About Us - OneEarth Jubilee

OneEarth Jubilee Is Part of United Religions Initiative

—a Global Interfaith Network—

In 2023, OneEarth Jubilee joined a much larger network, the United Religions Initiative (URI). URI affirms and organizes grassroots interfaith projects through over 1000 Cooperation Circles around the globe. OneEarth Jubilee’s bi-national ministries joined URI as the OneEarth Jubilee Cooperation Circle. Tahil Sharma, URI’s Regional Coordinator for North America, has attended several San Diego Jubilee Circles where guests from the Mexico Circles updated us on their various ministries. In the fall of 2023, the OneEarth Jubilee Cooperation Circle received a $2000 Sowing Seeds grant from URI. That grant provided funding for immigration ministries for both the Tapachula Jubilee Circle in Chiapas, MX, and the Safe Harbors Network in San Diego which shares an office in the same building with JEM.

Our Leadership Team

Lee Van Ham

Board Member

Lee was part of a group in Chicago who co-founded Jubilee Economics Ministries (JEM) in 2000. He retired early from 32 years of pastoral ministry in congregations of the Presbyterian Church USA. when a Call took him into this ministry in ecology, economics, and spirituality. In 2002 Lee and Juanita moved to San Diego for health and family reasons. They live within minutes of their grandchildren. JEM continued to evolve. Lee focused on writing and giving biblically oriented presentations on current crises. Today JEM addresses the ecological breakdown underway by choosing OneEarth ways over MultiEarth ones. Lee’s four books all advocate for OneEarth living, or using the resources of only one planet, as opposed to MultiEarth living which uses the resources globally of 1.7 planets. Since 2015 JEM is a bi-national ministry, U.S. and three locations in Mexico.

John Michno

Financial Officer

John graduated from UC San Diego with a BS in physics and has worked as a software engineer and consultant. He hosts community workshops that apply mindfulness and compassion to develop collaborative communication skills. His work with Jubilee focuses on projects in urban forestry, community composting, equitable economies, and climate action that reflect U.N. goals for sustainability. As JEM’s financial officer, John does JEM’s financial planning, accounting, and financial reporting.

David Funkhouser

Board President

David’s relationship with the Global South began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia during the late 1960s. He has built on that relationship through Episcopal urban ministry, faith-based community organizing, and extensive travel in Central America and Mexico. During the 1980s he led the Philadelphia-based Central America Organizing Project to build awareness of U.S. policy affecting the region. From 2004-2013 he joined Fair Trade USA to promote Fair Trade as an alternative to conventional trade models. In retirement he serves on the boards of several faith-based organizations working in Mexico.

Lindsey Mercer-Robledo

Board Secretary

Lindsey Mercer is from Owensville, Missouri and is a member of the United Church of Christ. She graduated from Lindenwood University with a BA in English/Creative Writing. She currently resides in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas with her husband and newborn baby. Together they co-run a collective named Alter-Nativas that primarily provides workshops, community activities, and accompaniment in urban agroecology and alternative economies.

Mariana Velez

Board Member

Mariana was born in a small town called San Mateo Tlaixpan, in the state of Puebla, Mexico. She has a university degree as a lawyer and her areas of specialty are Human Rights and Labor Rights. She is president of the Daniel Swanson Cultural Center which offers arts and crafts that promote the vision of the jubilee in her community.

Kyle Holberg

Web/Newsletter Editor & Database Manager

Kyle’s relationship with JEM began shortly after retiring from Pacific Bell/AT&T. Over the years he has held a variety of “jobs” including website and newsletter editor, maintaining JEM’s database, and yes, periodically stuffing envelopes and depositing checks. After all these years, he’s still fascinated with this vision of a “OneEarth” world with “enough for all.” No doubt that’s why he continues on this journey with JEM in their advocacy for real change. He and his spouse left San Diego in 2014 and moved to a mid-size city in northwest Oregon.

Gerald Iversen

Simple Living Collaborator

Barry Shelley

Advisor for Economics

Barry is a lecturer at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies. He led teams and was a researcher focusing on the political economy of international development and the environment, particularly in rural areas of the Global South. His areas of expertise include sustainable rural development; the promise and limits of smallholder agriculture as a driver of development in the Global South; community-led development; collective action to promote sustainable agriculture, especially in watersheds, including instruments for rewards for ecosystem service stewardship; sustainable development practice and theories of change; Central America; and cooperation between rigorous research resources and non-governmental development organizations.

Steve Gehring

Legal Advisor

Steve is a retiring corporate lawyer practicing in Omaha. His 58 years of experience include a stint at the SEC in Washington. He helped form JEM and secured its tax-exempt status. Steve’s experience in non-profit law is available to JEM/OneEarth for its contract, tax and other governmental work. Steve’s passions are about justice, fairness and kindness to the earth.