Fellowship Cohorts for 2022-23

Executive Director

Peter Choi

Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
M.Div., Calvin Theological Seminary
B.A., Pomona College

Peter Choi is Executive Director and Associate Professor of American Religious History at the Center for Faith and Justice and a member of the Core Doctoral Faculty at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He has taught history of Christianity courses at Calvin Theological Seminary and the University of Notre Dame. Prior to that, he served for seven years as a pastor in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A historian of eighteenth-century North America, Peter’s areas of specialization include transatlantic revival religion, early evangelicalism, and world Christianity. His research has been funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Huntington Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Selected Publications
• Subverting Faith: Early Evangelicals and the Making of Race (under contract with Oxford University Press).
• “Tearing Down Evangelical Icons,” Religion Dispatches, July 16, 2020.
• George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire (Eerdmans, 2018).
• “The City’s Grace,” in Urban Ministry Reconsidered: Contexts and Considerations (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018).
• “Whitefield, Georgia, and the Quest for Bethesda College,” in George Whitefield: Life, Context, and Legacy (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• “Revival Preacher, Pop Idol, and Revolutionary, Too?” Books & Culture 21.1 (January/February 2014): 17.

Angie Hong

Angie Hong is a worship leader, writer, and speaker focusing on identity, theology, and worship. She co-founded Kinship Commons, a worship collective centering BIPOC and has written for Faith and Leadership and The Atlantic. 

V Kehoe

V Kehoe lives in Union City, CA (her hometown!) and loves improving systems, going dancing, building communities, engaging in countercultural spiritual practices, and looking back to see that her community is more Christ-like than it was 10 years ago. She has been involved with the Faith and Justice Network since 2009. In her professional life she has been a teacher, a family ministry leader, a technology consultant, a QA engineer, and a product manager.

D.L. Mayfield and Krispin Mayfield

Theme/Lens: Deconstructing White Evangelicalism. This group is for folks looking to retain elements of the Christian faith while doing the work of unpacking the ideologies of white evangelicalism. Understanding the ways these insidious theologies have impacted us on a personal and systemic level is important if we want to imagine that another world is possible. This cohort will make space for processing the past and present, identifying dominant culture theology in our own lives, and making connections to the ethics of white Christian nationalism making continuous headlines. 

Meeting Time: Thursdays 6:00-7:00pm PT / 9:00-10:00pm ET (2x each month)

D.L. Mayfield is an author who focuses on white evangelicalism and the ethics of (un)neighborliness, and who is currently in the deconstruction process herself. 

Krispin Mayfield is a trauma-informed therapist who recently wrote a book on attachment theory and evangelical theology, and why white evangelicalism in particular sets us up for insecure attachment with the Divine. 

Teaching Fellow

Julie Rodgers

Julie is a Teaching Fellow at the Faith and Justice Network and a writer and speaker on faith and sexuality. She has a Masters in English from the University of Dallas and she’s written about topics related to LGBTQ Christians in The New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. Previously, Julie served in the Chaplain’s Office at Wheaton College and worked in high school ministry in West Dallas. She is the author of Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story.

Teaching Fellow

Riana Shaw Robinson

Rev. Riana Shaw Robinson is a pastor,  preacher, and prophet. Riana is passionate about speaking the truth (in love) and offering invitations for people to love God, self, and neighbor.

Riana recently served as the Associate Pastor of Formation and Oakland City Church where she spearheaded efforts to help the community live more deeply into its anti-racist values. She expanded the church’s community partnerships and commitment to solidarity with marginalized communities in Oakland.

Riana is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion and a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from Mills College. Before stepping into vocational ministry, Riana worked at non-profits focused on racial, social, and environmental justice.

Riana is an East Bay native and currently lives in Oakland with her husband, 10-year-old son, and four-year-old twins. She is extremely proud of her oldest daughter, who is a recent graduate of Howard University.

Mira Sawlani-Joyner

Theme/Lens: Trauma-Informed Faith and Justice. You might have heard the saying “hurt people, hurt people.” A faithful Christian public witness to issues of social justice must begin from an inward journey of healing in order to inform our outward journey as healers. In this cohort, we will discover how our spiritual practices can bring awareness to both the hidden and unhidden wounds that we carry. It is in confronting our inward wounds that we are able to connect with the wounds of others from a place of compassion. From a trauma-informed approach, our response to justice issues can interrupt cycles of violence that allow for injustice to continue generation after generation. In this cohort, we will work together to cultivate a space for healing in our commitment towards developing a trauma-informed approach to social justice.

Meeting Time: Tuesdays 6:00-7:00pm PT / 9:00-10:00pm ET (2x each month)

Mira Sawlani-Joyner is a Hong Kong born, “third culture kid” of Indian and Philippine heritage. Navigating multi-cultural spaces has been her lived experience and has informed her work in ministry in Hong Kong and Australia, and as the former Community Pastor in Forefront Church in Brooklyn, NY. She currently serves as the Associate Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Peace Fellowship Church, a church committed to working with community organizers and activists to end gun violence in Washington, DC through its social justice arm, Peace Walks DC. She is also a recent MDiv grad of Wesley Theological Seminary, where she specialized in Public Theology.