Rich Foss

  

CEO / Teachers Assistant
Tiskilwa, IL

 

Rich is the CEO/Teachers' Assistant of a nonprofit, Evergreen Leaders. With over 25 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and fundraising, those are the topics he focuses on in his quest to help nonprofits thrive, especially nonprofits that serve people with low and moderate incomes.

His journey into the nonprofit world began when he became disabled with rheumatoid arthritis as a teenager. Thanks to rehabilitation and education through nonprofits and government programs he has lived an amazing life despite his limitations.

He grew up among low income farmers in northern Minnesota. If you didn't farm you worked in a factory and the general attitude towards leaders was that they didn't know how to do the actual work and made life miserable for those who did. When he became disabled he went from the working man's world to the University of North Dakota when he got an undergraduate degree in social work and a Master's in counseling. Then he and his wife, Sarah, moved to Illinois in 1977 to join a commune, Plow Creek Fellowship . Still there after all these years. When he couldn't find a job in counseling, he took a job as a human resource director (personnel in those days) in a nonprofit that served adults with developmental disabilities and discovered he loved nonprofit leadership.

In the 1980's he became a development director for the nonprofit and a one of the leaders in the commune.

In the 1990's he led the commune through a sexual abuse scandal involving one of its founders, published a novel, and directed his first capital campaign.

In the 2000's he co-founded Evergreen Leaders as a way to provide ordinary people the skills to help their groups thrive. As a result of his years of nonprofit leadership and leading in his religious community, he created the 7 paths of thriving organizations as a framework to teach other how to help their groups thrive.

He and his wife, Sarah, have been married for over thirty years and still like to make eyes at each other. They have three grown children and one grandchild and love to travel to be with their family.

Charletta Erb

Consultant
Chicago, IL

 

Charletta is a Consultant with Evergreen Leaders enabling non-profits to function sustainably so they can transform society. Drawing on her background in mediation and organizational conflict consulting, she brings skills of facilitation and training groups in constructive communication.

She served at the London Mennonite Centre as Trainer and Mediator for Bridge Builders, a program providing conflict transformation resources for churches in the United Kingdom. Later, she served as Assistant Director for Lombard Mennonite Peace Center providing training, mediation, and consulting in congregational conflicts for various denominations.

She has a bachelor's degree from Goshen College, where she studied Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies. Charletta served on the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference Justice, Peace and Service Commission and developed a Conflict Transformation Ministry Team, providing conflict skills training workshops to congregations in the conference. She is also studying Bowen Family Systems Theory, applying its insights to leadership and change in organizations.

Charletta is practitioner for On Earth Peace, and she and her husband, Tim Nafziger, are reservists for Christian Peacemaker Teams. Together, they are part of Living Water Community Church, a diverse urban Mennonite congregation on Chicago’s north side. For a good time, Charletta also plays Irish and Old Time music on her fiddle.