Dr. Steven Skancke
Chariman of the Board
Falls Church, VA

Steven L. Skancke is Managing Director of G. William Miller & Co., Inc., a Washington, DC based private merchant-banking firm, and President of Sakhr Software USA, Inc., a distributor of Arabic language knowledge management systems.  Previously he served for fifteen years in the United States Government at the White House National Security Council (1969-1976) and at Treasury Department (1977-1984.

Dr. Skancke is an Adjunct Professor of Economics at George Washington University where he teaches graduate courses in international finance and trade.  He has a Ph.D. in Economics.  He is the co-author of two books on business:  Competitiveness:  An Executive’s Guide to Success, and Productivity:  The American Advantage. 

Dr. Skancke chairs The Falls Church Fellows program, a post-graduate leadership development program based in Washington, DC, and The Fellows Initiative board of directors.  He recently retired as Chairman of American Near East Refugee Aid, an international relief organization working for the last thirty-five years to reduce poverty and suffering among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.  He serves as a director or officer of several different charity organizations, and has been active in community children’s sports activities.

He grew up in South Dakota, is married, has two children and resides in Great Falls, Virginia.

Louis Gallien - Board Member                       
Virginia Beach, VA

Louis B. Gallien, Jr. resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia where he is University Professor of Education at Regent University and coordinates the doctoral program in higher education. He chairs the TFI program at Galilee Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach and teaches their graduate courses as well.

Professor Gallien has been teaching on the college and university levels since 1987. He has taught at the following institutions before coming to Regent in 2002: Millsaps, Transylvania, Wheaton, Mercer, and Spelman and has served as a department chair and endowed chair. He also held adjunct positions at Morehouse College and Emory University. His major research interests are in culturally-responsive pedagogy and effective strategies for integrating faith in the classroom from multiple frameworks.

He holds degrees in government, history and educational policy and has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford-Brookes University in England in the summer of 2004. He has held six major fellowships in his career. He is working on his second book on closing the academic achievement gap among African American college students to be released by Columbia University Press and has conducted workshops on culturally-responsive teaching methods with Dr. Angela Farris, educational psychologist at Spelman College, and the niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Recently, he was a contributing editor to the new book series on Notable African American Leaders, edited by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Chair of the African American studies program at Harvard and soon to be published out of Oxford University Press.

He is married to Lee Joyner of Chapel Hill, N.C. They have a daughter at Bard College and a son who will enter middle school next year. They are active parishioners at Galilee Episcopal Church where he is a diaconal candidate.

Fred Missell - Board Member                       
Charlottesville, VA

Fred Missel is the Director of Design and Development for the University of Virginia Foundation. Fred joined the Foundation in November of 2001 and oversees the management of the Foundation's development projects including the UVA Research Parks, Boar's Head Resort Complex, property rezoning and entitlements, and master planning efforts. Fred continues to oversee the development of state-of-the-art laboratories, Class A office buildings, sports and tennis complex as well as numerous other projects.

Fred's experience prior to arrival at the Foundation includes ten years of private sector civil engineering, landscape architecture and planning work across the mid-Atlantic region. Fred teaches land development planning and technology planning at the University of Virginia. Fred is a member of the Albemarle County Architectural Review Board.

Fred has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Social Work from Albright College and holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture and a Masters of Planning from the University Of Virginia School Of Architecture.

Fred and his wife Jayne have lived in Charlottesville for over twenty years and are active at Trinity Presbyterian Church as well as other ministries.  Fred and Jayne have two wonderful daughters

Peter Moore - Board Member
Sewickley, PA

Born and raised in suburban New York City, Peter attended public schools through the 8th. grade and then went to St. Mark’s School in Massachusetts from which he graduated in ’54. After 4 years at Yale, he attended Jesus College, Oxford and got his M.A. in theology, finishing his theological studies at E.T.S. in Cambridge, Mass. in ’61.

Peter then served as vicar of an industrial parish outside of Pittsburgh for 2 years before becoming the Director of the Council for Religion in Independent Schools in N.Y.C. At the same time he started FOCUS, Inc. a ministry to private secondary schools in New England that has expanded over the next 45 years to involve 35 staff in 9 regions from Boston to Raleigh. FOCUS touches hundreds of students in 190 independent secondary schools.

Peter left FOCUS in 1985 and became Rector of “Little” Trinity Anglican Church, Toronto, where he, his wife, Sandra, and their three children lived for a decade. While there he received his D.Min. from Fuller Seminary.

In 1996 Peter became the fourth Dean and President of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. While there he completed a capital campaign that raised $14 million for the seminary.

Retiring in 2004, Peter became Chairman of Anglican Relief and Development Fund, and began The Fellows Initiative based in Sewickley, PA.In 2005 he was asked by the Board of FOCUS to return as (interim) Executive Director. He continues in that role at this time.

He and Sandra live in Sewickley, PA.Peter is the author of three books, and editor of two others. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Nashotah house in ’03.

"Karen Parks has a 20 year history of work and accomplishment in non-profit organizational growth. She is currently Director, Strategic Relationships for MOPS International (exploring new opportunities, research trends, build alliances). She has also been Advisor to several Christian non-profit start-ups. For ten years she was a college level instructor and administrator (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, (Los Angeles and San Francisco). Karen has a M.S.degree in Developmental Reading, Oklahoma State University and a B.A. Communications, Wheaton College, IL. She attends Rockland Community Church in Golden, CO and is Co-Board Chair for Rockland Fellows. Karen's husband Richard is and attorney in Golden and Academic Chair of the Rockalnd Fellows. Karen and Richard have three interesting adult children. Karen loves to travel, learn, entertain, read and is delighted to live in beautiful Evergreen, CO."

After spending the last 31 years in the Washington, D.C area working as a geographer for the U.S. Department of State on ocean policy and maritime boundary issues (and teaching on the side at Georgetown Univ.) I have just retired.  I now am a consultant on these maritime matters.  In May my wife and I will be moving to Mt. Pleasant, S.C. where we will live for most of the year (spending the summer months at Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland).

Being a member of The Falls Church since 1981 I have had the privilege of serving the Lord in several ways: as a 2nd grade Sunday school teacher, as Chairman of the Day School, as a member of the finance and personnel committees, and twice serving on the Vestry.  I have participated on the Falls Church Fellows Committee almost from the start with my primary function being in charge of finding the incoming Fellows their work placements.  In addition, a real blessing for my family (including two daughters) has been to host seven Fellows in our home.