MCU Staff Members

Dietra Wise Baker, M.Div. DMin is currently serving as Lead Organizer for the Break the Pipeline Campaign she is working to build power with formerly incarcerated youth, adults and their families to end the school to prison pipeline in the state of Missouri. Dr. Baker has organized with MCU since 2014 co-leading the clergy caucus thru the Ferguson Uprising.

Will joined the staff in 2011. He is the organization behind the organizers, ensuring that systems and processes flow well, supporting the administrative work of the organization.

DeMarco, who has spent most of his adult life in education, engineering, youth development, and community organizing, will be working on the Break the Pipeline issues and continuing the work on voter engagement.

LaTrisha Gandy, is the organizer for the Family Partners Campaign witch launched in 2018 (Break the Pipeline) She has been a paid organizer since March of this year after volunteering since 2018. “I started this journey as a mother who faced the impacts of the judicial system head on. My ultimate goal is to build long-term power of court-involved youth and families to use their voices to empower one another to become leaders within the community. These leaders would also put forth efforts to end the school-to-prison pipeline.”

Emmaline is excited to join the MCU team as the new Environmental Justice Organizer. Emmaline is working on building a base of local congregation leaders to stimulate faith-based dialogue around the impacts of environmental racism throughout our communities. She is also working to support clergy leaders to unite our mutual power and spearhead a local environmental justice movement. The environmental justice movement, led by people of color, demands that environmental racism be dismantled, that all people have the opportunity to live a safe and healthy life, and the voices of the most oppressed be heard and equitably addressed by decision-makers.

Jenniqual "Jai" Johnson, MA, is currently serving as Lead Census Organizer. In her current capacity, she is working to educate, engage, and organize leaders around the 2020 Census. She also is the lead for the Community Ambassador Program, which serves as a resource for our most vulnerable populations.

Rev. Susan Sneed served from 1991 to 2011 as a volunteer leader with Churches United for Community Action(CUCA), one of the three original faith based organizations that now form Metropolitan Congregations United(MCU).  Rev. Sneed was the convener of the committee that led to MCU's creation in 1997 and served as its president from 1999 to 2001. She has served as MCU’s national representative to the Gamaliel  Foundation's International Leadership Assembly and served as its president for 3 years. Rev. Sneed helped to create and has served since 1995 as a trainer and one time national coordinator of Ntosake, the women’s development program of the Gamaliel Foundation. Prior to coming to work full time for MCU in 2011, Rev. Sneed spent 16  years as the executive director of the Gateway Board for Mission and Growth, serving the United Methodist congregations of the St. Louis Region. Rev. Sneed an ordained Deacon of the United Methodist Church and resides in North St. Louis County. She is a graduate of the University of North Alabama and Eden Theological Seminary. 

I am the Data Manager for Metropolitan Congregations United, where I am responsible for collecting, developing, and organizing data and research for MCU’s community campaigns and initiatives. Also, I am the pastor for Zion United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO.