Gabe Valencia
Gabe Valencia serves as the Board Chair for CCCA. He was born and raised in Boyle Heights, a suburb east of Los Angeles. In fifth grade, he was given a scholarship to attend a Christian summer camp where he met Jesus.
Gabe led a quality assurance department at a biopharmaceutical company for 18 years before being led into Christian camping ministry in 1998. He is currently the Executive Director of Mile High Ministries, a multi-site camp in Southern California. Over the past two decades he has served on the board of several non-profit organizations including the California Collaboration for Youth, the Passion Center for Children in Malawi and the Barton Flats Camp Association in the San Bernardino National Forest. He has actively engaged with advocacy for Christian camps and youth organizations with the California Governor’s office and on issues related to water rights, wildfires, child protection and insurance underwriting. He has also served as president in CCCA Pacific Southwest Section and as Region Rep on the CCCA National Board.
Gabe married his high school sweetheart, Rosemary, in 1981. They have five children, and four “in-loves”, who have all served at camp. Gabe is the proud Pops to 19 grandchildren.
Ed Covert
Ed Covert serves as Vice-Chair for the CCCA board. He is a committed Christ follower, husband to Maryann, dad to Taylor and Claire, and son to Salvation Army officer parents. He loves to surf, fly-fish, watch baseball and eat ice cream, and not always necessarily in that order, but there is always ice cream. His journey in Christian camping began in the pots and pans sink at Camp Elephant Rock where the Lord captured his heart for the ministry, power and influence of camp. Ed currently serves as executive director at Redwood Glen in California and has enjoyed the privilege of being involved with the Salvation Army's camping ministry for a long time. His journey has afforded him the opportunity to lead the ministry team at three of the Army's west coast camps and serve as the Army's national camp liaison. Ed shares that serving with CCCA colleagues in both the Northwest and Sierra Pacific Sections to bless, encourage and equip camping leaders has been, and continues to be, a very meaningful part of the journey as he takes steps toward Jesus each day.
Doug McClain
Doug McClain serves as the CCCA board secretary/ treasurer. Doug grew up in the camping and outdoor world. He has a B.S. in Recreation Resource Management, Commercial Recreation, and Tourism from Colorado State University and has used the camp and outdoor environment for the learning experiences and ministry growth of others since 1984. Doug joined the ministry of Sky Ranch in 2004. Throughout his time at Sky Ranch, Doug has had the privilege of serving in numerous roles at each of the four Sky Ranch locations. Doug has a passion for sharing what he’s learned with others in the camping profession. Doug and his wife, Julie, who serves at Sky Ranch Horn Creek, reside in Westcliffe, Colorado with their two children.
Rick Miller
Rick Miller serves as the Great Lakes Region Rep. and is the executive director of Brethren Retreat Ministries (Shipshewana, Indiana.) He has served full-time in this role since 1995. He was a school teacher/coach for 10 years prior to Outdoor Ministry. Rick has a passion for serving youth and guiding them to realize their leadership qualities. Rick and his wife, Tracy, have been married 34 years and have four adult children and entered the era of grandparenthood in 2021.
Rick has been a member of Christian Leadership Alliance since 1996. He has earned the title of Credentialed Christian Nonprofit Leader (CCNL) with them. He is also actively involved in his local church, denomination and community.
Rick has been a member the Indiana Section Cabinet since 2007, including two terms as Section President (2014-2016 and 2020-2022). He desires to promote the value of building healthy relationships between Christian camp leaders. He believes outdoor ministry is the greatest evangelistic tool to extend the kingdom of God. He values the role that CCCA provides to create professionalism, relationships and inspiration for camp leaders.
Jane Schmidt
Jane Schmidt serves as the Great Northern Region Rep. Jane has served at Camp Tapawingo for the past 26 years. Working with her husband Brad, in all areas of camp ministry, she loves creating a place where guests can call home. She desires to actively demonstrate the love of Jesus through conversation and hospitality. Most recently, Jane has worked on grant writing, fundraising and advising design elements for three major new building projects at camp. Jane has served on the planning committee for the Northwest Section, completing terms as secretary, president-elect and president. In 2020, Jane collaborated with other camp leaders to develop a Camp Alliance Committee to advocate and create guidelines for the reopening of camps in the State of Oregon.
Jane is a graduate of Western Oregon State with a bachelor’s degree in Education and has taught in private and public schools for over 25 years. Working alongside 2 public school districts and several private schools, Jane has developed a successful outdoor school program at Camp Tapawingo.
Jane met her husband Brad while they served as camp counselors at Eagle Fern Camp. Married for almost 36 years, they still enjoy traveling and adventuring with their 2 grown sons and daughter-in-law.
Dan Faulkner
Dan Faulkner serves as the Southwest Region Rep. on the CCCA Board of Directors. Dan is the Executive Director of Camp Elim in Woodland Park, Colorado where he has served a total of 48 years, 15 as a volunteer and 33 as Director. Those 33 years have been accomplished in two stints with a nine-year break when he served as Pastoral Ministries Coordinator at a church in Colorado Springs. Dan served as treasurer of the CCCA Rocky Mountain Section for six years.
Dan and his wife, Teri, have been married for 41 years and have three lovely daughters, three granddaughters and two fine sons-in-law. Teri has served alongside Dan in church and camping ministry. They are both committed to a discipleship model of Christian camping and love seeing multiple generations of campers and staff growing in the Lord. Outside of camp and the local church, family time, travel, riding e-bikes, and theater are Dan’s passions.
Joseph Preston
Joseph Preston serves as the Northeast Region Rep and is the Director of WLD Ranch (near Erie, Pennsylvania). He has been involved at WLD Ranch since he was eight years old, starting as a camper and then joining the summer staff for 11 summers. After graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary in 2002, Joseph and his wife Christy joined the full-time staff at WLD Ranch, with Joseph becoming director in 2017. Before serving as a Region Rep, Joseph served on the cabinet of the Allegheny Section for 15 years, including two terms as section president. Joseph and Christy have four children. The whole family enjoys serving in ministry together at WLD Ranch. Joseph is an ordained minister and serves as an elder at Fairview Bible Church. He also enjoys trick roping, playing violin, riding horses, playing disc golf and studying the Bible with family and friends.
Matt Moeckl
Matt Moeckl serves as the Great Northern Region Rep and is the executive director of Wildwood Hills Ranch, which serves youth coming from vulnerable situations such as foster care, abuse and neglect. Prior to his involvement at the ranch, Matt worked in real estate investing and development. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University in Finance and an MBA from Drake University with an emphasis in nonprofit management. He serves on the Leadership Committee of The Iowa Christian Generosity Council and The Joseph Council whose mission is to re-engage the church on issues such as orphan/foster care, fatherlessness and addiction recovery. Matt previously served as the president of the Iowa/Nebraska Section of CCCA.
Chip Sherer
Chip serves as the Southeast Region Rep. and is in his 17th year as president of Bonclarken Conference Center, the conference center of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, in beautiful Flat Rock, NC. After 10 years in collegiate athletic administration, God called Chip to the place where he worked six summers in special needs ministry.
Building relationships, networking and simply learning from his peers in the Carolinas-Virginias Section of CCCA has been such a blessing for Chip and his team at Bonclarken. He has served on the cabinet of the Carolinas-Virginias Section and Bonclarken has hosted both the sectional and super-Southeast sectional several times.
He and his wife Cynthia just celebrated their 30th anniversary and are blessed with two children, Emma and Joseph. Chip is a 1989 graduate of Erskine College with a degree in business management and earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1996.
Paul Biles
Paul Biles serves as the Central Southern Region Rep. on the CCCA Board of Directors. Paul is a Jesus follower, husband to Kelli and father to Isaac, Christian, Silas, Julia and Thaddeus. Life is full!
Paul serves as the executive director at Tejas in Texas. He has been involved in various roles at Tejas since 1999. Paul was attracted to Tejas because of the focus on serving others and being discipled. He is passionate about furthering Tejas’ mission of setting the stage for Jesus to transform lives.
CCCA was an important connection for Paul when he got into camp ministry. His first national conference was in San Antonio back in 2005, and from there he was hooked on the networking, educational resources and all-around support for Christian camping. Paul has served on the Texas Section cabinet since 2011 in various roles such as treasurer, president-elect and president. Getting to know many of the camp staff across the state and beyond, he has found value and brought his skills to the table to further ministry beyond the walls of Tejas.
Outside of life at Tejas, Paul is an elder at his local church, loves to read, run and spend time at the local coffee shop.
Cathey Prudhomme
Cathey Prudhomme serves as an At-Large member of the CCCA Board of Directors. She believes Christian camping is a dynamic tool for impacting lives. She has been involved with Christian camping her entire life and spent most of her childhood in a camp ministry founded by her parents.
Cathey is President/CEO of Eagle Village Inc., serving at-risk children and families through residential treatment programs, specialized summer camps, foster care and adoption services, prevention and intervention services, and more. Cathey is a licensed professional counselor.
She has been involved in CCCA for over 25 years, serving as a speaker and a member of curriculum councils and has worked for over 15 years with many camps and Christian ministries in an organizational consultant role. She has also worked with her husband, Steve Prudhomme, former board chair of CCCA, in a denominational camp setting and was employed by the State of Michigan as a camp licensing consultant.
Cathey stays active with her children and grandchildren, enjoying many sporting events.
Larry Johnston, PhD
Dr. Johnston serves as an At-Large member of the CCCA Board of Directors. He attended California State University, Fullerton, where he received a B.A. in Foreign Languages. A former VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer, Larry has spent his entire career working on behalf of non-profit organizations.
A well-known development and organization development consultant, coach and trainer, Larry is a frequent speaker at conferences nationally and internationally. Beginning in 1978 he served as Campaign Coordinator and Counsel to the Billion Dollar “Here’s Life, World” Campaign of Campus Crusade for Christ, at that time the largest private fund-raising effort in history. During this time, he completed his course work toward a Master of Science in Organization Development at the Graduate School of Business and Management, Pepperdine University. He holds an M.A. degree in Organization Development and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University.
Larry’s doctoral research resulted in the creation of Donor Value Mapping®, a leading edge process for determining the key drivers of donor loyalty and lifetime value. In addition to helping clients in a wide range of development issues, he is a certified MBTI trainer and regularly assists organizations to go beyond strategic planning to the design and implementation of strategic management systems.
Having consulted internationally with clients in Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America, he has a special interest in strategic management and leading and managing organizational change. Larry and his wife Rebecca live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Aucretia Carey
Aucretia Carey serves as an At-Large member of the CCCA Board of Directors. She serves as the Senior Kentucky Operations & HR Director for Barefoot Republic, as well as a member of the Barefoot Republic Executive Leadership Team. Through her role at Barefoot, she is able to witness, as well as participate firsthand in the life transformation that occurs as a result of the Barefoot mission of reconciliation manifested through their camping programs.
Previous to her service at Barefoot, Aucretia worked in a variety of manufacturing, government and healthcare corporations serving as a senior accounting and operations professional. Additionally, she has an extensive ministry background serving churches domestically and globally by providing financial training, administration and specialized programming to diverse audiences. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, as well as, a Master’s Degree in Accounting & Finance.
Barefoot Republic Camp and Conference Center in Tennessee and Kentucky seeks to celebrate diversity and build unity through a diverse platform of artistic, athletic and action-adventure programs. Aucretia feels extremely blessed to be a part of the amazing Barefoot team and looks forward to
utilizing her God-given talents and abilities to help impact the lives of youth and their families through the Barefoot vision, as well as in her work within the foster care community.
Gregg Hunter
In his role as president/CEO of Christian Camp & Conference Association, Gregg Hunter is responsible for the overall strategic direction of CCCA in its efforts to maximize ministry for its members. He is passionate about Christian camping because of the life-changing impact it had on his own life. At 17, he committed his life to Christ on his first trip to a Christian camp.
Before joining CCCA, Gregg served as vice president of public affairs at Georgia Family Council, where he spearheaded all aspects of the nonprofit’s communications and fundraising efforts. His diverse background in communications, marketing and development includes six years at The Boeing Company and five years at Young Life, where he was a member of the President’s Cabinet as the organization’s senior communications officer. He has served as adjunct faculty at Colorado Christian University and University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where he has taught upper-level courses on Strategic Communications and Organization Development.