Executive Team
Mary Gunther
Chief Influence Officer
Mary Gunther understands what it means to operate in a rapidly changing environment. A graduate in the second class of women from the United States Naval Academy in 1981 and mother of nine, she has been involved in leadership education for over 30 years. After attending her first ICC conference in 2005, she brought ICC conferences to Maryland and started the first ICC Chapter. Mary’s interests are varied and diverse, including graphic design, organizational health, strategic action, latest tech trends, and visual storytelling. Along with her experience and training in leadership development, Mary holds a certificate in Art Integration across Curriculum from the Kennedy Center and a certificate in Christian Nonprofit Leadership from Christian Leadership Alliance. Currently, Mary is pursuing a graduate certificate in Spiritual Direction from Richmont University with a May 2024 graduation. Mary serves as ICC’s Chief Influence Officer and lives in Annapolis, MD, with her husband.
Nicole Ricks
Director, Student Leadership | Student Leadership Development Team
Nicole Ricks loves young people and her life reflects that call. For over 9 years, she has served and mentored both students and adults. As Director of Student Leadership, Nicole is an innovator who is intentionally challenging and supporting Area and Global Student Leadership Teams as well as the adult liaisons around the globe. She has launched new online curriculum and created tools to support the growth and development of her teams. Currently finishing her degree in Nursing and mentoring her five children, she is a natural nurturer, a lover of fun and friendship, and a pursuer of excellence.
Dede Ruff
Director, ICCFS
Dede Ruff enjoys the challenge of intentionally innovating. This year, as Director of ICC’s Forensics Society, she’s helped to innovate a new online tournament experience that has brought together intergenerational teams from four countries and expanded opportunities for real-world training. Entering her eighth year in ICC, she loves learning – and trying- new things, especially if they’re challenging. Dede earned her BA in Economics from Washington and Lee University as part of the second co-ed class at the all-male school. She has served as an ICC Chapter Sponsor and Area Coordinator, and she is part of ICC’s new online chapters where she helps develop community in new ways. She and her husband operate a sixth-generation family business and live in a house built by his family in 1904 – which requires lots of innovating to work with life in 2021.
Eunice Au
Director, Volunteer Empowerment | Global Leader Development Team
Eunice is an avid reader and loves learning. Since 2012, she has been motivated to create interactive, online learning experiences both in the US and internationally. She has served in the Institute as the Director of the ICC Academy since its inception. Most recently, with her husband Au, she relocated to Singapore to serve with OMF, a global fellowship of Christians with a heart for East Asia. She is now enjoying gardening year-round, buying fresh produce in open-air wet markets, and connecting with her three daughters in the US via WhatsApp. She loves to empower others to serve with excellence and integrity, to follow Christ with confidence, and to labor with faithfulness for the advance of God’s heavenly kingdom.
An Normand
Director, Global Engagement | Global Leader Development Team
As ICC’s Director of Global Engagement, An Normand gets to practice one of her great passions: equipping and mentoring others in storytelling and cultural intelligence (CQ). An has trained thousands of people in intergenerational and intercultural settings. Born in Africa and raised in Belgium, An has worked and participated in missions all over the world. Her husband is French and her two children American, so CQ has been a lifelong pursuit in their home! An has completed two certifications through the Cultural Intelligence Institute. She has worked with our Global Resource team that developed and translated the Institute’s curriculum as well as with our Global Development Team. An’s son Daniel and daughter Elise both served in leadership roles in the Institute. An enjoyed traveling with Elise to Southeast Asia on an IMPACT trip in 2018.
Amy Yen
Director, International Relations | Global Leader Development Team
Amy is one of the pioneers that started the first ICC international chapter in Singapore in 2010 and helped organize the first Communicators for Christ conference in East Asia in 2014. She was an ICC Chapter Sponsor before starting the first United Kingdom chapter in Leeds. Seeing the need for ICC in Europe, she organized and hosted the first European Communicators for Christ conference in Nov 2019. Before homeschooling her children full time, Amy was a lecturer in the local polytechnic, training students in intercultural communication and life skills subjects. Her passion for intercultural studies has led her to Indonesia, Australia, and Vietnam as well as finding a home in both Singapore and the UK. Amy is active in her local church ministries like the English class for migrant ladies and café ministry for the homeless and needy.
Global Resource Team
Lisa McLean
Global Resource Team | People Care Team
With a degree in education and twenty years’ experience in home education, Lisa McLean shares her extraordinary gift of problem solving in relationship in her work on ICC’s People Care Team. She uses her role to equip people in parenting, mentoring, and loving well. Lisa and her husband have raised their six children with a heart for genuine cultural communication. All of their children—and two of their grandchildren— spent years training with ICC into adulthood. Having traveled internationally with ICC several times, working with a global community challenges her to develop new skills and ways of thinking, to learn from other cultures, and to appreciate the immensity and diversity of the Church. Her passion: to disciple Christ-followers in wisdom, respect, and holiness.
Anna Carrion
Global Resource Team | People Care Team
Anna and her family first became involved with ICC in New Jersey ten years ago. After moving to Ohio, she started the first chapter in Columbus with her two sons. She served as an Area Coordinator before joining the Global Resource Team. Anna earned a BS in Industrial Management Engineering at De La Salle University. Growing up in the Philippines, a culture with a strong focus on family, Anna taught computer software to business and bank professionals. She and her husband of 26 years, Anton, moved to the United States in1994 where she discovered a love of ballroom dancing. Anna has two grown sons who have served with ICC as touring Student Ambassadors.
Brian Eliason
Global Resource Team | Western U.S. Area Coordinator
A California native, Brian Eliason helps lead families, classrooms, and community groups to equip next-generation Christian leaders with the vital skills they need for success. Holding a graduate degree in Physics, with a specialty in Applied Optics, Brian has brought this knowledge not only to his work for corporations like McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, but also into his ministry. Brian served as a teaching leader for Bible Study Fellowship for 17 years, which has empowered him to encourage dads walking out their faith at home and in the workplace. He and his wife currently live in the Central Valley of California with Brian’s greatest achievement, his daughter Rachel, who has recently toured the globe with ICC as a speech and leadership Ambassador.
Jane Lukachick
Global Resource Team | Student Leadership Development Team
When Jane attended her first Communicators for Christ conference in 2007, she fell in love with ICC and helped start a chapter with a friend in Prairieville, Louisiana. Two years later, she became a Chapter Sponsor, then an Area Leader, and then an Area Coordinator for the South Central Area. Now she’s stepped into a new role: Coordinator for the Area Student Leader Teams. She and her husband, Mark, have ten children and eight grandchildren, and one of her favorite “hobbies” is traveling with Mark around the country visiting all of them.
Keri Power
Global Resource Team | Central U.S. Area Coordatinator
Keri is a Nebraska girl living in a Louisiana world. Her family moved to Louisiana in 2015: husband John of 27 years and two awesome kiddos, Kaleigh and Jesse. Keri loves to read, homeschool, work puzzles, and she absolutely treasures any time spent with family. Keri and John had a desire for their children to be effective communicators, as they believe that words have power, so the family joined the Institute by jumping in with both feet. ICC has also empowered Keri to step out of her comfort zone and work on her own communication skills. Serving in adult leadership roles, beginning with Chapter Sponsor and Student Leader Liaison, she is currently the Area Coordinator for the Central area. She loves working with both students and adults, building relationships and hearing their stories.
Jenae Whitehead
Global Resource Team | Student Leadership Development Team
Jenae and her husband Mike have been married 22 years and have 8 children. She first joined a chapter in Louisiana in 2007 when her oldest daughter was 6. Her children have literally grown up in the institute! She moved to Michigan in 2016 and has served in the roles of Chapter Sponsor, Student Leader Liaison, and Student Leader Services Coordinator on the Student Leader Development team. She enjoys increasing her learning through online classes and reading books. She has learned that slow is fast in the development of her children as well as in her own personal growth.
Global Leader Development
Julie Rambo
Global Leader Development Team | U.S. Eastern Area Coordinator
Julie Rambo is an artist, gardener, lover of Jesus, and a homeschool graduate. Julie believes teens should be challenged to step out of their comfort zone. At 17, she became the director of a children’s ministry running 12-week Bible camps with teams from across the Eastern United States. She attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY to study Communication Design with an emphasis in Illustration. Her dream is to create art that shares a story. Julie lives in South Carolina with her husband and their four children. As a Chapter Sponsor and Student Leader Liaison for ICC, Julie wants to influence today’s culture by discipling the next Christian generation. Julie has been a successful leader – fundraising for her chapter, helping grow leaders and resources, and building influence in her community.