Valerie A. serves with International Students Inc. as the Training Director for all staff and volunteers. Additionally, she leads the NYC Area ISI ministry team. She serves as adjunct faculty for Alliance Theological Seminary (ATS) in the areas of Missions and Evangelism and does Emotional Intelligence coaching for the Center for Emotional Development. She served as a chaplain at New York University for 14 years where she founded the English Connections program for international students. She has earned both a BS and MS in Biblical Studies at Cairn University, and a Doctorate of Ministry in Leadership in the Global Context at ATS. Her current role involves oversight and development of staff, structuring of training content for ISI, and establishing a leadership development pipeline. She desires to connect missional believers with opportunities to serve and reach international students. She is passionate about evangelism, discipleship and empowerment among the least-reached peoples of the world. Valerie’s free time is spent with family (4 nephews, 2 nieces), and involvement in her hobbies which are vocal performance, travelling, & reading.

Chris Clayman is the Co-Founder and Associate Director of Global Gates, a missionary organization focused on reaching the ends of the earth through gateway cities — cities that attract international communities through which the gospel of Jesus Christ can extend globally, even to regions that may be closed to foreign missionaries.  

He has been involved in pioneer church planting among unreached Muslim people in New York City, as well as, rural and urban West Africa.

Chris is also the author of Superplan: a journey into God’s story and ethNYcity: The Nations, Tongues, and Faiths of Metropolitan New York.  Chris lives with his wife Nichole and their three children in New York City.

Dr. Alfonse Javed, the Senior Pastor of 1st Baptist Church of Metuchen, has planted a church abroad, has been a missions pastor and has served as a missionary in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan — the son of a pastor — Pastor Javed began serving in church at a young age. He has served as a missionary in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. He has also planted a church in Greece.  In the 1990s, a providential relationship formed when Calvary Baptist Church started supporting his ministry efforts; he would later serve as the missions pastor of that congregation.  Eventually, in 2009, he moved to New York with a new vision — mobilizing churches to engage Muslims in the NYC metro area.

Dr. Javed’s advanced theological training is from the Greek Bible College, Davis College and Liberty University. He has earned three undergraduate, three graduate, and three doctoral degrees. His dissertations have explored various subjects from religious influence on the American school system to evangelism and church planting, to Islamic madrases and the treatment that Muslims students have received in the post 9/11 New York City school system. He maintains a blog, www.alfonsejaved.com, and is the author of The Muslim Next Door: A Practical Guide for Evangelism and Discipleship.  Dr. Javed and his wife, Sarah, have four children.

Pastor Jerry is an Associate Pastor at Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in downtown Brooklyn, New York City.  It is a multicultural congregation where he has led International Ministries since 2000.

In his pastoral role, Jerry oversees more than a dozen ministries worldwide ranging from church plants to a ministry that serves children who live on the street.  He began the church’s Global Mission Ministry which provides prayer support, organizes teams and has equipped hundreds of believers for mission trips throughout the world.   The teams support local ministries’ community outreach: medical clinics, English classes, computer classes, and children and youth programs.

In 2006, Jerry founded  World Compassion Fellowship,  a non-profit organization which holistically serves the poor and the persecuted around the world.  It partners internationally to provide relief, medical care, development, and training. Current projects include serving Syrian refugees, Iraqi refugees, and families in need of medical care in Lebanon.