BRIDGING THE
GAP
Committee Mission
To learn how to have difficult conversations in a safe space, develop tools for engaging in effective dialogue that leads to positive change, and form relationships with people with whom we might not otherwise connect.
Committee Leadership
Brent Jones, Co-Chair
Brent W. Jones has served as executive director of service and outreach at StoneBridge Church Community in Charlotte, North Carolina since 2009. He received his BA in international relations from the University of California, Davis, and his MDiv from Western Theological Seminary in San Jose, California. Prior to 2001, he spent a number of years in international software sales in California's Silicon Valley. Following a call to ministry in 2001, he has served in various ministerial capacities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Charlotte. In addition to his work at StoneBridge, Brent also serves on the steering committee for the UCity Family Zone, a collaborative, place-based initiative empowering the University City/Hidden Valley communities to increase opportunities and improve quality of life. Brent also lived in Taiwan for three years and he and his wife, Mary, speak Mandarin Chinese. They reside with their two boys in the University City area of Charlotte.
Joanne Jenkins, Co-Chair
Joanne Jenkins has her M.Ed in Educational Psychology and a M.Div in Spiritual Formation She has been a Charlotte resident since 1974. Ms. Jenkins taught at Villa Heights Elementary School in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, and is an instructor in the Criminal Justice Department at Central Piedmont Community College. She was Awarded the Jonnie H McLeod Addictions Institute at UNCC’s Practitioner of the Year. And if that is not enough, she serves as the co-chair of the Board of Galilee Ministries of East Charlotte, is a member of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina Racial Reconciliation Council Advisory Board Member, Black Congregations Missioner of North Carolina Diocese Co-Chair, and the Reimagining America Project’s Education Subcommittee.