Current Residents & Staff
The Richmond Hill community is composed of the Resident Community, non-resident staff, adjunct staff, volunteers, stewards, and public Council members. It would be impossible to name all the volunteers who help us in our day-to-day activities, but profiles of our residents, staff, and key volunteers are listed below.
* Indicates Residential Staff
Rev. Sam Thomas Arisapogu
IT and Office Coordinator *
Sam is an ordained Baptist Minister from India. He recently graduated from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond with a Th.M. Sam has worked as an Assistant Professor of Old Testament in a Theological College in India. His heart is towards standing in solidarity with marginalized people. Sam is a self-taught technology guru and is skilled in providing technical assistance to Richmond Hill. When he is not working, he spends his time exploring delicious cuisines in Richmond and tinkering with computers. Here is what Sam Thomas has to say, “I am really glad that I am at Richmond Hill at this point of my life. It is a learning experience to be hospitable and caring toward people.”
Rev. Lindsey Franklin
Associate Pastor for Development
I first came to Richmond Hill for a summer in 2017, looking for a place to deepen my commitment to racial justice, connect with my southern roots, and discern my call to ministry. This place and community held me as I decided to move to Richmond permanently following graduation from Harvard Divinity School in 2018. I served as Interim Associate Pastor for a year before answering a call to focus more deeply on the intersection of ministry and stewardship. Ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ—over Zoom in the Richmond Hill Chapel in December 2020— I am honored to serve as Associate Pastor for Development.
Sandy Gramling
Grief Ministries Coordinator
I have been involved at Richmond Hill for some 20 years since participating in the RUAH III School of Spiritual Guidance. The space called to me the first time I sat in silence here. I am currently the Coordinator of Grief Ministries and also serve as a spiritual director and healing prayer minister. I’ve just retired from my day job, where I was on the faculty in the Psychology Department at VCU, teaching classes such as “stress and its management.” I am a licensed clinical psychologist and in both my practice and research I am interested in the broad area of coping with loss. I am an avid pinball player and hiker, but grief ministries is my calling.
Rev. Ben Hadley-Goggin
Associate Pastor for Facilities Management
I first began coming to Richmond Hill in 2001 as I began my pastoral appointment with a local congregation and amidst the tragic event of 911. January 2002 I was in a car accident that put me on disability. In 2018 I enrolled in RUAH XVII and began volunteering to assist with maintenance needs. Richmond Hill provided a space, support and nurture with my healing. I felt called to the role of Facilities Coordinator and a ministry of hospitality in April 2020. I feel blessed to serve on the staff and support the mission and ministry of Richmond Hill.
Rev. Kelsey Hawisher-Faul
Development Coordinator *
My husband and I have wanted to live in community for quite a while, so when Richmond Hill turned up in a late night Google search, we were intrigued. Daily prayer in an intentional community dedicated to Christian hospitality, spiritual development and racial reconciliation? It was just the place we didn’t know we needed! We are thankful that God has led our family here, and I am pleased to bring a pastoral spirit to my work as the office coordinator, having served as a Presbyterian minister for five years.
Allison Hurst
Co-Gardener
And then, there was me. A descendant of growers, striving to redeem the narrative of oppression and trauma worn by all of those who came before us. I came to Richmond Hill in 2019 looking for a collaborative partner with growing space for CHAT’s Legacy Farm. I’ve found one of the influential efforts we can make to heal the wrongs of the past is to invest in the agents of change that live in the future. I believe that preparing the next generation and equipping them to share their stories fulfills the promise of what our “fore-parents” set out to pursue on our behalf.
Rev. Sheryl Johnson
Assistant Pastoral Director & Group Retreat Coordinator
My first experience with Richmond Hill was back in 1994 when I came as part of college missions team doing work in Church Hill. Little did I know how much a part of my life Richmond Hill would become. I’ve stayed connected over the years – volunteering with the website, bringing groups on retreat – and am excited to have an opportunity to “mind the gap” while Richmond Hill seeks new residential staff to continue its important work of hospitality, spiritual development, prayer, and racial healing.
Lauranett Lee
Director of Social Justice
Lydia Mercado
Spiritual Direction Coordinator
My daughter brought me to Richmond Hill sometime in 2012 or 2013. In 2017, I began training as a spiritual director in Richmond Hill’s RUAH School of Spiritual Guidance to complement my previous preparation in leading contemplative prayer groups and retreats, and group spiritual direction. I was invited to assist coordinating spiritual direction at Richmond Hill by Rev. Lisa Johnson in December 2022. I am entrusted with the sacred work of deep listening to seekers as they discern God’s presence and guidance in their lives. I grew up in Puerto Rico and Massachusetts and resided in Northern Virginia prior to retirement when I worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation. I graduated with a Master of City Planning from Harvard University and from Andover Newton Theological School with a Master of Divinity.
Beth Nelson
Co-Gardener
My first experience of Richmond Hill was of baptism by music during Praying the Music of Taize. Since then, this beloved community has been a place of transformative growth, personal healing, and holy reciprocity~ first through Vocare and in my training as a Spiritual Director in Ruah, then through my service as Bookstore Manager and tending the resident vegetable garden, among other projects and programs. As a practitioner of therapeutic horticulture and Co-Gardener with Allison, I am living my call to care for the community of Earth by bringing my love and passion for facilitating gardens as holy presence and space for your meditation, prayer, conversations, and restoration.
Rev. Lorae Ponder
Acting Pastoral Director
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Yvette Davis Rajput
Director, Armstrong Leadership Program
I don’t know for certain what was the series of events that led me to Richmond Hill. However what I know for sure is that God was in the midst of it ALL. The opportunity to serve youth in our community means everything to me and I’m grateful to be standing in the GAP (God Appointed Position) as they seek to know self, grow in the spirit, and discern their life’s purpose.
Rev. Andrew Schwartz
Micah Coordinator & Grants Support *
My family and I moved into the Richmond Hill community August 2023. After many years of yearning for a new-monastic expression, I feel deeply moved and grateful that we are here and settling into the rhythm of life and the call to heal the city, heal ourselves, heal our land, and experiment with more sustainable and generative life rhythms. I have been a United Methodist Pastor for the past 8 years and come from a long line of “system-tinkerers”, folks on an ongoing spiritual pilgrimage of trying things differently. As the Micah Coordinator, I’m deeply hopeful and eager to explore what the Spirit has in store for the next chapter of Richmond Hill. Riding my road bike is one of my “happy places” and I can’t believe I live 0.4 miles up the hill from the Virginia Capital Trail!
Allison Schwartz
Resident
Allison Schwartz is married to Andrew and mom to daughter Anna-Leigh, middle son Holden, and youngest son Hosea. She grew up in southeast New Mexico and moved to Virginia twelve years ago to start her chiropractic business. Andrew and she had been dreaming of when they could finally live in an intentional community that was mission focused, and are excited that now is the time and Richmond Hill is the place!
Key Volunteers
- Susan Bell, Volunteer Coordinator
- Carol Parke, Librarian