Our Mission
We form communities of American peacemakers across lines of difference, and equip them to help reconcile seemingly intractable conflicts at home and abroad.
Our Vision
Grounded in a vision of mutual flourishing, we envision a world in which leaders and their communities claim the requisite drive, expertise, and relationships to effectively and relentlessly wage peace.
In the Holy Land, we envisage a time beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when diverse communities of American peacemakers will stand with both Palestinians and Israelis to sustain dignity, freedom, and security for all.
We imagine, too, that our unique model of conflict transformation will be replicated elsewhere—helping bring stability, healing and reconciliation to communities around the world, including here in America.
Our Telos
In ancient Greek, the word “telos” describes a unique purpose or goal that is rooted in a fundamental principle, towards which all intentions and energies are singularly focused. Our telos is a world that maximizes dignity and agency for all human beings, something we call “mutual flourishing.” By unleashing our power to confront injustice, together we can build a world in which we all flourish.
Our Story
In January 2009, Gregory Khalil and Todd Deatherage forged a most unlikely alliance.
Greg was then a California-born lawyer, partly of Palestinian Christian ancestry, a longtime Democrat, and a former advisor to Palestinian leaders on peace negotiations with Israel.
Todd is an evangelical Christian from Arkansas, a former Chief of Staff to a Republican U.S. Senator, and served in the George W. Bush Administration at the State Department.
After first meeting as political counterparts in 2004, Greg and Todd discovered they shared an understanding that until American attitudes and policies on Israel/Palestine changed, a just peace would remain elusive.
Together, they sought to build an American movement that centered dignity, safety, and other basic rights for all peoples in Israel/Palestine. They believed the movement had to be multipartisan and multifaith, and so began leading hundreds of American leaders on life-changing delegations to the Holy Land–including many evangelicals, conservatives, artists, and entrepreneurs.
Thousands of highly influential alumni came and saw a different story, and returned home to build businesses, preach sermons, write best-selling books, and change the hearts and minds of millions of Americans. These alumni then helped replicate the model Greg and Todd pioneered throughout the United States and other parts of the world.
Our Team
Emily spent over a decade in senior positions in communications and development in both the private and non-profit sectors before joining Telos as a Program Advisor. Most recently, she served as Chief Development Officer for a counter-human trafficking organization, where she helped more than double the organization’s size and impact. Emily is especially interested in solving complex problems that inhibit human flourishing. Emily began her career as a high school math teacher in Richmond, CA through Teach For America after graduating from Wake Forest University with a degree in Economics. She lives in Fairfax County, Virginia with her husband and three children.
Frances grew up in Montgomery Alabama where she first realized her passion for community involvement through impactful and transformational relationships. She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she studied Human Resource Management and Entrepreneurship. She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Public Administration specializing in Nonprofit Leadership at the University of New Orleans. Frances hopes to use her degree to better recognize social injustices and take steps towards remedies in her community to create a caring environment that instills acceptance, leadership, and a just peace. In her spare time, she enjoys interning at a local nonprofit, Son of a Saint, an organization focused on transforming the lives of fatherless boys through mentorship and emotional support, as well as teaching swim lessons and spreading the importance of water safety and lifeguarding.
Dave is a husband, father, author, wanderer, and the founder of The Ashland Group, a strategic consulting firm designed to help churches, not for profits and corporations. Before joining Telos, Dave served at Parkview Community Church in Glen Ellyn, IL since 2009 – first as Executive Pastor and then as Lead Pastor – and prior to that as Executive Pastor at River Pointe Church in Sugar Land, TX for nearly 10 years. His mission is to help individuals and organizations move closer to their God given path. In addition to his pastoral and strategic work, he serves as the Chicago Metro Director for Living Water International.
Todd spent sixteen years in senior positions in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government before co-founding the Telos Group. From 2005 to 2009, he was Chief of Staff in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. He also spent two years as Senior Advisor in the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, where he specialized in religious freedom in the Middle East. Todd worked for a decade in the U.S. Congress, including six years as Chief of Staff to Senator Tim Hutchinson. He is a native Arkansan and a graduate of the University of Arkansas. He began his career as an educator. He and his family live in Fairfax County, Virginia.
DeSean brings over 15 years of experience in education and leadership, dedicated to supporting communities that have been historically underserved and marginalized. In his previous roles as assistant professor and special assistant to the President at Mississippi College, and as founding Head of School at The Redeemer’s School in Jackson, Mississippi, DeSean has focused on shaping the next generation of educators, promoting equity and inclusion within institutions, and cultivating environments centered on academic excellence and holistic development that support students and families.
DeSean holds a B.A. in History from Belhaven University with a minor in Political Science and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from Mississippi College, and a PhD in Higher Education Administration from Jackson State University. DeSean lives in Jackson, Mississippi, with his wife and their three children.
Before founding the Telos Group, Greg lived in Ramallah, the West Bank, where he advised the Palestinian leadership on peace negotiations with Israel. Although Greg was born and raised in San Diego, California, much of his extended family still lives in Beit Sahour, a predominantly Palestinian Christian town near Bethlehem. He has lectured widely on the Middle East and has been published by The Review of Faith & International Affairs and The New York Times. Greg is also a founding member and the Chair of the Board of Directors for Narrative 4, a global non-profit that cultivates empathic leadership through story exchange. And he is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Greg is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale Law School.
Ryan is passionate about connecting others, bridging differences, transformative learning experiences, and exploring more expansive conceptions of vocation. A Pacific Northwest native, Ryan’s career has spanned communications, ministry, and higher education. As Minister for University Engagement in Berkeley, California from 2015 to 2020, he led learning trips to Latin America to better understand the causes of global immigration and how Christians are supporting those most affected by restrictive immigration policies and beliefs.
He holds master’s degrees in theology from Duke Divinity School and Oxford University, where he co-founded the Oxford Open Forum, an interreligious dialogue group. Ryan makes his home in the Pacific Northwest, where he is a candidate for ordained ministry in the PC (USA) denomination. He enjoys reading, running, cooking, and cheering on his two children.
Eli is a Jerusalem based activist and community organizer. Prior to joining Telos, Eli worked as campaigning manager for an Israeli human rights organization, and was involved in local grassroots movements working towards an end to occupation.
Eli grew up in Israel, and later moved to Philadelphia with his family. Eli graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, and has recently earned a Master’s degree in Urban Design from Bezalel University in Jerusalem. Outside of work and activism, Eli is an avid birder and hiker.
Rebecca recently graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Aberdeen. She grew up in the California Bay Area but is originally from, and now lives in, Scotland. She is also an associate member of the Iona Community, an international ecumenical Christian peace and justice organization. Rebecca’s dedication to inner and outer peacemaking stems from her time living and studying in Israel-Palestine, her experiences with trauma-informed mental health advocacy, and her family’s experiences during the Northern Irish Troubles. She is passionate about the intersection of peacemaking, feminism, Christian pacifism, and liberation theology. In addition, Rebecca enjoys reading, and reclaiming ancestral handicrafts such as weaving and needlework.
Mary Joy graduated from Portland State University with a degree in business management and leadership and a minor in Mandarin Chinese. She also holds a master’s degree in Social Justice from Kilns College (now called the Voices School for Liberation and Transformation). She is passionate about justice, equity, and environmental stewardship and seeks to prioritize learning from people with different backgrounds and life experiences than her own. In her free time, Mary Joy enjoys dancing salsa and bachata, reading, and gardening.
Board of Directors
Bretta Warren-Kim, Interim Board Chair
Toks Malik Ashiru
Toks Malik Ashiru has spent the last ten years at Google in a variety of partnerships and business development roles spanning consumer hardware, mobile payments and advertising exchanges. He currently leads sales, distribution and growth of Google’s cross-platform hardware products across some of the largest strategic partners for the company and has helped build the devices and services organization into a multi-billion dollar revenue business over the past seven years.
Prior to Google, Malik worked at American Express and Boeing Inc. in a variety of domestic and international roles leading global initiatives within corporate strategy, business development, client management, and engineering development whilst stationed in New York and London.
In his spare time, he is an avid soccer fan (Arsenal!), a vastly traveled adventurer and also volunteers/tutors at homeless men shelters in New York. He has a BS in Aerospace Engineering and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Secretary
Bishop Crudup is the regional bishop for the Mid-South Diocese of the Fellowship of International Churches and senior pastor of New Horizon Church International, which he founded in 1987. Ronnie earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Jackson State University and a Master of Divinity degree from Reformed Theological Seminary. He is founder and president of the non-profit New Horizon Ministries, Inc., which operates five community-based programs in the city of Jackson. Ronnie is co-founder and CEO of the Mississippi Faith-Based Coalition for Community Renewal. He serves on the board of numerous local, state and regional community development organizations. He is a frequent speaker in schools, churches and prisons across the country. He is host of “New Horizon Presents” and “The Issues”—a television broadcast ministry—and is passionately involved in international missions in Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia. Thousands know him by his signature statement “To Count It All Joy.” Ronnie and his wife, the former Jacqueline J. Frazier, have been married for over 36 years. They are the proud parents of four children: Ronnie Jr., Nadia, Hillman, and Arlintha. They have five grandchildren: Amari, Ayinde, Nya, Isaac and Robin.
Todd Deatherage, Executive Director and Co-Founder
Todd spent sixteen years in senior positions in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government before co-founding the Telos Group. From 2005 to 2009, he was Chief of Staff in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. He also spent two years as Senior Advisor in the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, where he specialized in religious freedom in the Middle East. Todd worked for a decade in the U.S. Congress, including six years as Chief of Staff to Senator Tim Hutchinson. He is a native Arkansan and a graduate of the University of Arkansas. He began his career as an educator. He and his family live in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Ainka Jackson
Ainka Jackson is the founding Executive Director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation, which is committed to bridging divides and building the Beloved Community. She was previously the Metro Guardian ad Litem for the Metro Nashville Public Defender’s Office, Juvenile Division where she represented children who were abused and neglected. She has also been a case manager in the foster care system, a teacher and an adult Public Defender. Born in Montgomery, Alabama and raised in Selma, Alabama, Jackson appreciates that every successful legal and legislative movement required a people movement. Therefore, she also helps to organize the community to address racial and economic inequities. Jackson has presented at numerous conferences and institutions including, on truancy and the school to prison pipeline at the annual Samuel Dewitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocate Ministry and spoke at the United Nations in Switzerland about economic and racial equity. Jackson has also been featured in Essence Magazine for her voter mobilization efforts.
Jackson received the first annual In Peace & Freedom Award in 2016 and is a level 3 certified Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation trainer. Jackson was instrumental in Selma being chosen as 1 of 14 sites for the Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation initiative and she currently leads Selma’s programmatic work for that initiative. She is the co-creator of the Beyond Divide and Conquer: Unite and Build Racial Equity Training, which explores how the social construct of race was created to divide and conquer (especially poor whites and people of color). Using first person historical narratives, the training questions what’s the cost of racism for people of color and white people and how we can resist divide and conquer and unite and build. Jackson is a Special Advisor for the ABA Commission for Homelessness and Poverty, Special Counsel to the ABA Civil Rights and Social Justice Section, and a member of the ABA Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council as well as a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network Class Two Fellow.
Jackson is the creator and editor of the Selma Superheroes Children’s Book Series that shares the history of Selma’s foot soldiers and encourages youth to be Selma 2.0 Superheroes. Jackson is a graduate of Spelman College and Vanderbilt Law School. She has three beautiful, brilliant, benevolent children. She speaks these descriptions to other children she encounters.
Annie Kate Pons
Annie Kate is a TV producer whose career has included domestic and international news and unscripted TV. Pons developed and discovered talent for Relativity, Ellen Rakieten Entertainment, Lifetime, OWN, GSN, VH1, Oxygen, and MTV. Annie Kate’s eye for talent was groomed in Washington, DC as a news booker for FOX News and Al Jazeera English. The high-speed and intense nature of the 24-hour news cycle conditioned her to cut through the clutter and find interesting points of view and new talking heads for networks. Annie Kate created the hit show Chrisley Knows Best on USA, and seven seasons later, she continues to find interesting voices and stories of families and communities across America. Currently, Annie Kate is partnering with A&E and GoodStory Entertainment to produce a family docuseries about a former mobster turned family man. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Mary Kay Turner
Mary Kay recently retired after twenty-five years of teaching, many of those on the subject of world religions in a school in the Washington, DC area. After early years teaching on an Indian reservation in Montana, Mrs. Turner pursued graduate studies in humanities with a focus on Indian art and music and later researched alternative education programs, helping to found Summit High School and The Learning Center in Wyoming, a program for developmentally disabled young children. Most recently she completed an appointment to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) and is presently on the White House Commission for Presidential Scholars. Because of a lifelong interest in education, Mrs. Turner visited the Christian schools in Palestine and works towards raising awareness for their needs and assists with scholarships to sustain them.
Daniel Wehrenfennig
Daniel Wehrenfennig, Ph.D. is the executive director of the Olive Tree Initiative, an award-winning international experiential learning program that brings students and community members on annual educational fact-finding trips to conflict zones around the world (Middle East, Caucasus). He also directs the Certificate Program in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). He has produced a documentary film for civic education in Malawi/Africa. His recent work has been published by Peace Review, Communication Theory, the University of California Press, Lexington Books and Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism.
Carolyn S. Weimer
Carolyn Weimer has worked in the Investment Management industry for nearly three decades, mostly recently in the Investor Relations Group of a large Alternative Asset Manager. In her role, she led a global team focused on fundraising and investor relations for one of the firms three segments which had more than $80 billion of assets under management. In prior roles, she focused on product development, relationship management, fund formation, marketing strategy and communications. Carolyn received an A.B. in biology and comparative area studies from Duke University and lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and three children.