Co-conspirator Bios

Heather Pancoast has over 20 years of ministry experience with college aged-students and currently serves as one of the Directors at the Gator Wesley Campus Ministry along with her husband Joel. They have been serving students in Gainesville since 2016. Prior to that, Heather was the Assistant Director at the Warren Willis UM Camp in Florida for 14 years. Heather has her Master’s in Clinical Social Work and is passionate about walking along students as they navigate the transitions of life, faith, vocation, and calling. Heather and Joel have two awesome daughters, Elliot who is 14 and Norah who is 13, and two furry children, Boulder and Sammi. She loves camping, watching her girls play soccer and any Gator sports.

Rev. Rich Havard. Pastor & Executive Director, the Inclusive Collective. A native Southerner, Rich grew up in Gloster, Mississippi – a small town with a population of 960. After calling Alabama and Georgia home for seven years, Rich moved to Chicago in 2014 and now serves as Pastor and Executive Director of the Inclusive Collective, a Christian community for college students and young adults at the University of Illinois at Chicago and throughout Chicagoland. He strives to create faith spaces that are spiritually vibrant, inclusive, and justice-oriented. Rich is also a big fan of: spending quality time with quality friends, drinking a good (or not so good) cup of coffee, and hitting the beach during the 2-3 months of summer we get in this tundra-like city. To learn more about the Inclusive Collective, visit us at LetsGetInclusiveUIC.org or @LetsGetInclusiveUIC.

Victoria Sun Esparza is the founder and CEO for In the Water Design, a consulting firm that specializes in design-thinking strategy for religious organizations and nonprofits. As a queer, disabled, Chinese-American, Victoria’s non-traditional background in ministry, theological education, and design-thinking gives her a unique perspective on the world and its problems. Her work aims to connect religious organizations and nonprofits to better tools for solving problems and meeting the needs of the people around them. Victoria holds a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Arts in Design and Innovation. When she’s not traveling, Victoria lives her life in Dallas, TX with her husband, Josh, and fox-like dog, Leila.