JoAnn Flett
Executive Director, Center for Faithful Business
Email: flettj@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2502
Office: SBGE Center House
Education: BA, Prairie College, 1989; MBA, Eastern University, 2006; PhD, Eastern University, 2019. At SPU since 2021.
Dr. JoAnn Flett started in her role of Executive Director in August 2021. She is a frequent speaker, collaborator, and organizational consultant, teasing out the intersection of faith and business that promotes human flourishing. JoAnn was a 2019-2020 Fulbright Teaching Scholar to Trinidad and Tobago. Her research interests are B-Corps, Faith and Business, Entrepreneurial Support Organizations, and Leadership Development.
JoAnn has served on and advised numerous nonprofit organizations, including The Accord Network (120+ faith-based international development agencies), The Ormond Center at Duke University, and the Coalition for Christian Social Innovation (a collaborative effort between Compassion International and Baylor University). She was formerly Board Chair of Capital for Good – Geneva Global (a performance philanthropy firm) and Broad Street Ministry (a non-profit serving the most vulnerable Philadelphians). JoAnn continues to serve as a Business Advisor to Everence Financial (Philadelphia Initiative), Initiate Australia (a social enterprise in Melbourne, Australia), the Network of Christians in Business, and US Embassy’s E-Hub in -Trinidad and Tobago.
JoAnn holds a Bachelor of Biblical Studies (Prairie College, Canada), an MBA (Eastern University), and a PhD in Organizational Leadership (Eastern University). Her PhD dissertation is titled Reshaping the Goals of 21st Century Business: A Study of the B-Corporation Movement.
Ryan Pemberton
Assistant Director, Center for Faithful Business
Email: pember@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2054
Office: SBGE Center House
Education: Master’s degree, Duke Divinity School, 2014; Honours MA (Harris Manchester College), Theology, University of Oxford, 2012; BA, Western Washington University, 2006
An alum of Oxford University and Duke Divinity School, Ryan will lead the CFB’s operations across several key initiatives. He joins CFB after serving most recently as Marketing and Communications Manager of the Graduate Theological Union, an interreligious and interdisciplinary consortium of theological graduate schools in North Berkeley.
A Pacific Northwest native, Ryan Pemberton’s career has spanned business, ministry, and higher education. As an account executive at a boutique PNW agency, he managed accounts for international, national, and local brands, overseeing projects in the areas of public relations, marketing, and advertising. Moving to Oxford, England in 2010, Ryan was a scholar-in-residence at The Kilns Study Centre, C.S. Lewis’s former home; he served as the President of the Oxford University C.S. Lewis Society; and he was a founding member of the Oxford Open Forum, an interreligious dialogue group. After earning his MA in Theology from Oxford University, Ryan moved to Durham, North Carolina, where he earned his Master of Theological Studies at Duke Divinity school, with a focus on Modern Theology. Ryan led University Ministries at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley for five years, working to bridge the life of the church and the life of the university through preaching; hosting community panel discussions; meeting with students, staff, and faculty; and overseeing a residential exploration of vocation program. In addition to his role at the Center for Faithful Business, Ryan is a Global Faculty Member for SNP Communications in San Francisco, where he serves as a 1:1 coach and teaches communications classes for individuals and groups at clients that include Google, Morgan Stanley, Nike, and others.
Ryan is the author of two books, Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis’s House and Back Again (Leafwood Publishers, 2015) and Walking with C. S. Lewis (Lexham Press, 2017), as well as a regular contributor to Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Today, and other publications. He is a Board Member at Edible Hope Community Kitchen, a ministry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, where he serves as a volunteer, and a Board Member of Radix Magazine. Ryan enjoys cheering his kids on at their athletic events, running, reading, writing, and cooking for gatherings of friends.