Our Staff

Yonce Shelton, Executive Director

Yonce Shelton has twenty-five years of faith-based, political, and spiritual leadership development experience. He is passionate about nurturing relationships, cultivating community support strategies, and bridge-building.

Prior to joining Faith Forward, Yonce served as Executive Director of Catholic Volunteer Network, the leading membership organization of faith-based programs fostering full-time domestic and international service. He led CVN’s organizational transition and equipped program leaders to pursue creative changes. Yonce has also served as a pastoral counselor, coach, and spiritual director; worked with intentional communities of young adults exploring faith, service, and community (similar to service years); and been a pastor and leader in two ecumenical churches.    

Yonce’s political experience includes serving as Senior Policy Director for Sojourners, an ecumenical Christian movement promoting social justice. Before that, he was a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher, who represented southwest Virginia for over 30 years.    

Yonce has a Master's in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University in Maryland and a Master’s in Theological Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary. His undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Business Administration from the College of William and Mary.  

  


Our Board

  • Wes Grandberg Michaelson

    Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson is an author, global ecumenical leader, and widely respected voice relating faith to pressing issues of public life. Earlier in his career, he served as the Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield, and then as the Associate Editor of Sojourners Magazine when it was founded, and more recently as Chair of its Board of Directors. He was a founding board member of Faith 2020. Wes knows the realities of political life.

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    Wes also knows the church. He served as General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America for 17 years, from 1994-2011. He’s traveled to all corners of the world, interpreting how the changing face of Christianity will reshape the future. Wes has a lifetime calling to be an ecumenical witness. He led in establishing Christian Churches Together in the USA and is known globally for his leadership, including as Director of Church and Society for the World Council of Churches. Presently, he serves as President of the Global Christian Forum Foundation.

    Through his writing and speaking, Wes had assisted many in discovering the depths of Christian spirituality as the foundation for one’s outward work, witness, and advocacy for justice. He’s written ten books, most recently Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage. Wes Granberg-Michaelson is a graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary. He has been awarded two honorary doctorate degrees. He and his wife Kaarin make their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he enjoys fly fishing.

  • Rabbi Rachel Kobrin

    Rabbi Rachel Kobrin is the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Rodef Shalom in Denver, CO, and a leader in faith-based political activism. She was a regular voice with Believers for Biden during the 2020 election and served on the advisory council for Faith Forward (then Faith 2020). Over the past six years, Rabbi Kobrin and her community have been at the forefront of advocacy and organizing for important issues in the state of CO. Her community has worked for

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    affordable housing and economic and racial justice in partnership with Together Colorado, refugee rights and resettlement in partnership with HIAS, and legislative environmental responsibility in partnership with Colorado Jewish Climate Action. Rabbi Kobrin serves on the board of JFS Colorado, and she and her congregation host the annual Coloradans for the Common Good Interfaith Labor Seder. She is a Clal Rabbis without Borders Fellow and has a master's degree and rabbinic ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University. She has spent multiple years studying in Israel and enjoys returning during summers to study at the Shalom Hartman Institute. She is married to an aerospace engineer, has two teenage children, and loves coffee shops, cities, Shabbat, and connecting with people.

  • Jill Wildenberg, Board Secretary

    Jill Wildenberg is one of the original board members of Faith Forward (Faith 2020). She continues to serve as the Secretary of Faith Forward. Jill has been a leader in the faith community for many years. As President and Education Director of Congregation Beth Evergreen in Evergreen, Colorado, she led the congregation to build a new synagogue and participate in Synagogue 2000, which re-imagined what a welcoming house of worship should be.

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    She was the chair of RENA, a national group of Jewish Reconstructionist Educators. Together RENA developed curricula to be more inclusive and more engaging for congregations.

    Jill was the first Public Policy Director of The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, engaging in policy work in LGBTQ+ Rights, Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice, Racial and Criminal Justice, and Housing and Homelessness at the Colorado State Capitol. She presented the case for the importance of religious freedom in public policy and engaged the 400+ congregations that were part of The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado in education and advocacy. Jill currently serves as the President of the Board of Trustees of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado.

    Her interfaith connections led her to head up the faith outreach initiatives for the Colorado Clinton and Biden campaigns and to found Colorado FAITHful Democrats, a part of the Colorado Democratic Party. She served as Chief of Staff to Representative Crisanta Duran while the representative was Chair of the Joint Budget and Appropriations committees. She is a graduate of the Emerge program, which trains Democratic women how to run for office and how to run campaigns and raise funds. She has been a trusted advisor to many campaigns. Jill believes that her work is for Tikkun Olam, the world's healing.

  • Rev. Dr. Steve Newcom, Board Treasurer

    Rev. Dr. Steven Newcom retired on June 30, 2023, after serving as the Founding Director of the Kaleo Center for Faith, Justice & Social Transformation and faculty at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. The Kaleo Center was established in 2010 to advance the practical application and conceptual development of social transformation as a practical theological discipline and core ministerial competency.

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    It served as a multi-faith movement center, organizing the faith community around the MN Marriage Amendment and the Movement for Black Lives. In 2015, Newcom introduced a new MA degree and M.Div. Concentration in Leadership for Social Transformation at United and served as the founding Program Director. He is finalizing a manuscript on the praxis of social transformation for Fortress Press Academic. Newcom has over eighteen years of experience as the Executive Director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice, a progressive community foundation supporting grassroots advocacy, organizing, and movement building, and seven years as a Program Director with the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches. He now serves as the Pastor of Justice Ministries for First Congregational United Church of Christ in Brainerd, where he also organizes the Lakes Area Justice Table. He and his spouse, Joy, are building an organic farm and spending as much time as possible with their ten grandchildren.

  • Eli Valentin, Board Chair Emeritus

    Eli Valentin serves as an adjunct professor at Iona University. He is a contributing columnist for Gotham Gazette, mainly focusing on Latino politics in New York, and is a frequent guest political analyst at Univision NY and New York 1 News.

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    Valentin has served as a political adviser to numerous elected officials nationwide. He is the editor of Sermons from the Latino/a Pulpit and author of the forthcoming Reinhold Niebuhr and Politics (Wipf and Stock). Valentin has also begun work on a manuscript tentatively titled A History of Latino Politics in New York.

  • Dr. Robert Taber

    Dr. Robert Taber is a historian, political strategist, and interfaith organizer. The past National Director for Mormons for Obama (2012) and Latter-day Saints for Biden-Harris, Taber is a regular voice on LDS approaches to politics and was a panelist at the 2012 and 2020 Democratic National Conventions. Recognized by the Center for American Progress in 2021 as a "Faith Leader to Watch," he recently served as an Advisor in the Office of the Secretary at the US Department of Education, building out that Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships' work with the higher education community.

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    A specialist on the history of multiracial democracy in the Americas, Dr. Taber lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina with his wife Sarah and their daughter, where he is an Associate Professor of History at Fayetteville State University. In 2024, he received the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.