Glenn Balzer- National Director
Glenn has been with DOOR for the past 15 years and has 20 plus years experience working and living in multi-cultural urban settings. Glenn is married to Rita and they have two teen-aged boys; Kyle and Quinten. The Balzer family enjoys camping in Colorado and dirt-biking on the weekends.
Glenn was born and raised in Northern British Columbia, Canada. He earned his BA at Briercrest Bible College in Saskatchewan. In 1988 he moved from Regina, Saskatchewan to Fresno, California to attend seminary where he earned an MA in Theology.
While at seminary he served as the Assistant Pastor at Clovis United Methodist Church. Upon completion of his seminary training in 1991, he moved to Denver, Colorado to become the Associate Pastor at Belleview Acres Church with responsibilities as Youth Minister. In the fall of 1994 Glenn assumed the directorship of the DOOR program.
Glenn maintains a regular blog - http://seethefaceofgodinthecity.blogspot.com.
Marie Voth - Assistant and National Office Manager
Marie joined DOOR in July 2009 as the Assistant to the National Director and Office Manager. She moved to Denver in 2008 and joined the growing young adult community at First Mennonite Church.
Marie grew up in Hesston, KS where she attended Hesston College. After completing her AA in Liberal Arts in 2003, she went into Mennonite Voluntary Service. For the next two years, Marie served at the Hopi Mission School on the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona. Marie then completed her BA in English at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA in 2007.
Marie fell in love with Colorado over the five or so summers that she worked at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp on Pike’s Peak massif. In addition to spending time in the mountains, Marie enjoys reading, baking, listening to NPR, and watching sports. She tries to find a moment of beauty everyday.
Krista Dutt- National Program Director and DOOR Chicago City Dwell Director
Krista is happily & newly married to Jim Parker. They reside on the west side and are very involved with their church, First Church of the Brethren of Chicago.
Previously Krista grew up in Ohio. She earned her Bach. of Religion at Bluffton University and later her M.Div at AMBS- Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN. Krista served as DOOR City Director then took a placement with Mennonite Voluntary Service in La Jara, and then returned to Chicago again as DOOR City Director.
Krista lists some of her favorite things to do as seeing stereotypes broken, keeping up with interesting bloggers and exploring Chicago. She's taken almost every tour offered on Chicago and is completing her certification to lead such tours. She also loves cooking and baking, which we all appreciate.
Heidi Aspinwall- National Director for Volunteers
Heidi may have grown up in a homogenous small town but it only made her love the multicultural multilengual city of Miami. Heidi grew up in Oklahoma where her biggest love was marching band and drum and bugle corps. She received a BA in public relations and organizational communication from the University of Oklahoma. Previously, she worked in sales and traffic management. She and her husband moved from Nashville to Miami in 1996. They were the old married couple participating in the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) Program. Ever since, Richard has run a music ministry that includes a community music school and a traveling youth band. It turned into a new church plant in 2001. They are both very involved in the church, The Lighthouse.
Heidi and Richard have 2 children, Christina and Michael. Heidi also enjoys road trips, hiking and her new interest in gardening. In 2007 Heidi received the President's Volunteer Service Award.
Jannan Thomas City Director DOOR Atlanta
Jannan is originally from Houston, Texas and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. Before coming to college, Jannan was not particularly active in a church, but working as a lifeguard one summer at a Presbyterian camp ignited her desire to learn more about Christ and Christianity. During college, Jannan became active in the campus ministry program of University Presbyterian Church and after college this church supported her as she served in the Young Adult Volunteer program of the Presbyterian Church in Miami, Florida. During her year of service, Jannan worked with an after school program sponsored by the area Methodist churches.
During her volunteer year, Jannan felt a call to attend seminary and moved to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Columbia Theological Seminary. While at seminary, Jannan met her husband Jay, who is also an ordained Presbyterian minister. While is seminary, Jannan worked at Central Presbyterian Outreach and Advocacy Center doing case management for the homeless and working poor. Following seminary, Jannan served as an associate pastor and worked with a local non-profit called Hands on Atlanta.
Jannan and Jay live in the neighborhood of Capitol View Manor, about a mile from downtown Atlanta. They love living in the city, and especially Atlanta. But as much as they love Atlanta, they also have a great passion for traveling, and have visited most places in the United States. They hope to explore Latin America next, but Jannan’s Spanish is not as good as Jay’s.
Brian Sales- DOOR Chicago City Director Discover Program
Brian Sales was born and raised in Chicago, IL in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the west side of the city. He attends First Church of the Brethren where he has been an active member since he was a youngster. His links with his congregation lead him to be nominated for a four year full tuition scholarship from the nationally recognized Posse Foundation, and went on to receive a B.A. in Communication from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Brian has been working for DOOR since he was 16, starting as a junior summer staff member. In addition to his service to Chicago, he also served in the Denver and San Antonio programs. Brian now sits as the Chicago Director for its Discover programming.
Molly and Immanuel Sila- City Directors DOOR Denver
Molly and Immanuel Sila have been the Denver DOOR city directors since January 2008. Immanuel grew up in Kenya. He has been working with youth and young adults since he was in high school. Immanuel continued his passion for youth ministry through working for South Central and Western District conference as their interim youth pastor in (dates), following his graduation from the Hesston College pastoral ministries program in 2002. Immanuel enjoys preaching and teaching in churches and youth events. This opened doors for him to work as a recruiter and on staff with the former discipleship program, DEO, and Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS). Immanuel continues to work as a unit administrator for the MVS program.
Immanuel enjoys seeing lives transformed, and people challenged to live to their full potential. Immanuel loves to travel, watch sports, and listen to music.
Molly Sila grew up in Colorado. She began her time with DOOR following 3 years of working for the MVS program. Molly believes strongly in volunteerism and discipleship as they have been central to her own life. She began volunteering while in High School and continued through her 2 years at Hesston College and beyond as she volunteered with the Youth Evangelism Service (YES) through Eastern Mennonite Missions and other local nonprofit agencies.
Molly loves being outside, talking with people, and traveling.
Matthew Schmitt- City Director DOOR Hollywood/LA
Matthew is originally from Beverly Hills, Michigan and a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in English. He moved to Los Angeles from New Orleans where he had taught sixth grade through the Teach For America program. Here in Southern California, he has been working in various realms of the educational world while also working on a music career as a singer/songwriter and a composer. Darcie, his wife who is originally from Pittsburgh, is a middle school special education teacher. The two of them have been Sunday School volunteers with Hollywood Presbyterian Church for more than five years, and Matthew is the Youth Group Worship Director. They became parents recently as they welcomed Charlotte into this world at the end of September.
Matthew came to truly know Christ after a long period of seeking and questioning. After being raised Catholic and falling away for many years, it would be a series of incarcerated men and youth he met while volunteering in Detroit area prisons and juvenile detention centers that would restart him on his path. In New Orleans, he was invited to church by some of his students’ families, where he continued to learn more, even though he thought he was going just to hear some “great Gospel music”. These touchstone experiences, combined with the solid foundation his Catechism provided and the prayerful moments he spent playing his heart out on the piano as a child, would finally touch his heart deeply and reveal the living Christ to him. He is thrilled to help others find the face of God here in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and is happy to share a more complete testimony to anyone who may be interested.
Vanessa Silverman- City Director DOOR Miami Discover Program
Vanessa was born and raised in Miami, FL. And like most Miamians, she is a incredible combination of 3 nationalities, but predominantly from the tiny island nation of Sint Eustatius or Statia. She grew up playing soccer and piano. Vanessa is an accomplished musician on keyboards, traveling the nation with a local Christian praise band. She continues to teach in a local community music school. In addition to directing DOOR Miami's Discover program, she also attends University of Miami.
Danielle Miller- City Director DOOR San Antonio
Having grown up in Northern Indiana, Danielle moved to San Antonio following college for a position with Mennonite Voluntary Service. The volunteer position was with SALSA, the predecessor to DOOR San Antonio. Danielle split her time between SALSA and an alternative school on the west side of San Antonio.
It was while working with SALSA that she met her husband, Hugo Saucedo, who had worked as summer staff through high school and college. Even though Danielle was determined not to be a teacher, following in both of her parents’ footsteps, she fell in love with teaching and after working three years as a Mennonite volunteer, went back to school at Texas State to obtain her teaching certificate.
After teaching high school English for five years here in San Antonio, they had a son, Gabriel. Danielle wanted to have a job that she could do well while spending more time with Gabriel than teaching allowed. A part time position working with DOOR San Antonio opened up, and she stepped into that role. Since then, Danielle has moved into the full time role of city director.
Danielle continues to balance work with caring for their son, serving in leadership positions at San Antonio Mennonite Church, and, when possible, gardening, reading, and running.
Eduardo Vargas- Assistant City Director DOOR San Antonio
Eduardo grew up in San Antonio and has been working with the DOOR San Antonio program for many years. He did leave to attend Goshen College in northern Indiana. Upon graduation, Eduardo returned to his current position as Assistant Director.
Eduardo is very recently married, just last summer, to Tiffany. It was an eventful year for the Vargas family with college graduation, moves, new jobs and a wedding! We pray blessings on their new family and we are very excited to have Eduardo with us.
Biographies of our Full-Time Staff