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SMU Staff '25-26
Board of Directors
Admin Department
Finance Department
Missions Conference Department
Local Missions Department
President & VP
Marketing & Communications Department
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Department
Global Missions Department
Discipleship Ministries Department
SMU President
Payton Masters
Finance Department
The Finace Department seeks to uphold the SMU Purpose Statement by providing vision and direction to SMU staff and stewardship
of SMU resources.
Jackson Risinger
Vice President
Tylin DeNeui
Financial Controller
Administration
Department
The Office Staff seeks to create an environment of grace within the Student Government Association and Student Missionary Union offices by maximizing external and internal communication and empowering the staff through encouragement and service.
Ellie Monwai
Director of Administration
Caroline Thompson
Director of Human Resources
Human Resources
Department
The purpose of the Human Resources Director is to seek to streamline the hiring process of SMU in order to ensure efficient practices internally and to better the communication with external stakeholders. With this position, the HR Director will be the primary mode of communication to all applicants, the HR Director will be able to provide a better customer service mentality to applicants, lessen the administrative workload for Directors, and improve
the overall hiring process
for the organization.
Diversity, Equity &
Inclusion Department
The Director and Inclusion Department serves to research and advise SMU through issues of diversity and inclusion, while establishing programs that help promote themes of reconciliation. These roles will be training the directors and staff on topics of diversity, supporting recruitment and branding in appealing to diverse applicants while removing biases, reviewing wording in policies and procedures to ensure inclusivity, and developing partnerships with different organizations on campus.
Shane Paschall
Diversity, Equity &
Inclusion Director
Marketing & Communications
Department
The Marketing and Communication Department seeks to honestly and creatively convey passion for missions and discipleship through the presentation of SMU opportunities to the student body through visual forms. We exist as a team of highly skilled creatives and communicators that surrender our God given gifts to serve God and SMU, with the ultimate goal being to catalyze involvement in SMU for the amplification and furthering of the Gospel.
We are biblically grounded and spirit led in our creativity.
Jay Meadows
Director of Marketing & Communications
Lucy Zmija
Content Creator
Cyris Filoteo
Media Coordinator
Becks Beshay
Graphic Designer
Zane Kuljian
Media Coordinator
Caroline Diaz
Graphic Designer
Missions Conference Department
The Missions Conference Department seeks to create a consecrated time of response to God, reserved for the Holy Spirit to align the hearts of students to the completion of the Great Commission. The hope is to facilitate an atmosphere during the conference, which seeks to educate, equip and inspire students in relation to the final and most urgent call of Christ to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.”
Gaby Cole
Director of Missions Conference
Katie Ragains
Director of Missions Conference
Local Missions
Department
The Local Missions Department exists to equip students to work alongside their local community respectfully and with well-oriented hearts as they answer the call of the Great Commission to serve wherever they may find themselves. The Local Missions Department longs to bridge the understanding that the local context is everywhere, whether globally or where we live locally. They aim to do this by equipping students to serve alongside churches and organizations in Biola’s respective Jerusalem (the L.A. County) and Judea (the greater California).
Audrey Morrison
Director of Local Missions
Grace Sellers
Events and Logistics Coordinator
David Lawler
Team Developer
Elijah Moss
Team Developer
Global Missions
Department
The Global Missions Department seeks to advance the gospel of Christ among the nations. We are a community that seeks to be centered on Christ, founded on prayer, dependent upon the Holy Spirit, and whose passion is to see God glorified as lives are changed through
short-term missions.
Naomi Stacy
Director of
Global Missions
Owen Kleager
Team Developer
Grace Sellers
Events &
Logistics Coordinator
Kirra Joseph
Team Developer
Discipleship Ministries
Department
The Discipleship Department is a discipleship ministry that seeks to pair incoming freshmen with upperclassmen for a means for relationship building between individuals and God, creating a safe space to grow within a community of believers, and a structure that allows for the pursuit of the Great Commission on Biola University’s campus.
Miguel Navarro
Director of
Discipleship Ministires
Sydnie Miller
Discipleship Ministires Assistant Director
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