About the Center: Meet the Staff
Tali Hairston
Director of the Perkins Center, Special Assistant to the President
(tali@spu.edu )
Born and raised in the culturally and economically diverse community of the Rainier Valley in South Seattle, Tali Hairston came to SPU in 2001 as assistant director of campus ministries.
Now at the helm of the Perkins Center, he is leading Seattle Pacific in a comprehensive initiative born out of a dream and a partnership between President Philip Eaton and the legendary reconciliation advocate John Perkins. He wants to see SPU contribute to the reconciliation movement in Seattle and the nation. Read the full story in Response.
Read Tali’s full biography.
Erin Hitchcock
Assistant Director and Urban Youth Leadership Academy Coordinator
(erinh@spu.edu )
Erin brings 12 years of experience as an educator and program administrator with her to the John Perkins Center. She is passionate about building indigenous leadership with young people, creating access through education and living a life modeled after Jesus.
From Bellevue, Washington, Erin earned a B.S. in social studies education from Boston University. She then spent seven years with Seattle Urban Academy, a Christian alternative high school, initially as a part of the administrative team and then as English, reading, math, science, P.E., life skills, and college preparation teacher.
During those same years, Erin taught and designed programs for middle school students attending Emerald City Outreach Ministry’s Summer Academy. She also spent two years serving as a resident manager with the YMCA Transitions Program living with, and teaching life skills to, young adults who are exiting foster care. Most recently, serving as the director of education at Eastside Academy (also an alternative Christian high school), she worked with others to create a comprehensive program that served students’ academic needs while also addressing issues of addiction.
Erin moved to Seattle's Rainier Valley 13 years ago after becoming a member of an intentional community. She first met John Perkins at a Seattle fundraiser, where she heard him speak about Nehemiah as a model leader, and was invited to participate in the three R’s: Relocation, Redistribution, and Reconciliation. On this journey, she says, being a member of Emerald City Bible Fellowship, a local church practicing Christian Community Development in the Rainier Valley, has been critical.
In addition to professional roles, Erin serves the community by facilitating racial righteousness groups, building bridges between urban and suburban communities, and mentoring youth.
Caenisha Warren
Administrative Assistant and SPRINT Budget Manager
(warrec@spu.edu)
Raised in Seattle, Caenisha received a communications degree from the University of Washington. She enjoys travel and adventure, all of which she can find following the Professional Bull Riding circuit. She has also traveled throughout the world, visiting places in Europe and China.
Other areas of interest for her are people, art, and music.
She has worked as co-youth director at Interbay Covenant Church (now merged with Quest Church), utilizing her passion for encouraging young people. This passion has led her away from an earlier banking career and to the John Perkins Center at SPU. While working toward a master’s degree, she says her heart continues to seek personal understanding and development in matters of justice and reconciliation.
Peter Lim
Coordinator for Global Involvement
(peterlim@spu.edu)
Peter Lim has been involved in cross-cultural missions for more than 27 years – first as a short-term missionary in 1980, then as a missions pastor from 1989 to 1998. Finally, he was a pastor in California, reaching and mobilizing Asian Americans in California.
His final project for his doctorate of ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary is aimed at growing healthy churches to reach and retain the American-born generations in Chinese Churches in the United States.
He has traveled widely, leading teams on short-term mission trips to more than a dozen countries in Asia, partnering with indigenous movements to plant churches in Indonesia and India. He has cooperated with major missions agencies to identify, prepare, and send missionaries to more than eight countries.
He and his wife, Karen Quek, Ph.D., are currently involved in a strategic leadership training program for leaders in China. Peter enjoys outdoor sports (especially tennis and hiking), traveling to new places, the performing arts and movies, and photography. Most of all, he enjoys being a part of God’s mobilization of young people for global missions.
Owen Sallee
Coordinator for Urban Involvement
(owen@spu.edu)
Owen is a Seattle Pacific University graduate who says he once naïvely vowed never to live in, or care about, the city. But then he participated in SPU's Urban Involvement program while an undergraduate student in 1995, and Owen eventually began advising the Urban Involvement and Latreia programs at SPU.
Trained under World Vision's Vision Youth Initiative, Owen has been a youth director for Choose Life Youth Ministries in White Center for 12 years, during and following his time as a SPU undergraduate. In 2006, he completed his master’s degree in school counseling at Seattle Pacific.
When he’s not at work, Owen enjoys spending time with his wife, Janiess, doing yard work, or tracking down the latest free Craig’s List treasure. Owen says he hopes to be the unofficial “minister for keepin’ it real” in the John Perkins Center.
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