Samantha Clare (she/her) is a southern transplant living in living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, along with her poet husband and their kids. Samantha has served in the Episcopal Church in a variety of contexts from small church volunteer to camp counselor, college ministry to director of lifelong formation. Samantha has a passion for resource and curriculum development to support the formation of disciples in varied contexts across the Episcopal Church. She enjoys participating in collaborative efforts and church-wide governance. She recieved her MDiv from Bexley Seabury where she has focused her studies on formation and discipleship. Samantha loves being outdoors, cooking, spending time in her garden, and pretends to like running.
Wallace Benton is the Associate Director of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary. He has worked in formation as a parish youth minister and a lay chaplain at the University of the South (Sewanee). Wallace’s passion lies in vocation and shared storytelling. Wallace is married, has two children, and a dog named Bishop.
Hannah Hutchens has been involved in the Episcopal Church in some way or another since middle school. After college she joined the Episcopal Service Corps in Baltimore and found out the Episcopal Church was bigger and broader than she imagined. From there the call to work in church came and she has not looked back since. Her current job is the Director of Christian Formation at Christ Church in New Bern, North Carolina. Forma has been a delightfully grounding community for her and she has grown so much because of the connections and things she has learned at the conferences. Very thankful and grateful to be a part of the Forma Conference Design Team.
The Rev. Dr. Gerardo Aponte-Safe is the Rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Troy, Michigan, a faith community committed to welcome and include all people as beloved children of God. Prior to his work at St. Stephen’s, he was a professor of global and multicultural education, teaching and researching how teachers navigate conflicting cultural lenses in teaching diverse learners.
Tom Fregoso is a priest, formation minister, and lifelong San Franciscan whose work has always centered on creating spaces where people of all ages can ask hard questions and grow in faith together. Over nearly three decades, he has served as a youth and children’s minister across the Bay Area and Southern California, worked as a summer camp chaplain, and consulted with parishes rebuilding Godly Play programs. His formation work has taken him across denominational lines and into communities that have deepened his own faith as much as he has deepened theirs. He now serves as Priest-in-Charge of Church of the Incarnation, a small bilingual English-Chinese Episcopal parish in San Francisco’s Sunset District, where formation remains at the heart of everything. He believes the church grows when every voice is genuinely heard, beginning with its youngest members. Empowering youth and children to be the voice of the church today and tomorrow, in whatever language they are most comfortable using, is not just a goal. It is the work.
Estela Lopez is a Missioner for Congregational Vitality-Connections, part of the Mission Amplification from the Diocese of Texas. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Estela has 17 years of experience in parish ministry in the Episcopal Church, both in Chicago and Houston. She serves on the EES Episcopal Evangelism Society Board of Directors. Estela has done extensive work reigniting and revitalizing communities through coaching, mentoring, and equipping lay leaders for ministry. “When we share, there is more than enough.” Estela is cultivating in her Diocese a culture of collaboration among churches, sharing human and financial resources to conduct regional spiritual retreats and youth gatherings. Estela is a Living Compass community wellness advocate for the Latino Ministry and a book author. She believes that “God has the power to transform your pain into love and use it for a higher purpose.” Along with her spouse, Estela loves traveling to the Riviera Maya; the beach is her happy place.
Chris Williamson (he/him) lives in Beaufort, North Carolina and serves as the Special Assistant to the Office of the Bishop in the Diocese of East Carolina. He enjoys his cozy beachtown home with his wife, the Rev. Ashley Simpson, and their two dogs, Dolly and Jack. Chris has served as a youth minister, hospital chaplain, university chaplain, on the event staff of the Episcopal Youth Event, and other volunteer roles in church life. He also worked as a bookstore manager for a time! While beginning in a Baptist ministry context, Chris now calls The Episcopal Church home. Chris has lived in a number of places, but spent most of his life in Oklahoma. He earned a BA in Religion at Oklahoma Baptist University, and an M.Div at Baylor University. In his free time, Chris enjoys reading and listening to books, playing various TTRPGs, deep diving into random new interests, and laughing at his goofy pups with his wife.
The Rev. Ethan Lowery (he/him) is the Campus and Young Adult Missioner to the University of Mary Washington and serving churches in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He’s a longtime formation professional with experience in youth ministry, camp chaplaincy, campus ministry, and intergenerational ministry. When he isn’t doing pastoral care on the back patio of coffee shops or organizing craft workshops, you’ll find him inline skating, experimenting with veganism, or masked up in the crowd of an indie-rock concert.
