Meet the Staff
Dr. Larry Acosta President/ Founder
Larry Acosta is the President and Founder of the Hispanic Ministry Center, Urban Youth Workers Institute. Larry's passion is to envision and shape the emerging generation of urban leadership for transformational ministry. Larry’s claim to fame is that he is married to his lovely wife Jayme and they have four wonderful children.
Cynthia Chege Development Coordinator
Cynthia is a native of Kenya. She is a graduate of Hope International University and currently serves in fundraising development. Cynthia enjoys playing tennis, relaxing at the beach and traveling to new places. Before joining UYWI, she was coordinating events for Amnesty International and also worked in human resources in the corporate sector. Cynthia attends Lifeline Community Fellowship in Buena Park where she volunteers in the children’s ministry.
Brian Diaz RELOAD Operations Assistant
Brian currently serves UYWI as an Operations Administrator. He does life with his best friend and wife, April, and together they attend NewSong Church in Irvine, California. He enjoys watching movies, reading good fiction, and traveling to other countries and being immersed in different cultures. He hopes to continue being used in advancing the Kingdom in L.A. and around the world.
Bobby Duran RELOAD Producer
Bobby Duran is our RELOAD/Events Producer, when he’s not in our home office you can find him traveling, producing events and meeting with leaders across the country, creating partnerships and networks, that will come together to host our RELOAD Training Tour. Before UYWI, Bobby was a member of the band PAX217 for 4 1/2 years as a DJ. He now resides in Whittier, CA with his wife Sandy of 7 years and their son, Christian who is 2. They both serve at Mosaic LA.
Andy FierroSenior Graphic Designer
Andy comes with six years of volunteering experience in youth ministry. As a volunteer and attendee at various UYWI events, he also knows that we provide resources like none other to youth workers. It is because of this knowledge he was glad to jump on board when asked to join the UYWI Staff. When Andy is not designing for the organization, he enjoys being outdoors, traveling or just reading a good book.
Anthony Flynn Executive Vice President of Operations
Anthony comes to UYWI from Memphis, Tennessee. He has over 12 years of corporate, pastoral, youth ministry and community development experience. Anthony is passionate about equipping and training those who are responsible for reaching the lost. He is humbled by the privilege of being married to the beautiful Nikita Flynn and being daddy to the greatest son and daughter in the world, Taji and Alaya.
Julie Herrick Strategic Programs, Operations Administrator
Julie Herrick is the Operations Administrator for the Urban Youth Workers Institute. In her current role she handles all your RELOAD and National Conference registration needs, and manages travel arrangements and behind-the-scenes details for RELOAD events. She loves to travel to new places, so visiting RELOAD cities fits right in. She also loves hiking, camping, and hanging out with friends. With no kids of her own, she enjoys being an honorary Auntie to all her friends' kids.
John Lewis Regional Director of Southern California UYWI
John Lewis is the Regional Director of Southern California UYWI. If you want to know what that means it will cost you a lunch, but in short his role is to position our five strategic programs to transform all of Southern California by 2010. He brings over 10 years of experience in urban ministry and has his own BLOG (J-Lou's Confusion). When he is not saving the world from the evils of our society, he is occupied chasing Kade (5) and Evan (2) around their house in Alhambra, CA.
Fred OduyoyeDirector, RELOAD Training Tour
Fred is the RELOAD Director and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fred brings to the table years of experience in both the corporate world and youth ministry. He has a passion for building community amongst urban leaders to see them trained and equipped so that they may execute all that the Lord has designed them to do.
Carolyn Poirier-JonesDirector, Marketing Promotions
It wasn’t the pursuit of a marketing position that drew Carolyn to UYWI. Rather it was a passion to work with marginalized, at-risk young people that informed her decision to join the team in 2006. A native of Detroit, Michigan and now living in Oceanside, California, Carolyn holds a BA in Fine Art and has 30 years combined experience in youth and media ministry, and Christian music and event promotion.
Kirk Scott Development Director
Kirk has over 15 years of educational and nonprofit leadership experience. Kirk has provided consulting and training in ideology development, values clarification, strategic planning, team building, leadership transition, and leadership development to educational, nonprofit, and church leaders. As Development Director, Kirk leads the development team at UYWI to create, implement, and carryout the long-term strategic plan for funding. Kirk also functions at Director of Learning Communities where he leads the effort to create non-traditional learning opportunities for urban leaders in 23 cities across the United States. With a passion for the development of indigenous urban leaders, Kirk has spent the last 11 years providing leadership and training opportunities for youth and young adults. Kirk has developed and led trainings in major cities across the US. In addition to his work UYWI, Kirk teaches Leadership and Management for Youth Pastors at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Lawrence Yau Chief Financial Officer
Lawrence has extensive finance & accounting experiences in various companies and holds a Bachelor of Economics from UCI and an MBA from Claremont Graduate University. With his shared passion for the vision of UYWI, he will build more efficient systems so that the organization may continually serve the emerging urban leaders. Besides crunching numbers, Lawrence enjoys reading, sports, missions, and spending time with family and friends. He attends NewSong Church where he teaches Sunday school.
Support Staff:
Dean Borgman Founder/Editor, Center for Youth Studies
Dean Borgman is the Professor of Youth Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and director of the Center for Youth Studies. He has spent his life in youth work, as professor of youth ministries in seminaries around the world, and locally as an Episcopal priest serving at Christ Church in Boston. He also regularly assists an urban Episcopal parish, and is on the board of several small youth organizations. He and his wife, Gail, have four grown children and six grandchildren.
Greg Fitzgerald Development Consultant
Greg Fitzgerald comes to UYWI with 25 years of leadership in Christian Ministry organizations. His involvement has been varied, from helping Larry craft the first strategic plan for HMC, to his current part-time assignment working to raise the funds needed to carry our work forward. Married for 39 years, Greg and his wife Carol live in Paso Robles, California. They have four wonderful children and three amazing grandchildren.