NEW Full-Time Chaplain arriving at WCCW in late summer 2026!
If you, your faith group or organization have any inquiries about how be involved with Ministry of Hope’s efforts in serving the WCCW community, please leave message on Chapel’s voicemail, 828-596-6079, or email us HERE
Chaplain Susan Verbrugge
Thank you to Chaplain Verbrugge for all of her time, talent and service in acting as our full-time chaplain for the past two years.
Chaplain Shannon Spencer
Chaplain Shannon Spencer is the founder and director of Asheville Poverty Initiative. She has a BS in Special Education from Appalachian State University and an M.Div from Duke Divinity School. She finished her Doctorate at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA and graduated in Dec. 2017.
After coaching at the Div. I level in women’s basketball, Shannon finally gave into her call to ministry. She has served churches in Illinois, California and North Carolina. In California, she started a jail ministry team at her church that led to serving as the chaplain for the Santa Cruz Co. Sheriff’s Dept. She says of both ministerial locales: “I have had many teachers along the way – some living in gated communities while others behind the gates of prisons and jails. It’s been a beautifully broken journey framed by abundant grace and radical love.”
Shannon loves to travel and has lived in South Africa, traveled to Central America 9 times, backpacked across Europe, and believes Western North Carolina is as beautiful as any place she’s ever been.
She is mom to two beautiful and rambunctious girls.
2026 Board
• Cari Barcas, Chair
• Kathryn Wilson, Vice Chair
• Gordon Hamlin, Treasurer
• Paul Grass, Secretary
• Suzette Armatas
• Sharon Fender
• Katie Hay
• Margo Mullinax
• Cindy Walton
Support Staff
• Lauronda Morrow Teeple,
Executive Director
• Susan Noblitt,
Administrative Assistant
to Chaplains & Board
• Cara Jenkins,
Transitional Mentoring
• Kelly Wortman,
Bookkeeper