Our Team
Victoria Proctor Gibbs
Victoria moved to Los Angeles where all 5 of her children were born. After returning to Michigan Victoria went to work for the Denominational offices in what was then called Home Missions. She was invited to be on their anti-racism team, where she became the leader. Victoria served as a member of the coordinating team that lead the CRC denomination in their Anti-racism effort. Victoria served her church in several leadership capacities, notably elder, anti-racism team leader, and small group ministry developer.
Currently Victoria serves as lead coach for CORE. After attending many workshops and desiring to see churches actualize the tremendous amount of information she developed a coaching model to walk with institutions that wanted to actualize anti-racism in their setting. She is also a workshop facilitator. Victoria has 14 grandchildren with her deceased husband. Victoria enjoys photography, gardening, and learning how to identify the many birds that frequent her home.
Victoria Proctor Gibbs is a founding member of CORR which is now CORE Communities Organizing for Racial Equity. She is from a very small community, Woodland Park, north of Grand Rapids that was founded in the 1940's by African Americans for African Americans, who were wanting to escape racism. Her family moved to GR in the 1960's. Victoria was the second AA to graduate from Oakdale Christian School. She then went on to be the second African American to graduate from Grand Rapids Central Christian. Victoria pursued higher education at Michigan State University where she joined the predominantly Black Greek letter sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Susie Dixon
Susie Dixon (she/her) is a Spiritual Coach and Consultant. She works closely with individuals and organizations seeking to grow in the deeper work of uncovering the spiritual and physical connections between present-day situations and our global history. She is passionate about reclaiming cultural and socio-political contexts of our complicated history and drawing people deeper into understanding our formed identities and how they overtly and covertly impact our agendas, decisions, and communities.
She is a Consultant with Ripple Consulting LLC and the Founder and Director of AnuDepth Consulting LLC where Organizational Leaders, Spiritual Providers, and Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Professionals have private personalized spiritual coaching. She holds a Masters of Divinity (MDiv.), is a PhD Candidate, and has worked in secular institutions, mono and multi-ethnic churches and nonprofits for over 25 years. She is a military veteran, regular contributor on the Antioch Podcast, adjunct professor at Cornerstone University, and Facilitator and Coach at CORE (Communities Organizing for Racial Equity). She resides in West Michigan with her husband of 30+ years and loves spending time with her family, reading, enjoying nature, and having deep conversations.
Hannah DeVries
Hannah DeVries (she/her) identifies as white and queer and is from a rural community on the east side of Michigan. She has resided in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Georgia, Tennessee, and Chicago, Illinois. Hannah devotes her time to anti-racism and anti-oppression training, consulting, and development. She is a co-founder of Ripple Consulting LLC and is passionate about empowering everyone to find their voice, especially individuals whose voices have been suppressed. She was drawn to anti-racism work while working in the foster care system at Bethany Christian Services of Grand Rapids, MI. She worked at Bethany for eight years and led anti-racism efforts, which includes developing a grassroots movement within the foster care department, organizing and creating monthly educational discussions and caucuses, and aiding in branch wide efforts towards cultural and policy change. Hannah also works as a facilitator and coach for CORE (Communities Organizing for Racial Equity), which provides workshops for understanding racism and long-term coaching for organizations to develop and institutionalize their anti-racism efforts.
Hannah has a masters of public administration from Grand Valley State University and over eight years of experience as a trainer and facilitator. Hannah is committed to centering voices of color and other marginalized communities in discussion of racial equity and beyond, as well as leveraging her privilege and power to push for systemic and transformational change. She also spends her time writing, training for triathlons, playing ultimate frisbee and geeking out about the latest book she read or podcast she listened to. Hannah and her wife, Kalee DeVries, reside in Chicago, Illinois and enjoy exploring the city, hiking, camping, traveling, and kayaking as much as possible.
Reverend Emmett Harrison
Rev. Emmett Harrison was born in Meridian, Mississippi during the Jim Crow era. He attended the first integrated High School in the south side of Chicago during the height of the civil rights movement. Disappointed with the response of the church in to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he joined the Black Panthers to try to bring about justice.
After the assassinations of several Black Panther leaders, he determined to continue the work of justice as a teacher during which he had a crisis of faith and rediscovered God - that God WAS a God of justice. Returning to his local church, he felt a call to work for justice as an ordained minister. He has worked exclusively in Christian Reformed congregations, agencies, boards and has retired after serving in the CRC for 35 years.
Stacia Hoeksema
Stacia Hoeksema, LMSW, has been teaching in Calvin University’s Social Work Department since 2003. Stacia has also been engaged for over 20 years in community work and training around issues of racial justice, poverty, and community development. Much of this work has been through her church, Madison Church: Square Campus. Stacia has lived in the Madison-Hall neighborhood since 2005 with her husband, Tom, and their four children.
She is passionate about the church’s call to be a part of the transformational and redemptive work of God’s kingdom and believes the CORE anti-racism workshop is a helpful tool for that work. Stacia continues to uncover layers of her own racial internalization and values the opportunity to invite others to join this difficult yet liberating process toward healing and wholeness.
Janice McWhertor
Janice McWhertor, now mostly retired, has been a anti-racism facilitator/organizer since 2005, when she was a staff member of Church of the Servant (CRCNA) in Grand Rapids, MI, At that time, she was invited to go on an antiracism journey with her congregation and two other congregations. That invitation ignited a deep desire to understand how racism affects all of our daily lives. She began learning how to identify and resist racism, working with others to build Biblical redemptive alternatives. She is convinced that this is a calling that God gives each of us. For her, exploring racism through the lens of whiteness has become an essential part of her growth and understanding. This challenge has personally set the direction of her life and she gratefully works alongside others who share this conviction for change. She is also a mother of four adult children and grandmother to ten – more reasons to work on an antiracist future for the next generation.