Chairman—LtCol. David vanEsselstyn (USMC Retired)
David has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy® since the summer of 2017 and became chairman in 2020. A retired Marine Corps officer, David is a graduate of Monmouth College, Illinois, earning a degree in Government. He also holds a Master in Business Administration from Averett University. Prior to becoming a member of the Executive Committee, David was intimately involved in a new Anglican church plant in Richmond, VA, in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, and served on several church vestries as a member, junior warden, and senior warden. In addition, he has served as a diocesan representative and for a three-year term on the Standing Committee. David resides in Richmond, VA.
ExCom Recording Secretary and Chaplain—COL Laura B. Strange (USA, Retired)
Laura is a licensed registered nurse who holds an undergraduate degree from the Medical College of Georgia, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate from Emory University. She has held various clinical leadership positions, including Director of Clinical Studies at the Research Triangle Institute, where she led various government-funded projects. Laura’s military career began with Active Duty in the US Navy and continued in the Reserve Component with 26 years in the Georgia Army National Guard. Laura’s selection for Colonel by the Army Promotion Board marked the first female Colonel in the Georgia National Guard. Laura and her husband Jim are members of The Church of the Cross in Bluffton, South Carolina, where she is a Stephen Ministry Leader and chair of the Military Care Ministry. She also leads an intercessory prayer team and provides home-based communion. She volunteers as a CRU Military Volunteer at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, where she assists with worship services. Jim and Laura are parents of a daughter and a son and have four grandchildren.
Dr. William (Bill) Crunk
Dr. Crunk is currently in private practice as a marriage and family counselor and a rehabilitation forensic expert. His work in these fields has been at the local, regional, and national levels. Bill received his Master of Science from Virginia Commonwealth University and his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of South Carolina. He retired from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he was the coordinator of graduate counseling degree programs. During his tenure with the university, Bill was, for a number of years, Director for Training for the Southeastern Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center in the medical school. He also taught internationally in Israel and in the Ukraine. Bill has served on state, regional, and national civic boards and was a national trainer for the American Cancer Society. Bill, along with his wife Julie, established the Visions of Grace mission with a focus on serving the indigenous Indians in Guatemala.
Col Randy Puhrmann, (USAF Retired)
Randy is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and served for 30 years in the Air Force. He served as an Admissions Liaison Officer to the United States Air Force Academy for fourteen years. He was the Operational Aviation Energy Advisor for the Middle East to the Secretary of the Air Force and is currently the Chairman of Senator Johnny Isakson's Military Academies Selection Panel. Randy is presently employed as a Captain with Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, and is a member of Buckhead Church in Atlanta, GA, where he volunteers.
The Venerable David James Baker
The Venerable David James Baker is an Archdeacon in the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy® of the Anglican Church in North America. Following his ordination, Archdeacon Baker served at an Anglican parish in St. Augustine, FL, and as a Chaplain at Flagler Hospital and Bailey Hospice Center. He serves his community as Chaplain with the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), the Ancient City Chapter, and the Chaplain Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), St. Augustine Chapter. He serves on the Board of Directors for both organizations. After the Navy, he was engaged in computer-related enterprises as a corporate executive, holding positions of Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Group Director of three corporations in the Washington, D.C. area, and one home-based in Toronto. Archdeacon Baker received his undergraduate education at Georgia Tech, with bachelor’s degrees in Aeronautical Engineering and Industrial Management. He received his master’s degree in Computer Systems Management at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College and the Naval War College. He pursued further postgraduate studies at Virginia Theological Seminary and Trinity School for Ministry.
Mr. Bill Carroll
Bill Carroll recently retired from his full-time career as a bank executive. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Arizona State University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee. He previously served on the Finance Committee for the Anglican Dioceses of the South, a delegate to the Provincial Assembly, and a member of the American Anglican Council. We welcome his military leadership skills as a veteran Army platoon leader, and his 20 years of ministry experience as a member of the Family Promise Ministry, providing housing and food to homeless families. Bill and his wife Aline, worship at Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in Alabama, where he also serves as the Senior Warden.
Joseph M. Saloom, Esq.
Joseph M. Saloom, Esq., was born and raised in Enterprise, Alabama. He attended Birmingham-Southern College, where he obtained a B.S. in chemistry. After attending graduate school in chemistry at Mississippi State University, he returned to Birmingham and worked for four years as a toxicologist in a private clinical laboratory. After that, he was employed by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and served as a forensic scientist for 26 years with the State of Alabama, retiring in Montgomery in 2005. He attended Jones School of Law from 1997 until 1999 (while still employed with the state) and was admitted to practice law in Alabama and the Federal Middle District of Alabama in 2000. After practicing law for 20 years, Joe retired and is now living in Auburn with his wife Meredith Birchfield. During his life, Joe has been a Rotarian (third generation) for 36 years, been in three different Rotary Clubs, and has served as a Club President, Assistant District Governor, and District Governor for District 6880. Joe has served on the board of directors for the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Chemical Addictions program in Montgomery, Camp A.S.C.C.A., and Ducks Unlimited. Joe is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Civil Air Patrol (U.S. Air Force Auxiliary) and has served as Mission Pilot, Squadron Commander, Alabama Wing Legal Officer, Southeast Region Inspector General, and the AL Wing Legislative Liaison Officer. Joe was a cradle Episcopalian and has served on the Vestries of three different Episcopal churches and one Anglican church—three times as Senior Warden, and once as Junior Warden. He was licensed as a Lay Ecumenical Minister in 1985 and has exercised that position many times over the years. He currently attends St. George Anglican Church in Auburn, Alabama, which is a new plant of the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy. Joe's hobbies include flying, hunting, fishing, and shooting. Joe and Meredith love to travel in their airplane. They have four children and four grandchildren.
Mrs. Samantha Vance
Mrs. Vance has been an educator for nearly thirty years and holds her undergraduate degree in language arts education from Troy State University and a master’s degree in humanities from California State Dominguez Hills. She continued her graduate work at Auburn University at Montgomery in English. The first part of her career saw her teaching high school in low-income rural areas, where she taught for about fifteen years. She currently serves as a division chair and instructor at an Alabama community college, where she has been for the last twelve years. Samantha, her husband Michael, and their three children (along with a spouse) are all members of St. George Anglican Church in Auburn, Alabama, where she stays busy with the administrative and logistical elements of the church.
ExCom Emeritus Members
Maj Gen John B. Ellington, Jr. (USAF Retired)
Rev. Ellington is an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of North America and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. He has been in the ministry for more than forty years and served in military chaplaincy for thirty-two years. His last assignment was Director of the National Guard Chaplaincy. He was the senior chaplain and spiritual leader for the 405,000 guardsmen and their families. He held that position for seven years. Prior to that assignment, he was chief of the Air National Guard (ANG) Chaplaincy for nine years. He began his career in the Ohio ANG in 1979 and served seventeen years part-time and fifteen years active duty, retiring in 2011. His civilian ministry has included pastoring three churches in Ohio. He has served the Indian Lake Community Church twice. His first tenure was eighteen years, culminating in his resignation when he was called to serve in Desert Storm. After he retired from the military, he returned and is currently the senior pastor. He holds a bachelor’s from Malone University, a Master of Divinity from Methodist Theological School in Ohio, a master’s from Wright State University, and a Doctor of Ministry from Ashland Theological Seminary. Rev. Ellington is the visiting Vicar at Anglican Community Fellowship Church, a chaplain church plant in Winter Garden, FL.
CAPT Michael VanHoosier (USN Retired)
Michael served for eight years as the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy® Executive Committee Chairman. He is a Commissioned Lay Chaplain in the Jurisdiction and is a member of the Order of Saint Martin of Tours. Michael was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado and earned a BS in Engineering Physics at the University of Colorado. He served in the US Navy with tours at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and aboard a destroyer with combat duty in Vietnam, then remained in the Navy Reserves. As a civilian at NRL, Michael dedicated 35 years to solar physics studies, developing solar ultraviolet instruments flown onboard Skylab, five Space Shuttle missions and the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. Now retired, the VanHoosiers live in Richmond, VA.