About
We believe in a just and compassionate world for all.
And in bringing people together to build it.
We created JLP to help individuals and congregations gain the knowledge they need to understand the political, economic, and social systems we operate within, to recognize when they are unjust, and to develop the skills and tools necessary to change them.
Since 2012 JLP has been an experimental space testing new and different ways of empowering and equipping people in the work of justice.
Transforming the world takes all of us, in actions both big and small and leadership in many different forms. It is the work of a lifetime, acted out in our neighborhoods and businesses and schools, around our kitchen tables and financial investments, and in our faith communities.
Who We Are
Our team is composed of experienced leaders in congregational, academic, and justice work and includes many knowledgeable and passionate teachers not listed here.
Rev. Richard Gamble (he/him) is a founder and the executive director of the Justice Leadership Program. He is also the senior pastor at Keystone United Church of Christ. Rich has been involved in faith-based peace and justice work for over forty years. He has worked as an activist, a community organizer, and as the executive director of a community organizing agency. He also has worked as an advocate and as the director of an advocacy program and co-chair of the board of an advocacy agency.
Eliza Penick (she/her) is a program director for the Justice Leadership Program. She has worked in non-profit education, fundraising, program development, and community engagement for fifteen years. Eliza also does contract projects in education and program development, with a particular passion for food sustainability and sovereignty. Her sources of joy are family, urban homesteads, mountain biking, and the exploration of art, play, and new places.
Rev. B. Yuki Schwartz (she/her/they/them) is the curriculum developer and a teacher for the Justice Leadership Program. They are Assistant Professor of Constructive and Political Theologies and Louisville Postdoctoral Scholar at Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University. Yuki has a Ph.D. in theology and ethics from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. Their areas of scholarship include deimperial/decolonial studies, Asian and Asian American theology, and critical race, gender, and sexuality studies.
OUR PARTNERS HAVE INCLUDED
JLP is a 2021 grant recipient of Global H.O.P.E. team of the United Church of Christ.