Our Team
What began as a dream planted by God in the heart of one woman has become an international team of the Lord’s servants, working together toward a common goal.
This Passport Page highlights the history and development of our Team, but to see the latest and greatest descriptions of our current team and board members, we encourage you to review their names and bios.
Founding Board and Supporters
Moving clockwise from the top left, Michelle J. Goff, Ron Hanegan, and Katie Forbess are pictured at the ministry’s first bilingual event, hosted by the ministry’s overseeing congregation, Northwest Church of Christ in Westminster, Colorado. Ron served as the first elder on the founding board. Katie, since the beginning, has faithfully served as Board President. She tirelessly champions the mission and vision of Iron Rose Sister Ministries, and we are grateful for her ongoing service in this and other roles.
Daniel Mata, pictured with his wife Mary, Michelle, and her parents, David and Jocelynn Goff, was one of the other founding board members. He is the Hispanic preaching minister at the Katy Church of Christ, just west of Houston, Texas,
Kimberly (Goff) Edwards, Michelle’s sister, served as another founding board member while hosting Michelle and Iron Rose Sister Ministries in her basement, along with her husband, Paxton.
David and Jocelynn Goff, Michelle’s parents, earned their own picture as initial honorary board members, in constant service, support, and prayer, throughout Michelle’s career in ministry.
Finally, Cynthia Cedeño served in the role of Treasurer amongst the founding board members. She continues to live in Houston, Texas.
Note: Michelle has never served on the Board of Directors, nor does she have a vote when decisions from the board are being made. Rather, as founder of Iron Rose Sister Ministries, and based on her passion and experience, the Board has hired her to serve as Executive Director.
First Ministry Assistant, Erica Peck
Iron Rose Sister Ministries moved out of the Colorado basement where things began, to Michelle’s home in Searcy, Arkansas.
After getting settled in a new space, with a bedroom repurposed as a ministry workroom, and a 2nd living room with lots of windows for an office, Michelle proposed to the Board, the hire of a ministry assistant. Erica Peck is bilingual, married to a Panamanian and, in 2015 when she began her 3-year tenure with IRSM, they had two small boys who would join her in the office. We were thrilled to offer Erica the flexibility of bringing her boys to work, and the opportunity to serve in the Kingdom alongside us.
After transitioning to other roles once her boys were in school, Erica has returned to school and become a certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. We are proud of her accomplishments and appreciate her continued volunteer work with IRSM.
First In-Person Board and Team Meeting
Brenda Brizendine had just been hired. Erica Peck was nearing the end of her time as Ministry Assistant, and new Board Members had come on board.
Although Michelle knew everyone personally, most of the rest of the group had never met, only on screen!
We still joke about the moment when Julio Cedeño arrived on Friday evening and when everyone stood up to greet him, the first words he spoke to Katie were, “You’re tall!” As we have all since learned, you cannot discern someone’s height on a Zoom call.
Back row: Roberto Batres, Katie Forbess, Kathy Creel, Débora Rodrigo, Julio Cedeño
Front row: Erica Peck, Michelle J. Goff, Brenda Brizendine, Carla Sumner
Team and Board Members Partner to Teach Together
Since moving to Searcy, Arkansas, Iron Rose Sister Ministries has had a booth at the Bloom Conference, hosted by Harding University (formerly WINGS Conference). In 2019, Michelle was invited as a keynote speaker, with other team members serving on a panel regarding how to reach our Latina Sisters and Hispanic neighbors. The panelists were Brenda Brizendine (Guatemala), Erica Peck (husband is from Panama), and Débora Rodrigo (Spain).
Pictured are Michelle J. Goff, Brenda, Kathy Creel (Board), Débora, Erica, and Katie Forbess (Board President)
Zooming With the Rest of the World
Michelle likes to say that Iron Rose Sister Ministries has been “zooming” since before the rest of the world knew what Zoom was. However, as the global pandemic forced all of us to meet virtually, we shifted our bi-annual in-person Team and Board Meeting to a Zoom gathering. Even if it wasn’t in the format we would’ve originally desired, we were thrilled to welcome new members to our Team and our Board.
Top row: Michelle J. Goff, Brenda Brizendine, Cynthia Cedeño (Board Treasurer), David Goff (honorary Board, along with his wife, Jocelynn, not pictured),
Middle row: James Huff (Board), Wendy Neill (Advancement Coordinator), Mark Vaughn (Board), Julio Cedeño (elder and Board)
Bottom row: Katie Forbess (Board President), Melanie Curtis (Office Assistant)
Growing our Team and Board
...as God Provides Increase for the Ministry
While the pandemic offered many challenges for a lot of organizations, we were able to pivot easily since many of our activities were already taking place virtually. The limited number of in-person events also afforded us an opening to take advantage of the opportunity to expand into Portuguese. Sabrina Nino de Campos joined the Team as our first Portuguese or Brazil Coordinator, assisting with translation, outreach, assessment of needs, and even our first Portuguese/English bilingual event!
New Board Members were also added as we recognized the need for added support and experience in certain areas.
Top row: Katie Forbess (Board President), Wendy Neill (Advancement Coordinator) and Anna Sumner (Office Assistant), Michelle J. Goff and David Goff (Jocelynn not pictured), Kat Bittner (Board),
Middle row: Sabrina Campos (Brazil Coordinator), Amanda Nitsch (Operations Manager), Bill Richardson (elder and Board), Julio Cedeño (elder and Board),
Bottom row: Cynthia Cedeño (Board Treasurer), Mark Vaughn (Board), Rossana Sosa (Board), Brenda Brizendine (Volunteer Coordinator)
Face to Face
Destination Retreat Allows Team Members to Meet Face to Face
Our bi-annual ministry-hosted event shifted from odd years to even years because of the pandemic. It was held near Conway, Arkansas, at Camp Areopagus. We were thrilled that as many of the Team Members were able to attend. The two who weren’t (one because she had just been hired the week before), attended virtually using Team Members’ phones!
Pictured here and only listing the roles of those who were new since the previous picture…
Top row: Katie Forbess, Juana Hall (Financial Assistant), Wendy Neill, Michelle J. Goff
Bottom row: Sabrina Campos, Brenda Brizendine, Judy Larsen (Office Assistant), Amanda Nitsch
On phone screens: Francia Oviedo (Creative Assistant), Elina Vath (Virtual Assistant)
Again, we invite you to read the bios and see the pictures and roles of our current team and board members!!! God has been busy providing the right people to help keep up with our ongoing growth, meeting the spiritual needs of women in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and bilingual contexts.
That concludes our Team passport page. Be watching our 10th-year-tour page for more passport pages!