Purpose Institute began and still largely remains an all-volunteer organization. Staff members live in different parts of North America and are all participating in campuses on the local level. Many of our staff have been passionately serving in volunteer roles for nearly a decade. The top leadership of this ministry and those who support them in administrative positions have spent countless hours and their own money to be part of this vision—year after year. Where Purpose Institute has come from and where it is going would not be possible if the entire team hadn’t caught the vision of something bigger than themselves. Our Global Staff serves with passion and they consider the work they do as part of their calling in life. They are wonderful Christians, hard workers, efficient, and conscientious. We thank them for their sacrifice and compliment them on their passionate participation.

F. Joe Ellis – President/C.E.O.

Purpose: To direct the overall success of Purpose Institute. To chair the Executive Board and lead the Global Staff. To represent PI in the global field, opening and facilitating the start up of new campus and training sites; to authorize any special training processes needed because of geographic or cultural limitations. He will promote the PI vision when possible to key leaders and decision makers in their respective fields throughout the world. He will prayerfully give oversight and spiritual direction, engaging the entire organization if needed to ensure that its God-given mandate, vision, and core values are not compromised.

Steve Schobert – Director of Global Operations

Purpose: To manage, assess, and improve operations across the organization, with the goal of achieving maximum efficiency. To that end, the Director of Global Operations will propose and lead initiatives in order to ensure operational excellence across the entire organization. In the event that the President/CEO is unavailable, the Director of Global Operations will chair any meetings.

Shana Chickering – Global Office and Finance Manager

Purpose: To serve as the personal administrative assistant to the President and manage the global office; to serve as the Corporate Finance Officer and oversee the finance office; to continually improve the organization's financial procedures, ensuring that generally accepted accounting practices are being observed. Stewardship, integrity, and financial accountability throughout the organization will be her top priority. She will also keep all files and corporate records of the organization in order, and make sure the global office operates at its highest efficiency. This role requires continuous oversight of all mail, email, fax, and phone communication that flows into the global office, making sure that it gets distributed to the right people in a timely manner.

Oval Eller – Global Assistant

Purpose: To assist in global projects and current demands of the organization. He will help as needed in campus orientations, administrative duties, and assist in the management of developing areas.

Tom Ellis – Director of Promotions

Purpose: To design marketing strategies to potential groups, to build budgets and teams to complete promotion projects, to give PI focus on potential growth areas through marketing.

Kit Mernick – Global Administrator

Purpose: To oversee all campus administrators and ensure that records, finances, and administrative duties are handled with diligence and accuracy. She will write policies as needed, due to the expansion or improvements of the organization and its operations. She will work very closely with the Director of Global Operations and Global District Coordinator as adjustments are made, to maximize overall operational efficiency. She will build and train an administrative team that can be used for new campus starts.

Brian Michael – District Coordinator

Purpose: To serve the global staff as the liaison for PI Districts. He will work closely with the Global Administrator to develop policy, assess and improve operations as they relate to Districts. He will coordinate District start-ups and have ongoing communication with District leaders with the goal of achieving maximum efficiency.

Dr. James Littles – Academic Director

Purpose: To work with the Global Staff to form the academic vision for the organization. He will work with the Curriculum Administrator to coordinate improvement projects. He will assess the progress of improvements and the health of campuses as it relates to academics. He will represent PI to other academic institutions.

Liane Grant – Curriculum Administrator

Purpose: To work with the Global Staff and Academic Director to improve curriculum and academic efficiency. Develop and manage a Curriculum Team for special projects; be responsible for curriculum¹s presentation, consistency, grammar and clarity. She will maintain oversight of the translation projects. The role requires the management of all changes and improvements to the curriculum. This role requires an interaction with the website administrators in order to post curriculum and keep the website curriculum current in all languages.

Vic Mernick – New Campus Coordinator

Purpose: To be the first contact for new campus inquiries. The role requires that detailed information be sent to prospective campuses either electronically or in hardcopy. He should develop creative ways to give PI exposure and to create new inquiries. He will set all training dates, working in coordination with the Campus Faculty Trainer. He will confirm that all training details are in order once a training date is determined, and will follow up on questions from the local campus once training is complete.