David has been the executive director of MCU for 10 years. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. He has organized as a lay person and clergy leader before becoming a full-time organizer, and is part of the Gamaliel Network senior training team. Under his leadership, MCU designed Sacred Conversations on Race (+ACTION) as a way of engaging congregations to address structural racism in St. Louis after the Ferguson Uprising. He serves as a founding Board member of the Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative (MOVE) and as Co-Chair of the Gamaliel Network State Directors’ Table. He earned is BA at Earlham College and MDiv at Eden Theological Seminary.

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.”

Beth Gutzler, M.B.A., has been working for the last four years building the Social Action and Virtue Education Foundation to share Restorative Practices with the St. Louis Region to strengthen communities. She has not only been able to grow in emotional intelligence but social intelligence as well. Environmental issues can affect overall community health, and there are many injustices related to the way the Earth and all those on it are being treated. “Congregations can lead the way in restoring creation”.

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.

Jeanette Mott Oxford has been an advocate, educator, writer, and organizer on issues of poverty, health, housing, racism, human rights, equality, and campaign finance reform in Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri since 1983. Oxford has been executive director of two statewide anti-poverty not-for-profits and was State Representative for a portion of St. Louis City from 2005-2012. Oxford organized the Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums in 2001 which saved taxpayers more than $200 million and contributed significantly to a national trend away from publicly-funded sports projects. Oxford graduated from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1986 with a B.A. in Religious Studies and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary (1989).

A Mexican American Franciscan Sister (aka “Franciscans for Earth”), Sister Dolores Sanchez came on board with MCU January 2021. As part of the Environmental Justice/”EJ” Team (also referred to as environmental racism when it’s built into the systems of society), her focus is on building up teams of leaders in St. Louis’ Latinx communities to respond to the needs of that community and to participate in EJ which affects them and their families. Along with that, she will be working to build leaders in the Catholic churches with coworker Beth Gutzler, as well as organizations in South City where she recently served as Pastoral Associate for St. Anthony of Padua Church over the last seven years.

Her goal is to become a trainer so as to multiply the number of trained, committed leaders of both English and Spanish-speakers and strengthen MCU’s efforts for the common good. She’s making progress toward this goal, having served as an evaluator for Gamaliel’s National Training and beginning to do local trainings in both English and Spanish. Her attitude echoes that of the Latinx community: “Si, se puede! Yes, we can!”

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’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. In 2020 she has taken on a new role with MCU as Sustainer Organizer, working with and cultivating monthly sustainers. 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.