The Threads That Hold Us Facilitators
Rev. Dr. Melissa Stewart
Interspirituality
Rev. Dr. Melissa Stewart is an Interfaith-Interspiritual educator, facilitator, and psychotherapist. Melissa has over 30 years of experience as an oncology social worker at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and nearly 20 years ordained in ministry. Melissa approaches life experiences as sacred opportunities for growth, healing, and transformation, and is committed to affirming and anti-oppressive practice in all of her endeavors. Melissa embraces an Interspiritual sensibility that honors ancient and emerging threads of spiritual experience and practice. She engages in deeply related interpersonal connections, rooted in care and presence. It is a profound sense of interconnection that fuels Melissa's desire to build and strengthen spiritually grounded networks, which led to co-founding The Thread Interfaith Seminary in July 2025, where she continues to serve as Spiritual Director. Melissa lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her wife.
Rev. Kevin Kubota
Interspirituality
Rev. Mary Kay Tobin
Emergence
Rev. Mary Kay Tobin MD is a graduate of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary (2022) and its Interspiritual Companioning and Counseling (ISCC) program (2025). She is also a member of the Ethics Circle of The Thread. Rev. Mary Kay is a facilitator and lecturer currently committed to fostering a transparent and loving community supporting a seminary and affiliate community at The Thread.
Rev. Bronwen Merle
Emergence
Rev. Bronwen Merle is a disabled elder who lives in the Unceded Coast Salish Territories (B.C. Canada). She is a graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, England. An avid environmentalist, she trained as an Al Gore Climate Reality Leader and is the co-founder of The Climate Aid Arts Brigade (CAAB); she also studied at The Women’s Theological Institute. She began her ordination journey with One Spirit Interfaith/Interspiritual Seminary and completed her ordination in 2026 with The Thread Interfaith/Interspiritual Seminary. She has been active in Restorative Justice, Truth and Reconciliation Circles, Seasonal Circles, ceremony leadership. A poet and writer, Rev. Bronwen’s creative and educational endeavors are guided by mysticism, prayer, social justice, Nature, and philosophy.
Rev. Kirstin Hanson
Emergence & Radical Relationality
Rev. Kirstin Hanson is a spiritual leader, corporate chaplain, executive advisor, and speaker whose work bridges three decades of executive leadership with fifteen years of guiding others in spiritual formation. A near-death experience brought her face to face with the Light and a calling to help create heaven on earth. An ordained graduate of The Thread Seminary, Kirstin cultivates spaces where individuals reclaim what is intrinsically theirs: their dignity, wisdom, strength, and unique gifts. Within these spaces, they cultivate the courage and discernment to meet a complex and changing world. Believing that inner transformation is inseparable from our collective becoming, Kirstin creates the conditions where wisdom reveals our capacity for compassionate action, empowering individuals to bring their unique gifts into service and create lasting impact in a more harmonious, peaceful, and loving world.
Rev. Jackie Boyden
Integrity
Rev. Jackie Boyden is a 2022 graduate of One Spirit Seminary and a member of the Spiritual Care Team at The Thread Interfaith Seminary. Professionally, her background in ethics includes serving as the Vice President for Ethics and Integrity at a large healthcare company in North Carolina; she was a lawyer for many years in the health care field and has served as an adjunct faculty member at Duke University, NC State University, and Grand Valley State University, teaching constitutional and administrative law for government and nonprofit employees in the Master of Public Administration program. Raised in a midwestern conservative Christian church, Jackie moved away from institutionalized denominational religion and found her home in Interspiritual/Interfaith spirituality, where her spirituality continues to grow through relationships with deeply loving and interesting people and many different streams of wisdom and faith.
Rev. Sera Nolan
Integrity
Rev. Sera Nolan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Interfaith/Interspiritual minister ordained at The Thread Interfaith Seminary, and Reiki Master Teacher. For the last ten years, she has specialized in trauma work, accompanying individuals through complicated seasons including crisis and loss. Her clinical work has included providing support services to some of the most underserved peoples in the United States, including Native American communities, incarcerated individuals, and our nation’s Veterans. Rev. Sera’s ministry is a combination of psychotherapy, spiritual companioning, and holistic healing in her emerging offering, Rooted Well Rising. She lives in New Mexico and enjoys connecting with nature and listening to music.
Rev. Dr. Sam Stebbins
Integrity
Rev. Karin Parramore
Embodiment & Radical Relationality
Rev. Sonia Fernández LeBlanc
Radical Relationality
Rev. Michelle VanEyck
Embodiment & Radical Relationality
Rev. Michelle VanEyck is a recent graduate of The Thread Interfaith Seminary and an Interfaith/Interspiritual minister who feels deeply called to offer heart-centered spiritual companionship rooted in compassion, presence, and love. She brings a heart-centered presence shaped by her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Minor in Special Education, and more than six years of metaphysical study, weaving together psychological insight, spiritual wisdom, and soulful reflection in service of healing, growth, and deeper self-awareness. Certified in Spiritual Direction/Companion work through Unity Worldwide Spiritual Institute, she draws on reflective listening, guided meditation, and contemplative practices to create a loving, grounded, non-judgmental space rooted in self-acceptance and unconditional love. Having co-facilitated group Spiritual Direction sessions at her previous Spiritual Center, she looks forward to continuing this meaningful work in whatever capacity she is led.
Rev. John Ackerman
Weaver/Support Facilitator
Love, Peace, Reverence. John Paul Saile Ackerman is an Interfaith/Interspiritual minister with The Thread, a devotional-individuational muse-and-self-led artist, and a mechanical engineer with a master’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. John is a Reiki level II practitioner, a socio-political-spiritual-faith-based cartoonist, a spunk blues world rock trumpet player, an improvisational stream-of-consciousness writer, and an entrepreneur healing the broken parts with Regeneration Enterprise from his home base in Ulster Park, NY. As the youngest member of The Thread, John is the ambassador to the young, and works with everything the world has to offer as Love. To be anything else is to forget who one is, and to forget who one is is the only sin, and is immediately forgiven by the light of remembrance. To remember is to live, to love, to light the way for every self and other to grow strong, healthy, and well. May we all be at peace, love, and rest. Awomen. Amen. Aoen.
Rev. Grace (Kay) Stewart
Weaver/Support Facilitator