STAFF & BOARD
Collaborative Leadership, Honest Faith
At Cascade, leadership isn’t about hierarchy — it’s about collaboration, care, and creating a safe space for faith to grow. Our staff and board partner together to guide and nurture this community with imagination, integrity, and hope.
Our Staff
Lead with curiosity, creativity, and compassion
From Sunday gatherings to kids and student ministries, they help create spaces where people of all ages can experience belonging and explore faith together.
Co-Pastor
Kurt Kroon
kurt@cascadepdx.org
Kurt grew up in the central valley of California in a small town where he rooted for the 49ers, enjoyed the wide open space of living in the country, and had a very Christian upbringing. He met his wife working at a youth camp near Santa Cruz, California and moved to the Pacific Northwest for college. After getting married, Kurt started working as a youth pastor first in Hillsboro, and then in East Portland.
Eventually, Kurt transitioned into social justice work locally and internationally, and helped start Cascade as a community that prioritized curiosity in the spiritual journey.
“Getting to explore all the complexities of life and God with a curious community fills me with incredible joy. I love how we can wrestle with the improbability of being alive and learn from Christ’s invitation to contribute to the peaceful thriving of all people.”
Kurt and his wife Sally live in Vancouver, WA with their two boys
Co-Pastor
Sarah Swartzendruber
sarah@cascadepdx.org
Sarah grew up in a few different places (Arizona, Michigan and then finally Forest Grove, Oregon) and after loving college in Southern California somehow found herself back in the Northwest to be a youth director on the eastside of Portland. Although Sarah’s educational background is as an elementary teacher, Sarah started working as a youth pastor after college as a “fun job”, hoping to attend as much summer camp as possible she realized her call as a pastor. Since college, she has received her MDIV from Portland Seminary and helped start Cascade. Sarah is passionate about faith experiences for all ages but specifically for kids and students, empowering and learning from generations to come. She finds that students have taught her immensely around conversations on sexuality, race, and TikTok. Her hope is to always be an active learner and listener.
“I am driven by kids and students, and believe they are our future, worthy to be loved and known, and want to help them realize how much God loves them and that all questions are great questions.”
Sarah and her husband Zach live in Milwaukie, OR with their two daughters and dog. They love anything active, spending time with friends, petting puppies, and playing games.
Operations Director
Jonathan Cotton
jonathan@cascadepdx.org
Jonathan grew up in Happy Valley, Oregon and graduated from Warner Pacific College. He met his wife Camille at a young adult bible study and during that time they developed a love for working with high school and college age students.
They are also advocates for inclusion, and have learned so much about ableism from their amazing daughter Lorelai, who has Down Syndrome. While his primary background is in business, Jonathan has actively worked with non-profit organizations and loves helping turn a vision into reality. He enjoys the details of organizational operations, but he’s even more excited to work with students at Cascade.
“I love it when people discover God in the things they’re already passionate about. We need more of that in the world, and I’m just excited to see all of the interesting, unique, and creative ways that might play out in peoples’ lives at Cascade.”
Jonathan and his wife Camille live in southeast Portland with their daughter Lorelai and dog Penny. They love all things Disney, supporting the Timbers, hanging out with friends, and enjoying everything Portland has to offer.
Worship Coordinator
Sam Hedrick
sam@cascadepdx.org
Sam (he/him) and his wife, Haley (she/her), came to Oregon from his home state of Oklahoma in 2019 for Haley to start a doctoral program. He grew up as the oldest of three, with parents working in various areas of ministry. Beginning to lead worship around the age of 13, Sam pursued music and church simultaneously through college and his early twenties. At the age of 25, Sam stepped into his truth by coming out as transgender. Through the unfortunate relationship of liberation and loss, Sam began the journey of learning and unlearning harm and safety within the Church, family, vocation, and music.
Through the last four (ish) years Sam has redefined his connection to faith, (re)igniting the desire to facilitate spaces of worship with magnified focus around marginalized and queer contexts; to know and be known by the Divine Creator and the communities we intertwine ourselves in. Sam and Haley’s hope and focus is to join with the other creative voices at Cascade to reclaim worship spaces as sacred and healing for all who want to take part.
Family Ministry Assistant
Jana Kelsay
kids@cascadepdx.org
Jana was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She was raised in a Chinese church community through the years and attended George Fox University majoring in Organizational Communications. During her college years, she got involved with a non-profit working with mentoring youth and met her now husband, Aaron, at a summer job working at an international airbrushing company. Post graduation from George Fox, she moved back to Portland and eventually married. Over the past 10 years, she's worked as an Office Manager at a preschool for 3 years, moved to work as a Regional Administrator for a large faith based non-profit and now resides as an owner running a Virtual Admin Services business. Jana is passionate about caring for her family and over the past few years, has been drawn to social justice work / advocacy for marginalized communities and also growing/learning to love her Chinese culture.
What I value being a member of Cascade is the passion for inclusion, advocacy and truly caring about marginalized people. It's not just spoken about, it's shown by the level of intentionality of leadership and the representation of voices that are displayed.
Coffee with a Pastor
New to Cascade or just curious about who we are? Grab a (virtual) coffee with one of our pastors. This is a relaxed conversation. No agenda, no pressure. Ask questions about Cascade, share your story, or simply get to know us before you join on a Sunday.
We’d love to meet you. Reach out below and we’ll set up a time that works for you.
Our Board
Representing the voice of our community
They provide guidance, accountability, and shared discernment, ensuring that our values of inclusion, justice, and collaboration are woven into every decision we make.
Kendra Wenzel
Kendra grew up in Sandy, Oregon. She stayed in Oregon through college and graduate school before moving to the Midwest in 2012. A few years and a few kids later, Kendra and her family moved from Chicago to Portland in 2019.
She loves her job as a therapist and has her own private practice. Kendra fills her time when she's not at work parenting her four kids (ages 2-8), running, cooking, and reading. Having grown up immersed in the subculture of evangelical Christianity, she has loved finding a home at Cascade with its emphasis on inclusion and curiosity.
Lyndsy Manz
Originally from Central California, Lyndsy obtained her bachelor’s degree in Portland from Warner Pacific in Religion and Christian Ministry. She met her husband, Jonathan, in graduate school in Texas, and they have since lived in various parts of the country working in higher education. Not predicting a global pandemic, the Manz fam relocated to the beautiful Pacific Northwest in January 2020. She’s a mother of three kids, spanning kindergarten to 8th grade. Lyndsy enjoys taking strolls (not hikes) through nature with her kiddos and exploring all the area parks. They volunteer with Friends of Trees to help grow the urban canopy.
Ian Durias
Ian was born in the Philippines and raised in Seattle before he moved to Portland for college. It seems that he's bound to what volcanologists have named the Pacific Ring Of Fire.
Ian is about connection. Connecting with people, connecting to the Divine, connecting people with other people and connecting other people to the Divine. Connecting existing ideas is how he defines "creativity." This way of being has marked his family life (He's got five kids!), his vocation (Mostly in the nonprofit world), and community (Hello, Cascade!).
He's also a runner. In the inaugural year of Portland Running Co.'s Race Team he was awarded Most Inspirational which is what you give to the slowest team member. There is no end to how proud he is of this accomplishment.
And he tells jokes. Mostly for fun but sometimes for money.
Pamela Burton-Macauley (She/Her/Hers)
Pam and her family moved to Portland in 2017, following a job change for her husband Bob at OHSU. They spent the previous 15 years in bucolic Vermont, where their four children were born (and where they still own a home on beautiful Lake Champlain.)
Originally from the Detroit area, Pam graduated from Brown University. She spent the decade after college working in Japan as a Foreign Correspondent. (Sadly, her fluent Japanese is mostly used to order sushi these days.) She has also lived overseas in Uganda (where she and Bob served as short term missionaries in a hospital), and Cambridge England.
A cradle Roman Catholic, Pam’s faith journey includes a brief stint at an Assemblies of God Church (she left after they told her how to vote) before being confirmed in the Episcopal Church.
She is honored to be serving the Board at Cascade, which inspires and challenges her to continually live the gospel values of inclusion, unconditional welcome, and making good trouble in the world.
Pam currently teaches Yoga, and enjoys travel, reading, cooking, and advocating for immigrant justice.
Pam lives near Lake Oswego with her husband Bob, high school daughter Charlotte, and faithful dog Grover. They have three older children including two attending college at Oberlin in Ohio, Deakin University in Melbourne. Their oldest is a recent graduate of Wellesley College.
“You are the sky. Everything else - it’s just the weather.”
-Pema Chodron
Grace Garrett
Bio coming soon!
Find Your Place at Cascade
Whether you join us in person on Sunday or catch a podcast episode during the week, we’d love to share the journey with you.