The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty marked the 10th anniversary of its BJC Fellows program by training a 14-member 2025 class, bringing the total number of Fellows to 100.
Each summer, the BJC trains a new class of emerging community leaders who are “committed to protecting faith freedom for all and challenging harmful myths about religious freedom in their own communities,” the organization said in a statement.
This year’s class met in Colonial Williamsburg, Va., where members learned from BJC staff, legal scholars, theologians, Baptist historians and Colonial Williamsburg’s historical interpreters.
The 10th anniversary class “marked a decade of equipping community leaders with the historical, legal and theological tools to defend and extend religious freedom in their own communities,” the BJC statement said.
“As we mark the 10th anniversary of the BJC Fellows program, these young professionals are a powerful reminder of what can happen when we invest in emerging leaders who are committed to justice,” noted Sabrina E. Dent, director of the BJC Center for Faith, Justice and Reconciliation, which operates the program.
“The 2025 BJC Fellows represent the future of faith freedom advocacy,” she added. “Their unique voices and experiences will help shape a more inclusive and equitable conversation around religious freedom.”
Members of this year’s class of BJC Fellows are:
- Kale Anderson, an attorney and member of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.
- Abigail Medina Betancourt, national coordinator for intercultural engagement for the American Baptist Home Mission Societies and associate pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista de Sabana Llana in Cataña, Puerto Rico.
- Christopher M. Coates, pastor of First Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Va.
- Caleb Cooke, senior pastor of Village Baptist Church in Bowie, Md.
- Alexis Engelbrecht-Villafane of Claremore, Okla., minister of online faith formation for First Christian Church in Jefferson City, Mo., small-group online learning facilitator for Gobin Church in Greencastle, Ind., and English teacher and dean of academics at Riverfield Country Day School in Tulsa, Okla.
- Zack Jackson, pastoral resident at University Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Miss.
- Harmeet Kaur Kamboj, assistant director of workplace strategy at Interfaith America in New York City.
- Christine Krieger, program director for congregations at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, Md.
- Victor Lee of Philadelphia, a graduate student at Fuller Theological Seminary and a creative who has worked on documentaries, campaigns and other visual stories.
- Tom Reid, pastor of Newton Presbyterian Church in Newton, Mass., business director of the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds and the Massachusetts engagement director for the Community Purchasing Alliance Cooperative in Massachusetts.
- Clareese Saunders, a high school social worker in the Bronx who is growing a small private social work practice and lives in Queens.
- Lukas Smith, a cardiac vascular nurse at the UCLA Health Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Clinic in Los Angeles.
- Aaron Tinch, pastor of New Hope African Methodist Episcopal Church in Waldorf, Md.
- Kyle Zuber, an educator, mentor and community advocate who works with students who have emotional and behavioral challenges and leader of an LGBTQ+ and allies group at his affirming church in Pataskala, Ohio.
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