Spirit in the Desert’s exceptional retreat leaders are selected for their professional knowledge, communication skills, and ability to engage our retreat guests in insightful conversations. They are invited to return by popular demand to lead Desert Sojourn Retreats and private retreat of all kinds.
Retreat Leader
Desta Goehner
Desta Goehner (she/her) is a trauma-informed spiritual director with over 27 years of experience within the ELCA, serving in congregations, synods, Lutheran higher education, and seminaries with a focus on leadership and spiritual formation. She is trained and practiced in mediation skills, conflict mediation, and restorative conversations through the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center. Together with colleagues Paul Witman, Catherine Slabaugh, Felecia Boone and Christopher Njunge, Desta Goehner facilitates the Executive Skills for Church Leaders retreat in January, 2025 at Spirit in the Desert.
Retreat Leader
Dave Ellingson
Dave Ellingson, the Paddle Pilgrim, is leader for a Spirit in the Desert retreat adventure in Spring 2022 titled Go Outside at Play.
Lead Facilitator, Healing of Memories
Sheila Laughton
Sheila Laughton (USAF, Ret.) was a career Intelligence and Force Management officer who served from the Vietnam Era to 2000. She deployed to Saudi Arabia for the first Gulf War. After her military retirement, Sheila founded Welcome Home for veterans of all eras and their families, at the Loyola Spirituality Center in Minnesota. This unique program addressed challenging reintegration issues such as trauma, moral injury, life purpose, from a spiritual perspective. She has worked with men and women who have experienced or witnessed trauma…
Founder of Healing of Memories
Fr. Michael Lapsley SSM
Father Michael Lapsley is an Anglican missionary priest who was active in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. In 1990, after being ejected from South Africa, he suffered the loss of his hands and the sight in one eye from a letter-bomb that was sent to him in Zimbabwe by a supporter of the pro-apartheid government in South Africa. After a long recovery from the bombing, Father Lapsley decided to dedicate his life to helping victims of emotional, psychological, and…
Devotional Writer
Steve Holm
Each year, Steve Holm enthusiastically plays more than 100 rounds of golf and writes more than 400 inspiring daily devotionals. Steve is a retired Lutheran pastor and lives in Tempe, Arizona. He is the author of Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center’s popular DAILY MEDITATIONS which are available 365 days a year by email and at www.spiritinthedesert.org. He is also the author of the popular Advent and Lenten meditationbooklets published by Spirit in the Desert since 2008. Golf is one…
Treasurer
Dave Schoenbeck
Respect. Mr. Schoenbeck was elected as a member of Spirit in the Desert’s Board of Directors in 2018. He brings to the organization his experience as a senior corporate executive and business coach. His personal values of respect for customers and co-workers were integral to his success as an executive with major national companies; those values harmonize with Spirit in the Desert’s mission of welcoming hospitality for all retreat guests. Dave was one of the co-founders and the Senior Vice-President…
Director
Joel Bjerkestrand
Involved from the Beginning Pastor Joel Bjerkestrand was appointed a member of Spirit in the Desert’s Board of Directors in April 2019, bringing thirty years of involved ecumenical experience with Phoenix area faith communities and civic organizations. He is a dynamic speaker, mediator, educator, and counselor, having served three Lutheran congregations in the Phoenix metro area, one as associate pastor and two as senior pastor. Since 2011 he has been on staff as visitation pastor at La Casa de Cristo…
Director
Melissa Maxwell-Doherty
Expanding our circle of inclusion. Sometimes the Reverend Melissa Maxwell-Doherty, of Thousand Oaks, California attends the Spirit in the Desert Board of Director meetings via video conference. However, she prefers attending the meetings on campus because, “I have a fondness for the desert, for the Center’s comfortable facilities, and the opportunity to have a retreat experience during a working board meeting.” Melissa, who was appointed to Spirit in the Desert’s Board of Directors in 2016, is Vice President for Mission…
Director
Paul Evenson
Charitable funds are oxygen. “Spirit in the Desert is one of the most exciting and dynamic ministries of the church.” That is the informed assessment of Paul Evenson who has spent years supporting Lutheran congregations, camps, colleges and institutions. When Paul was asked to serve a second term on Spirit in the Desert’s Board of Directors he enthusiastically said, “Yes.” He did so because he knows that the retreat center provides spiritual hospitality for guests of all people of faith. …
Chair
Jennifer Braaten
“Spirit in the Desert is welcoming retreaters again. In January 2020, Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center, its Board of Directors, and staff, were still reeling from the sudden and unexpected death of its dynamic Executive Director, Richard Anderson, who had been leading the exciting growth of the Carefree, Arizona retreat center. The Board turned to Jennifer Braaten, Ed.D., of Sedona, Arizona to serve as Interim Executive Director with a portfolio of tasks including leading the search for a new…
Lead Facilitator, Healing of Memories
Lori Rubenstein
After starting her career as a successful family law attorney, Lori Rubenstein, JD, PCC, came to the understanding that the well-being of divorced families was clearly not the task of the legal system. She realized that she was like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole as a divorce attorney. Instead, she chose to follow her own mission – empowering people to heal from their relationship wounds, eventually becoming a certified coach. While seeking that goal, she learned…
Director
Deborah Hutterer
This is a Holy Place The Rev. Deborah Hutterer has been a member of Board of Directors of Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center since 2013. In June 2018, voting members of the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected Deborah to be their bishop. She will leave left her position as Chief Development Officer for Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest to serve a six-year term as bishop, while continuing as a board member of…