Meet Our Board of Directors
David Stewart
David Stewart has served as pastor of Dayton Avenue Presbyterian since 1985. Prior to that he served three churches in Eastern Oregon: First Presbyterian in Pendleton, Tutuilla Presbyterian at the Umatilla Reservation, and Ukiah Community Church in Ukiah. He remembers his pastoral introduction to the criminal justice system vividly. It was through a young man, a Vietnam veteran unable to find work, who was convicted of murder in Oakland, California after a “friend” enticed him to take part in the robbery of a drug dealer. Things went tragically wrong. His friend copped a plea bargain that left the smoking gun in the young vet’s hands. Clearly a victim of PTSD—but no one had a name for it back then—this young man faced at least life imprisonment and possibly the death penalty. He just wanted to tend to the tropical fish he raised in a mammoth tank at his apartment. Pastor David’s ministry brings him face to face with the criminal justice system regularly: visiting members in prison and jail, advocating for individuals in court, attending hearings for youth members of his churches, supervising community service volunteers, counseling ex-offenders and their families. His conclusion from this cumulative experience is simple: we have created a system purported to administer criminal justice that is failing our society, all of us, but in particular the young men of color disproportionately detained, arrested, and incarcerated.  And his reply is equally simple – let’s stop feeding our youth and young adults into a broken system that enslaves them socially, economically, legally, vocationally and familiarly. Let’s engage in preventative care for the health of our young citizens, their families and our communities. And let’s turn off the cradle to prison pipeline.
Haeyeon Chang
Hae is Chaplain Resident at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and an ordained minister at Presbyterian Church (USA). Holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Brazil, where she grew up, being fluent in Portuguese, Korean and English. Hae is confident in her cultural proficiency, that is essential to work with emerging mixed demographics and the arising social issues associated with the rapid globalization of the world. Having experienced firsthand many difficulties from various challenges in her life, she developed a passion for helping people exposed to conditions of extreme vulnerability, such as poverty, racism, sexism, and childhood traumas.
Anita Cummings
Anita was raised as a "preacher's kid" in Nebraska and South Dakota, a Macalester College graduate, United Theological Seminary graduate, has served churches in New Brighton, Stillwater,  Ithaca, New York, and now part time at Presbyterian Church of the Way in Shoreview. She and her husband raised three sons and is now the grandmother of five. She has a passion for helping the next generations be as equipped and confident of being loved as possible.
Jermaine Ross Allam (Emeritus)
Jermaine Ross Allam has served as associate pastor at Oak Grove since October of 2015, and now he is  Ph.D. candidate at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He is a native of Texas—Willis, Texas to be exact! Jermaine graduated from Southwestern Adventist University in 2000 and United Theological Seminary in 2012 and he was also on staff at Kwanzaa Community Church in Minneapolis.  His primary Oak Grove responsibilities included serving as the staff resource for Adult Faith Formation, Youth Faith Formation, Mission Committee, and Supportive Housing Committee as well as the Social Media Advisory Committee. Jermaine enjoys reading almost anything, arguing with friends about politics and literature, writing, playing the piano, portrait photography and, more recently, cycling and murder mysteries. He and his spouse, Cherech Ross Allam, who works as an accountant, were married in 2012 and love traveling to hot places and eating great food together.
Mauro Souza
Mauro Souza is pastor, activist, speaker, writer and public theologian. A former businessman and macro-economic financial analyst, he is an ecumenical cross-cultural networker among innovative Christian leaders. He was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he studied Theology and received his Ph. D. in religious studies from Free Methodist Theological Seminary; Economics at United Metropolitan College; and Composition and Conducting at State University of Sao Paulo. He was a church planter with his father in Sao Paulo, youth leader and campus staff member at the University of Sao Paulo. He also studied “Hispanic/Latino(a) Leadership Programs” at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ, and “Leadership and Church Development” at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA.
Riz Prakasim
Pastor Riz was born in South Africa and six years later moved to New Jersey to escape Apartheid. Jersey was where Riz first got into trouble with the law. Their family eventually moved to rural Minnesota where Riz was the first minority to graduate his high school. He then continued to get into trouble, graduating also from smaller crimes to more complex crimes, and eventually landing him in jail. After connecting with a faith community Riz began to turn his life around. Now Riz is the pastor at New Life Church in Roseville and a mentor for the Longfellow-Seward Restorative Justice Program.

Renisha Prakasim