Melissa Berkey-Gerard

Melissa Berkey-Gerard nurtures space for people to connect to their bodies, souls and minds, toward healing and liberation. She is a spiritual director, and a movement chaplain for organizers, clergy and activists. She serves as a support person and trainer for Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), where she previously served as the Care Coordinator. She is trained in trauma responsive care, and worked in Philadelphia and New York City non profit and faith-based organizations, seeking out the intersection of spirituality and justice. Along with incarcerated women and women living on the outside, she co-founded an Associates Degree program at a prison in New York City, and taught undergraduate students as a professor at the Oregon Extension of Eastern University. Melissa is ordained by Germantown Mennonite Church, and lives with her family on Lenni Lenape Land, known as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.