OUR PASTOR

Pastor Alyssa is dynamic preacher with a deep belief that we are the mission field for God's ongoing gifts of grace. 

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Alyssa brings a dynamic and rich background in community development work and a deep passion for helping create a more equitable and sustainable food landscape to her ministry work.

 

Prior to her call into ministry, Alyssa worked with food system issues to help shift the food landscape in the United States. As a food systems consultant, she worked across the country with a wide variety of partners and advocates to improve children’s health and strengthen the ways in which food moves from where it is grown to where people are eating it. She is passionate about changing the food conversation in this country through the application of what she calls “practical nutrition.” Alyssa provided training and technical assistance to schools and other institutions interested in enhancing their current food service programs with nutritious and delicious foods and supported communities working to improve their food system through farm to fork initiatives, food hubs, food access programs, nutrition education and policy change. She has also taught adult and child-centered cooking classes, providing nutrition education at both the store and the stove.

 

Alyssa brings a truly international perspective to her ministry as a result of her service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chad where she focused on maternal and child health and nutrition and girls’ education. She was certified as an English as a Foreign Language teacher and taught 350 students in the US equivalent of 6th through 9th grade in a small agrarian village in Southern Chad. Despite her time in the classroom, nonformal education is her passion and she has a wealth of experience developing outreach programming for museums, theatres and community food organizations designed to ignite children’s curiosity about the world around them.

 

Alyssa is highly involved in her community, having served in leadership roles in a variety of local organizations. She notably coordinated relief efforts impacting over 500 Coast Guard families and individuals in the National Capital Region during the government shutdown of 2019, supported the rehousing efforts of Afghan refugees in the Alexandria area, and taught English as a Foreign Language at Camp Upshur on Quantico to women Afghan refugees while they waited to be resettled. She served as the Family Ministries Director and Associate Pastor of Discipleship at the Kingstowne Communion, the pastor a of Washington Farm UMC, and the Associate Pastor of Food Justice and Food Access at Rising Hope Mission Church. She has been recognized by the The Flagship Inc. Heroes at Home Military Spouse program, the National Military Family Association, and UMC Lead. Alyssa attend Mount Holyoke College, the Culinary Institute of American and in May of 2022, she graduated with her Master’s of Divinity with honors from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., receiving the Community Life award for her work to build authentic expressions of genuine community there. She is currently working toward her Doctor in Ministry at Wesley. A proud Army spouse, she lives with her beautiful children, Keegan and Coraline, and incredible husband, John in Springfield, Virginia.