Andrea “Andi” Clements is a professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University, associate director of research design and implementation for the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute, and co-founder and board president of Uplift Appalachia. Her main areas of research are religiosity, health, and trauma-relate
Andrea “Andi” Clements is a professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University, associate director of research design and implementation for the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute, and co-founder and board president of Uplift Appalachia. Her main areas of research are religiosity, health, and trauma-related neuropsychological development, particularly focusing on addiction. She teaches and trains about the science of addiction, navigating addiction treatment options, and being trauma responsive (trauma informed care). She has taught measurement, evaluation, and research design for the past three decades. In her personal life, she has been a church planter and regularly mentors people who live with addiction and have been or currently are incarcerated.
For eight years Tanner Clements was a bi-vocational pastor and elder at Christ-Reconciled Church in a low income, high need area of Johnson City, Tennessee. He co-founded Uplift Appalachia in 2018, and served as the executive director for three years. He publishes and speaks publicly about the need to build community to address addiction.
For eight years Tanner Clements was a bi-vocational pastor and elder at Christ-Reconciled Church in a low income, high need area of Johnson City, Tennessee. He co-founded Uplift Appalachia in 2018, and served as the executive director for three years. He publishes and speaks publicly about the need to build community to address addiction. He holds a MDiv in Theological Studies from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and a BA from East Tennessee State University in digital media. He has spent eight years as video services manager at a large regional university in which he is able to tell stories through film and spent the previous seven years as web developer. In July 2023, he left the university to pursue freelance video work and devoted himself more fully to Uplift Appalachia's mission.
Teronya Holmes, a native and current resident of Kingsport, Tennessee, is dedicated to helping find solutions to address the problem of addiction and its effects. She is spearheading our efforts to inspire and engage churches to help us in this work. As churches are trained, she will assist them to find their place in the recovery ecosyst
Teronya Holmes, a native and current resident of Kingsport, Tennessee, is dedicated to helping find solutions to address the problem of addiction and its effects. She is spearheading our efforts to inspire and engage churches to help us in this work. As churches are trained, she will assist them to find their place in the recovery ecosystem. She will work as a liaison among community organizations, clinics, and churches as they form collaborative relationships to help those with problematic substance use, mental health issues, and other struggles. She is also passionate about helping to address foster care needs across our region.
JP Camp resides in Greer, SC. His plan entering college was to be a full-time teaching pastor, but God had different plans. After completing his MA in Biblical Studies, JP was called to work in the children’s ministry department of his local church and learned that his passion was serving children. As part of his responsibilities, he dire
JP Camp resides in Greer, SC. His plan entering college was to be a full-time teaching pastor, but God had different plans. After completing his MA in Biblical Studies, JP was called to work in the children’s ministry department of his local church and learned that his passion was serving children. As part of his responsibilities, he directed an in-house after-school program and summer learning camp for students from the local public elementary school. After seeing what an impact it made on the students, their families, and the school, he decided to continue his passion and start Uplift Kids. Uplift Kids is designed to partner churches with their neighborhood elementary school to support students and their families.
Dale served as a bi-vocational pastor for eight years at Christ-Reconciled Church in a low income, high need area of Johnson City, Tennessee. He has decades of ministry experience that includes service as a deacon, elder, and now as the Uplift Appalachia "plate spinner!"
Tiffany Clements lives with her husband and daughter in Tennessee. She has been a Virtual Assistant for 17 years. She's a self-proclaimed Enneagram 1, detail-oriented, perfectionist.
Andrea “Andi” Clements is a professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University, associate director of research design and implementation for the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute, and co-founder and board president of Uplift Appalachia. Her main areas of research are religiosity, health, and trauma-relate
Andrea “Andi” Clements is a professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University, associate director of research design and implementation for the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute, and co-founder and board president of Uplift Appalachia. Her main areas of research are religiosity, health, and trauma-related neuropsychological development, particularly focusing on addiction. She teaches and trains about the science of addiction, navigating addiction treatment options, and being trauma responsive (trauma informed care). She has taught measurement, evaluation, and research design for the past three decades. In her personal life, she has been a church planter and regularly mentors people who live with addiction and have been or currently are incarcerated.
Teronya Holmes, a native and current resident of Kingsport, Tennessee, is dedicated to helping find solutions to address the problem of addiction and its effects. Her own personal experience with a short-term physiological dependency upon opioids after major surgery opened her eyes to the the bio-psycho-spiritual effects of substance use
Teronya Holmes, a native and current resident of Kingsport, Tennessee, is dedicated to helping find solutions to address the problem of addiction and its effects. Her own personal experience with a short-term physiological dependency upon opioids after major surgery opened her eyes to the the bio-psycho-spiritual effects of substance use disorders and how important it is that we find solutions, so that those suffering may truly recover and flourish. As executive director of the Holy Friendship Collaborative, a precursor to Uplift Appalachia, she worked in collaboration with the Church, communities, and organizations throughout the Appalachian Highlands. Her goal is still to faithfully discern and address the problem of addiction in biblically-inspired ways. Teronya also serves on the board of directors for ONE Tennessee and on the advisory board of the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute.
Dave Persinger is an Elder and small group leader at Heritage Baptist Church. He and his wife Becky have two grown daughters, a son in high school, and have been fostering children for several year. Most of the children are in foster care due to parental struggles with problematic substance use and incarceration. They recently adopted a c
Dave Persinger is an Elder and small group leader at Heritage Baptist Church. He and his wife Becky have two grown daughters, a son in high school, and have been fostering children for several year. Most of the children are in foster care due to parental struggles with problematic substance use and incarceration. They recently adopted a child who has been in their care for several years. Dave feels a calling to address the issues faced by people affected by drugs and alcohol.
Becky Haas is an international presenter of trauma informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study as well as a pioneer in successfully developing trauma informed communities. Previously, she spent over two decades as a church staff member. Since, she has led large grants with a police department to reduce drug-related c
Becky Haas is an international presenter of trauma informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study as well as a pioneer in successfully developing trauma informed communities. Previously, she spent over two decades as a church staff member. Since, she has led large grants with a police department to reduce drug-related crime, served as the trauma informed administrator for a regional healthcare system, and is a member of the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute at East Tennessee State University.
Larry Kimball is married to Allie and they have three young children. He works as a pilot for Delta Airlines, He spent a great deal of time active in Re:Generation, a faith-based recovery ministry, which meets at Grace Fellowship Church in Johnson City, Tennessee, and he is passionate about all kinds of addiction ministry. His family recently moved to Michigan to be closer to family.
Associate Director, Duke Divinity School Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative; Assistant Research Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School; Assistant Professor, Population Health Sciences, Duke’s School of Medicine; Durham, NC, USA. He has been studying the church's response to the opioid crisis in Appalachia, and has collaborated on grants and co-authored articles with Uplift Appalachia board members. The Duke Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative (Duke TMC) has been involved with Uplift Appalachia efforts since its inception.
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. Author of "Having People, Having Heart: Charity, Sustainable Development," and "Problems of Dependence in Uganda," She and her colleagues are currently studying the church's response to the substance use disorder crisis in Appalachia. They collaborate with Uplift Appalachia regularly.
Associate Professor, Division of Nursing; Director, Accelerated BSN Program, DeSales University. Her research interests include religiosity and health, maternal/child health, and trauma informed care. She publishes regularly on religious commitment and health and has collaborated with Andi Clements, Uplift Appalachia president on multiple articles and conference presentations.
Professor of theology at King’s College, Wilkes Barre, PA, USA. He is currently co-authoring a book with Andi Clements on the church response to the opioid crisis. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and four books: The Body of Compassion: Ethics, Medicine and the Church (1999), Heal Thyself: Spirituality, Medicine and the Distortion of Christianity with Keith Meador (2003), Reclaiming the Body: Christians and the Faithful Use of Modern Medicine with Dr. Brian Volck (2006), and To Live is to Worship: Bioethics and the Body of Christ (2007). He co-edited and contributed to the volume of essays, Wendell Berry and Religion: Heaven's Earthly Home in 2009.
Prof. Cook, Department of Theology and Religion and Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing at Durham University, Durham UK, has been a longtime collaborator, and is an expert in the intersection of addiction and theology. He received the Canterbury Cross (2020) for interdisciplinary work on theology and psychiatry from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Oskar Pfister Award (2021) from the American Psychiatric Association for outstanding contributions in the field of psychiatry and religion.
Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies, School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. He collaborates by co-authoring articles with Uplift Appalachia board members and staff.
Director, Center for Integrative Addiction Research (CIAR), Senior Research Fellow & Clinical and Health Psychologist, Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna; Vienna, Austria. He is one of a group of guest editors with Andi Clements, editing a special issue of Frontiers in Psychiatry: Addictive Disorders, Frontiers in Psychology: Health Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology: Philosophical and Theoretical Psychology, and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience titled Human Connection as Treatment for Addiction.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Esther Colliflower Associate Research Professor of Pastoral and Moral Theology; Co-Director, Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative; Durham, NC, USA. Through his affiliation with Duke TMC, he conducts trainings for and consults with Uplift Appalachia.
Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology; Coordinator, Global Health Initiatives, College of Public Health; Associate Director of Extramural Funding and Innovation, Strong BRAIN Institute (SBI); Research Faculty, Center for Rural Health Research; East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee. She collaborates on research and evaluation efforts within grant applications.
Marion, VA
TN/VA
Durham, NC
Big Stone Gap, VA
Erwin, TN
Marion, VA
Bristol, TN