On May 8, World Renew U.S. Board Chair Jodi Cole Meyer announced that the organization’s Joint Ministry Council approved Carol Bremer-Bennett to the office of director for its operations in the United States.

Carol Bremer-Bennett, who holds undergraduate degrees in education and political science from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a graduate degree in educational leadership from Western New Mexico University, accepted the position the previous week.

Bremer-Bennett will transition into the U.S. directorship with ratification from the Board of Trustees of the Christian Reformed Church in North America and Synod, the denomination’s annual general assembly, next month.  She replaces Andrew Ryskamp, who retires from the position after 41 years with World Renew, the last 17 as U.S. Director.

“I am honored to accept the U.S. directorship at World Renew with great joy and hope for the work that the organization accomplishes worldwide,” Bremer-Bennett says. “World Renew is a life-changing organization that seeks to show compassion and alleviate poverty by caring for the orphaned, widowed, displaced, hungry, and neediest people of the world.”

World Renew is a faith-based non-profit that works each year in more than 40 developing countries to address poverty, hunger, and injustice through development and disaster response programs in communities of poverty. These programs are carried out through local Christian partner organizations and churches and are supported by World Renew’s generous constituents in North America and its alliances with well-established networks of government and non-government organizations worldwide.

Bremer-Bennett is the first woman and the first Native American to lead the organization in the U.S., and the fifth individual to take the U.S. directorship since the organization’s non-profit incorporation in 1962 as the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. Bremer-Bennett joins Ida Kaastra Mutoigo, who has worked with the organization since 1985 and overseen the organization’s Canadian office since 2006 as Canada Director.

Bremer-Bennett’s extensive experience in Christian ministry includes more than 20 years of organizational leadership, leadership development, and administration in a variety of teaching, principal, superintendent, and director positions in the Rehoboth, New Mexico, private school system. Her professional activities also include engagements with the Van Lunen Center for Executive Management in Christian Schools, Gates Millennium Scholarships, and the Ford Foundation.

As World Renew Director U.S., Bremer-Bennett will provide overall direction to the organization, perform its executive and administrative functions, and support the U.S. Board and US-Canada Joint Ministry Council.

“Ms. Bremer-Bennett has excelled as a servant leader in Christian ministry at Rehoboth,” says Cole Meyer. “She has a deep passion for justice and addressing poverty as well as a wealth of practical experience in approaching its root causes in the North American context. We are excited by her heart for empowering people and continuing World Renew’s amazing work. We are looking forward to working with her as she uses her skills, abilities, and talents as the U.S. Director of World Renew.”