Introducing our next Co-Directors,

Megan Chapman & Andrew Maki

By Patricia Cantor and Marc Mauer, co-chairs, WFC Board of Trustees 

We are delighted to announce that Megan Chapman and Andrew Maki will become the new World Fellowship Co-Executive Directors later this year.

Returning to the United States after working for 11 years organizing against evictions among the urban poor in Lagos, Nigeria and other West African cities, Megan and Andrew and their two young children will be coming to World Fellowship in late July. They will step in fully as Co-Executive Directors Designate on August 15, getting oriented and working under the direction of Acting Executive Director Howie Fain and the Interim Management Committee until the full handoff of title and responsibilities takes place later in the fall.

From our own name, logo and heritage, the World Fellowship community already knows it is a small world. But the part of this story that most reinforces that is not just that we received this particular application from Africa, but this from their accompanying cover letter, after Megan and Andrew first detailed their work and commitment to the values we share:

"To sustain ourselves through this last decade-plus, every year we endeavor to retreat from the loud, chaotic, concrete jungle of Lagos to spend a couple weeks reflecting and rejuvenating ourselves swimming in Whitton Pond, hiking the cliff, and soaking in the green of the woods.  

"The Pond has always held a special place in our lives. Megan grew up steeped in the values of environmental stewardship, with the tremendous privilege of spending summers as the fourth generation on a family property at Whitton Pond. Once introduced, Andrew also fell in love with the place. Over the concerns of many, we got over 150 family and friends into canoes and kayaks to get married on a rock in the middle of the Pond in 2013, while Andy and Andrea graciously hosted our guests and reception (complete with a Boston-based Afrobeat band) at the World Fellowship Center."

Visit Justice & Empowerment Initiatives, the non-profit Megan and Andrew founded, to learn more about their lives and work. Against the backdrop of their administration and guidance of JEI, along with a series of interviews and reference checks, it became very clear to both the Search Committee and then the Board of Trustees that Megan and Andrew will bring the right combination of experience, skills, values and commitment to oversee all elements of managing and leading the World Fellowship organization.

Apart from meeting the community and familiarizing themselves with the Center and its operations during their time at World Fellowship this summer, Megan and Andrew will also appear twice on this summer’s program calendar: Saturday, August 12, 10:00 AM, Nigeria's 2023 Elections -- Ground-Level Observations & Global Reflections; and Sunday August 20, 10:00 AM,  A Decade of Struggle Against Mass Forced Evictions of the Urban Poor in Nigeria and Benin.

We know we speak for the entire World Fellowship community in congratulating and welcoming Megan Chapman and Andrew Maki – and their two children, Adisa (5) and Aletto (2) – to our own extended family, and look forward to working with them as we begin to shape our next 82 years as a very special, very important place, where peace and social justice meet nature. Because it’s a small, interconnected world, after all.