Kimberly Miller, MTh, LMFT
The co-author of Boundaries for Your Soul and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Kim founded Leading Wholeheartedly to help leaders tend to their inner lives, so that they can better serve others. She also founded Doing Good Well, a leadership development program for Christians in the Visual Arts. Prior to her work as a counselor, Kim was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. She has also worked for social investment fund Root Capital, and for Agros International, where she helped design the Journey with a Village program, partnering start-up villages in Central America with funding partners across the United States. Kim studied religion at Davidson College before earning a Master’s degree in Theology from Regent College and a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Azusa Pacific University. She is certified in Internal Family Systems Therapy and Imago Relationship Therapy, among other therapy methodologies. A native of Dallas, Kim and her husband, Ken, enjoy gardening and landscape architecture, spending time with friends and family, and extending hospitality at their home in Southern California.
Kimberly Miller
Crystal Benyo
A children’s educator for 30 years, Crystal also has decades of experience in event planning and financial management.
She and her best friend, Joe, have been married 40 years and have six children and seven grandchildren. Their family lives on a ranch in Paso Robles, California, which they share with five horses, two dogs, two cats, two goats, and innumerable bunnies.
Crystal enjoys horseback riding, cooking, and hosting (large!) family gatherings. She writes, “I’m honored to coordinate the retreat and look forward to God's continued blessing on this ministry.”
Crystal Benyo
Laura Cootsona
Laura serves as Director of the Leading Wholeheartedly Retreats, setting the vision and tone for each event and helping ensure a seamless, enriching experience for guests.
Laura holds a Master’s in nonprofit administration from University of San Francisco and a Bachelor’s from University of California at Berkeley in religious studies. Her career has spanned organizational and individual consulting, coaching and leadership, all focused on building strategies to do good well. After consulting for over 20 years, Laura now serves as Executive Director of the Jesus Center, a social service nonprofit serving the poor in Chico, California.
Parallel to building her career, Laura has honed her gifts in the churches where she and her husband have served. While in New York City, Laura developed a course in Christian Spiritual Disciplines, a course on Henri Nouwen’s Return of the Prodigal, a course on marriage, and studies for moms trying to develop a spiritual life. Laura has taught these courses, and many others, for more than two decades.
Laura enjoys biking, reading, swimming, photography, hanging out with friends, traveling, and spending time with her husband of 30-plus years, Greg—a religious studies lecturer at California State University Chico—and with their two daughters.
Laura Cootsona
Shari Adams
We’re so grateful that Shari will be providing spiritual direction, facilitating a small group, and leading communion. Shari leads the Spiritual Formation Center at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and practices both psychotherapy and spiritual direction. One of her professional passions is the integration of the total person—body, soul, mind, and spirit.
She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Wheaton College, a graduate degree in counseling from Azusa Pacific University, and her Spiritual Direction credential from Loyola Marymount. She is also certified as a pastoral care specialist, and has taught counseling at Concordia and Vanguard Universities, and Gordon-Conwell Seminary.
Shari enjoys her women’s book group, traveling, bluegrass music, silent retreats, gardening, and hiking and kayaking with her husband of 30-plus years, Lon. She also loves hanging out with her three grown kids, their spouses, and her grandkids.
Shari Adams
Kellie Haddock
Kellie Haddock is a singer, songwriter, wife and mom. A former widow, Kellie has lived through tragedy and found hope and joy on the other side. Her music draws from real-life stories of beauty, heartache, hope, and the celebration of life.
The Thank You Project, a short film featuring Kellie’s story of gratitude after tragedy, has attracted more than 150 million views and has been featured on The TODAY Show, The Huffington Post, and Cosmopolitan among other national and international media outlets.
Kellie has performed in Iraq, Israel, China and across the U.S., offering music that engages the soul in all of its beauty and vulnerability. She has sung and spoken alongside Tim Keller, Christine Caine, Marianne Williamson, Andrew Peterson and Lynne Hybels among other respected leaders and musicians.
Kellie released Leave The Light On (featuring Sara Groves) in 2013 and Mandarin Lights (recorded in Mandarin) in 2014. Her work is featured in Together In The Harvest: A Nashville A ROCHA Project and on Sandra McCracken’s Psalms album, which went to No. 1 on iTunes. Wild Love, (2017) offers 12 piano driven songs that blend powerful, energetic pop with highly emotive lyrics. Kellie's newest album, All Shall Be Well, offers 25 classic hymns accompanied by the ukulele.
Kellie and her husband, Ted, live in Orlando, Florida, with their three children.
Kellie Haddock
J.J. Hansen
JJ Hansen leads corporate worship during Leading Wholeheartedly gatherings, working closely with the other retreat leaders to prepare a space where all can glorify God through hearing the Word, and responding in prayer and song.
JJ is a singer, pianist and music educator who has collaborated with other worship leaders—across the U.S. and around the world—to lead groups, large and small, in worship. Having worked as a church worship/arts director and also in campus ministry for many years, she continues to mentor recent college graduates in the pastoral ministry of worship leading.
JJ’s passion is to lead followers of Jesus from different backgrounds in experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit working in and through the gathered congregation. Toward this end, she finds great joy in the mission of Leading Wholeheartedly.
Born in Louisiana and raised in North Carolina, JJ and her husband, Bruce, a minister, and their two daughters live in Northern California.
J.J. Hansen
Elizabeth Gaston Cunningham
Parental abandonment, childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and domestic violence—these set the stage for Elizabeth Cunningham’s decades-long battle with debilitating fear, depression, low self-worth, and codependency. In her 20-year journey toward recovery, God has shown Elizabeth how to grow beyond the pain of her past; trust herself, God, and others; and move authentically from victim to victory. Today, Elizabeth helps other women overcome barriers to reaching their God-given potential—as a mentor, certified Christian Life Coach, and speaker.
During her 40-year communications career, Elizabeth has served on the staff of CRU, edited a national nursing magazine, worked in PR and fundraising for an international prison ministry, and managed corporate communications for a Fortune 200 company. She worked for 11 years as Special Assistant to Hope for the Heart Founder June Hunt, helping her write and edit a dozen top-selling biblical-counseling books. Elizabeth is also a contributing author to "Coaching the Coach: Life Coaching Stories & Tips for Transforming Lives." Now a freelance communications consultant and editor, Elizabeth and her husband, Randy, live in their hometown of San Antonio. They have three grown children (four, counting Zeke, their French Bulldog) and a two-year-old grandson.
Cultivating the Garden Within