood sweetheart Rosemay, and they have two children, Joel and Emilie. Cangy has an interest in all sports, particularly soccer, and loves music.

Associate secretaries
Before his 2015 election to the position of associate secretary of the General Conference, Hensley Moorooven served as an associate secretary of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division (SID), a position he held for five years. Before this, Moorooven was both Sabbath School and Personal Ministries, and Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for SID. A native French speaker, Moorooven sees himself as a pastor at heart with an interest in youth and young adult ministry.

Gerson Santos, after most recently serving as director of the New York City-based Urban Ministry Study Center director (since December 2012), and Greater New York Conference secretary (2010-2015), was elected an associate secretary of the General Conference. Santos, originally from Brazil, completed course work in doctoral studies in planting missional churches at Fuller Theological Seminary in 2012, and received his doctoral degree from Andrews University in 2006. Santos enjoys traveling, surfing, learning, and making new friends.

Claude Richli has been elected to the position of associate secretary of the General Conference. Richli has served as associate publisher and marketing director of Adventist Review/Adventist World magazines since 2007. Before this, Richli was the associate secretary for the East-Central Africa Division (2003-2007). Richli is fluent in French, German, Swiss German, Spanish, and English. He and his wife, Beate, have two daughters.