Vern began his ministry in a country town in the southern part of Australia in 1967. In his early years of ministry he served as a church pastor and youth pastor in two of Australia's largest churches. He went to work in various departments of the church at conference and union mission levels and worked for several years in the south pacific islands. Prior to moving to the General Conference in 1998 he served for 12 years as Associate Secretary of the South Pacific Division. For much of that time he was responsible for coordinating the volunteer program. He now serves as an Associate Secretary of the General Conference, as well as directing the newly established Adventist Volunteer Center (AVC). He is married to Zelda and they have a son, Lynden, and daughter, Kerilee.

Theresa Berry comes to the AVC after 26 years in the medical field, serving as a medical transcriptionist in various hospitals and doctors' offices.   She started out, however, in the Adventist network as a keypunch operator and office secretary for the Home Health Education Service fresh out of Blue Mountain Academy.  She has worked also as a transcriptionist in Washington Adventist Hospital and Shady Grove Adventist Hospital through the years.  She wanted a change in her occupation and is really enjoying her new position.

She loves to cook and bake, needlepoint, and spend time playing sports with her family just for the fun of it.  She and her husband, Tim, have three children, Tim II, 24, who just got married the summer of 2005 to Lindsey Potts, Matthew, 20, and Briana, 11. 

Candace Renk, Volunteer Appointee Coordinator

Candace had her first taste of the volunteer program while she was attending Walla Walla College. She decided to take a year out of her studies to be a volunteer at a local conference. During that year, she had the opportunity to go on a conference-led mission trip to build a church in Kenya, Africa. During this amazing mission experience, she felt impressed that someday she would be a missionary somewhere in the world.

After graduating from college, she had a second encounter with the volunteer program. She began working through the GC application process to be a volunteer in Cambodia for two years. This experience changed her life tremendously and she highly recommends volunteer work. If a person accepts the challenge to be a volunteer, there are two things she advises: Expect to be molded by God and flexibility is key!

Candace returned home to the States after completing her mission service and began working in a local conference, all the while praying that she could somehow be involved with the volunteer program. She had the opportunity to work in the NAD Volunteer Department in April 2001 as the International Volunteers Coordinator, during which time she had a close working relationship with the GC AVC team. Because of this, it seemed like a natural fit to join the AVC team on April 30, 2007, and she continues to enjoy assisting others in their vision of serving Christ as a volunteer in another part of the world.

Donna joined the Adventist Volunteer Center in January, 2001. She serves the AVC as editorial production manager and designer of the Mission Post magazine and serves as webmaster for the AVC website. She also enters Service Requests and updates the AVC database and website regarding volunteer positions. She has worked at the General Conference since 1988 and comes to us from the Global Mission office where she handled the layout and design of their publications.

Donna enjoys hiking, camping, singing, playing the guitar and doing various arts and crafts. She has two daughters, Jennifer and Amanda.

Joanne Stango, Associate Volunteer Coordinator

She is enjoying being married to Michael and loves spending time with her son Daniel. She enjoys going “home” to Vermont to visit family and friends as often as possible and likes to scrapbook, playing the guitar and reading.

Jill has always loved traveling and learning about other cultures. It wasn't until after teaching conversational English in Poland for a year, however, that she knew she wanted to dedicate her life, in one way or another, to furthering the Gospel by working with and for other cultures. According to her, if she cannot be overseas on the mission field, then working from home to get other volunteers to places they want to go is the next best thing. Therefore, as can be expected, she felt it was a blessing when a position became available for her in AVC in December 2006.

Jill recently earned her Master’s degree in English from La Sierra University.  She loves being married to her new husband, Javier Gonzalez.  She also enjoys writing and plans to one day record all of her experiences abroad.”

J John (Sunny) Wycliffe has dedicated over 30 years of service in fostering the Church's mission. In addition, his diverse knowledge and experience in public relations and intercultural communications has contributed to over 35 years of working with key personnel in the Church, government and community, both nationally and internationally.

In 1973, John and his family immigrated to the US from India. As a former teacher and a third generation son of an SDA pastor, his greatest burden is to draw young people to the Lord. John's other passion is flying; he received his Private Pilot's license at the age of twenty-one. John holds two Bachelors' in Biology and Education and a Master's in English Language and Literature from the University of Kerala in India. In addition, he has pursued graduate studies in Vocational Special Education at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. John and his wife, Dr. Tresa Wycliffe, reside in Maryland and are the proud parents of four children and six grandchildren.

John joined the AVC in September 2000. He assists with the processing of volunteer applications and assignments and is responsible for maintaining the database regarding all volunteer applicants.