Elders
Lauren Brownlee (she/her) is Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)’s inaugural Associate General Secretary for Community and Culture and the leader of the organization’s new Community and Culture team. In this role, she offers strategic support to FCNL’s young adult program, Quaker outreach, human resources, and Friends Place on Capitol Hill. She helps to steward FCNL’s shared anti-racism, anti-bias, justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. Lauren joins the FCNL staff after serving on FCNL’s General Committee beginning in 2017 and its Executive Committee from 2019-2022. She has also served on the boards of Sandy Spring Friends School, DC Peace Team, the National Farm Worker’s Ministry, the Central Committee for Friends General Conference, and the Program Committee for Quakers Uprooting Racism. Before coming to FCNL, Lauren was the upper school head at Carolina Friends School and, before that, the director of social action at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart.
Windy Cooler is an embraced public minister from Sandy Spring Monthly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly. She writes, speaks, and travels full-time in the ministry, carrying a call to right relationship within the Religious Society of Friends. Windy offers workshops on novel models of corporate discernment, especially in times of crisis, as well as trauma and attachment to Quakers worldwide. In the past two years, she has transitioned to a focus on the practice of ministry among Friends. She is the convener of her meeting’s new project to create space for public ministry in all Friends’ worshipping communities called The Friends Public Ministry Incubator. She is the past convener of the Life and Power: Quaker Discernment on Abuse project. She lives with her spouse, Erik Hanson and cat, Buster, in Maryland, and has two young adult children, Maggie and Ob.
Leaders
Aaron Fowler and Laura Dungan have been traveling life together for over 45-years. Members of Heartland Friends Meeting, Great Plains Yearly Meeting in Wichita, Kansas they have tended to their spiritual lives and given gifts in leadership and music in and out of Quaker circles.
Aaron, a Credentialed Teaching Artist, Master Teaching Artist, and children’s author, spends time with young people and teachers around the country developing math, science, and reading skills through music as well as conducting residencies where groups write songs based on the lives of community elders. Laura continues to contribute to the field of community organizing through deep listening practices, coaching and organizational consultation. Her first book, The Archer, a novel, will be available in June 2025.
Both singers and songwriters, Laura and Aaron look forward to opportunities to share their unique blend of human experience, life lessons, and spiritual expansion through song.
Andy Stanton-Henry is co-pastor of Lost Creek Friends Church in New Market, TN and co-director of the Quaker Leadership Center at Earlham School of Religion. He carries a concern for Quaker revitalization and the renewal of rural congregations, leading him to author Recovering Abundance: Twelve Practices for Small Town Leaders. He makes his home in East Tennessee with his spouse, Ashlyn, their 14 laying hens, three dogs, and one cat.
Alicia McBride (she/her) serves as FCNL’s senior director for Quaker leadership, where she focuses on connecting Quaker faith, practice, and community to policy advocacy in Washington, DC. Her various roles and more than 20 years of work at FCNL are united by a concern for how to act with integrity at the place where faith and the world meet. She is a member of Sandy Spring Friends Meeting (Baltimore Yearly Meeting), assistant clerk of the Earlham School of Religion Board of Advisors, a parent to two teenagers with her husband Sam Garman, and a yoga teacher.
Francisco Burgos is the executive director at Pendle Hill and has facilitated spiritual retreats and lectio divina sessions for many audiences. Francisco was a De La Salle Christian Brother for almost ten years, serving in Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, and has been a Friend since 2004. He is a member of Harrisburg Friends Meeting and an attender of meetings including Monteverde Friends Meeting in Costa Rica and Adelphi Friends Meeting in Maryland.
Katie Breslin is a Quaker and lifelong activist, originally from northeastern Pennsylvania. A graduate of Trinity Washington University with a degree in Political Science, Katie began her career in DC, overseeing the young adult lobbying program for the Friends Committee on National Legislation and organizing for Catholics for Choice. She moved to Richmond, Indiana to attend Earlham School of Religion, where she received a Certificate in Quaker Studies. Katie also worked for Earlham College in their Epic Journey program as a career coach and recruiter. Katie has written about issues related to religion and spirituality in a variety of different publications including Friends Journal and The Revealer. During the day, Katie proudly works for the University of Minnesota.
Lucas Meyer-Lee (he/they) is a current Quaker Voluntary Service fellow, working in this capacity as the Education Associate at Pendle Hill. They are a recent graduate of Swarthmore College, where they studied across a wide range of arts and humanities. Lucas has been guided by a lifelong love for visual and literary arts in particular, leading them towards extended engagements with poetry, printmaking, painting, sculpture, graphic design, and boardgame design. In the coming years, they hope to continue their higher education, researching Arabic comparative literature at the graduate level. Lucas currently serves on the American Friend Service Committee’s Community, Equity, and Justice Board Committee and as the co-coordinator for Friends General Conference’s Adult Young Friend community.
Matt Rosen is a convinced Friend and member of Oxford & Swindon Area Meeting, Britain Yearly Meeting. He was the 2023 Henry J. Cadbury Scholar at Pendle Hill, where he explored the significance of convincement experiences across the generations of Friends. He currently travels in the ministry in Britain, and is also a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Oxford. He serves as an elder in Britain Yearly Meeting and Oxford & Swindon Area Meeting, where he helps to organize the local Young Adult Friends worship group. He carries a concern for the inclusion of younger Friends in worship and Quaker community and for the importance of listening to the Inward Christ among Friends of all stripes.
NiaDwynwen Thomas is a member of Northampton Meeting in Massachusetts and serves as Program Director for New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. In this role, Nia co-creates, curates, integrates, and evaluates opportunities and resources in faith formation, leadership development, and Quaker practice for Friends across the lifespan with particular focus on congregational health, multigenerational relationship, and emergent design.
Walid Morsarsaa is based in Greensboro, NC, and is a passionate advocate for refugee causes. Born in Amman, Jordan, and raised in Ramallah, Palestine, he received a values-based Quaker education at the Ramallah Friends School. Walid holds a BS from Guilford College and an MA in Religion with a focus on Peace and Justice Studies from the Earlham School of Religion. He is currently pursuing an MBA at Guilford College. Driven by his personal background as the grandson of Palestinian refugees, Walid is dedicated to helping displaced populations. Currently, he works with Every Campus A Refuge and supports mobilizing higher education institutions in the United States’ work on refugee resettlement. He is also actively involved with Quaker and service organizations and sits on the board of directors of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). In his free time, Walid enjoys going on runs, the gym, traveling, and spending quality time with friends and family.
Pendle Hill Resident Leaders
Deborah Cooper, M. Ed. L.P.C., is a licensed professional counselor, a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting and a provider with the Friends Counseling Service. Deborah also teaches classes in Mindfulness Meditation. A seeker all her life, Deborah has been practicing Mindfulness meditation for the last 19 years. Having experienced the profound benefits of meditation in her own life, she now teaches others both individually and in groups in the Northwest Philadelphia area. For the last 3 years she has greatly benefited by spending some time in a Buddhist monastery in Canada.
John Muhanji is the Director of the Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting based in Kisumu, Kenya. John and his wife Rose had three children: Kevin, Audrey & Allan. Unfortunately, we lost Allan in a motorbike accident in 2021. John’s commitment to the African Quaker community is unwavering. As an MDIV graduate of Earlham School of Religion and a DMIN from George Fox University, he is dedicated to supporting leadership development and renewal among Friends Churches in Africa. He is a key figure in the development of the ‘African voice in the Quaker Theology’ and the promotion of spiritual formation among Quaker leaders in Africa. His efforts have significantly contributed to the expansion of Quaker missions in Tanzania, Eastern Congo, and Uganda. He wholeheartedly embraces the unity of purpose of Friends both in Africa and beyond. During his time as the Henry J. Cadbury Scholar, John will be continuing his work to contextualize Quakerism to African culture, history, and realities while maintaining its core values and principles.
Peter Blood-Patterson has spent a diverse life as activist, Quakerism teacher, advanced practice nurse, family therapist, and promoter of communal singing among Friends and around the world. He was mentored by and received spiritual direction from Bill Taber and Parker Palmer at Pendle Hill. He has led Quakerism courses, workshops, and retreats for meetings through Philadelphia YM’s traveling teachers program and for meetings and retreat centers around the world.
As a 2025 Kenneth L. Carroll Scholar at Pendle Hill, Peter will build on his long-term belief that faith-based work of social transformation represents a form of prophecy. He will explore ways Friends today can play an important role in helping create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth — springing from God’s vision of a new creation.
