Coaching Faculty

Bill Copper, FCBA

Bill Copper is a coach and trainer in areas of church administration, team building, and technology. A certified coach through Valwood Christian Leadership Coaching, Bill’s passion is helping to build capacity in ministry leaders to provide excellent levels of quality and service.

Bill serves as director of the Hollifield Leadership Center in Conover, NC, a cutting-edge leadership development retreat center developed by the Baptist State Convention of NC. Prior to joining the BSCNC, Bill was church administrator at First Baptist Church, Hickory, NC, and before that managed a network of stores in Florida. He has developed service at Hollifield Leadership Center to the extent that in North Carolina, “the Hollifield way,” has become a descriptive term for quality.

As a founding partner of The Columbia Partnership, Bill helped to create a team of Christian professionals who intentionally meld their corporate experience with their faith commitment to join battle in arenas where the contests have eternal consequences. Bill is certified by the National Association of Church Business Administration as a Fellow in Church Business Administration (FCBA).

Bill earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He has gained broad management experience in both for profit and non-profit organizations and has held a wide range of leadership positions in the local church.

Bill and his wife Chelo live in Lenoir, NC. They have three sons. Bill enjoys his sons’ sports activities and playing golf.

Jane Creswell, MCC

At the age of 19, Jane Creswell felt called by God to be a missionary to the business world. Since then, her prayer has been to fully integrate her faith into all aspects of her life, particularly her business endeavors, and to be intentional in her efforts to reach out to corporate employees. She is passionate about partnering with leaders to help them lead from a faith perspective. She takes an active role in her church in small group Bible study and leading efforts to focus on reaching the unchurched.

In recent years, Jane leveraged 17 years of product development and management experience at IBM to invent the role of “Organization Coach” and become the founder of IBM Coaches Network, a group that now consists of 300+ coaches across 26 countries. At IBM, she focused her organization on achieving extraordinary results by individual coaching of the leaders at all levels of the organization.

Jane utilizes those experiences to help organizations wanting to foster a coaching culture. Much of her work is with leaders who want to make the high impact transition from merely influencing others to developing excellent leaders who develop excellent leaders. She agrees with describing excellent leaders as “those who embody deep personal humility and fierce resolve, influencing success which is felt long after they move on”.

As an International Coach Federation (ICF) Master Certified Coach (MCC), Jane enjoys speaking at conferences to inspire other corporate coaches and corporate employees and has spoken in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. Multiple articles have been published about her internal coaching work including recent ones in HR Magazine and TIME Magazine. Most recently, Jane serves as an adjunct faculty member of Western Seminary in Portland, OR where she has co-developed several masters degree courses in leadership coaching for ministry leaders.

Jane is married to her college sweetheart, has two teenage sons and enjoys quilting and travel.

Chad Hall, PCC

As a college freshman, I came to a life-changing conclusion: if this God story is true and Jesus is who the church has claimed him to be, everything ought to aim at making this story known. Since that experience nearly two decades ago, I have dedicated my life to making the story known through writing, coaching, and ministering to leaders.

Along the way, I have served churches in associate and lead pastor roles, planted a church, helped plant a few others, served as a denominational consultant and coached ministry leaders across the nation. I currently serve as an Executive Coach with SAS Institute, Inc. in Cary, NC, where I coach leaders and train managers to use coaching. Every day offers new challenges and fresh rewards and I am amazed at what God is up to in this world. Along with the other Western Coaching faculty, I look forward to walking alongside you as you discover the next step God has for you.

When I am not writing, coaching or speaking, you can bet that I am hanging out in my backyard with my wife, Holly, our three small children and the neighbors with whom we do life.

Bill Howard

“With 25 years of service in the rear view mirror, I’m beginning the “second half” of my ministry with more excitement and passion than ever before.”

Bill is the 17 year Sr. pastor of Willow Ridge Church, where he is leading the congregation to dedicate themselves to two simple disciplines – loving God and loving people. Bill believes that we have made the church far too complicated and structured. “The church was founded as a fluid movement, where followers of Christ had the sole purpose of “infecting” the world with the light and goodness of Jesus. Instead of a movement, much of the church world today has become a scheduled event, housed in four walls, where we specialize in a polished show that people applaud each week. This – we call church.”

Bill’s second half passion is to lead a movement that will call the church outside the walls and into the world. To this effort, he has founded Be Coached!, a Christian coaching practice dedicated to teaching, coaching and building disciples who will lead the way in redefining the church for the 21st century.

Bill lives in Lexington, SC with his wife of 26 years and their 3 college age sons.

Ken Kessler

Ken has a great love for the local church. His thirty years of ministry have been built around ministries of the local church. He loves to see the church live to its full Kingdom potential and has devoted his life to find ways to help churches and their leaders.

A native of Louisana, Ken moved to North Carolina as a teenager. He graduated from Myers Park High School in Charlotte, NC, in 1975. Then, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gardner-Webb University with Summa Cum Laude honors in 1978 and his Master of Divinity degree from Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, in 1981.

Ken has served churches and local associations in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. His experience focuses on helping churches deal with strategic, organizational, and leadership direction. One of the biggest assignments Ken has overseen is the relocation project of a large church in Tennessee, but he has also led congregations and local districts and associations in SSJ processes, leadership training, and staff team building. In 1995, Ken earned a Doctor of Ministry from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His doctoral ministry project was in the adult education ministry area of church life. His learning emphasis has been on coaching church members and church leaders to grow in their learning capacities in personal, spiritual, and leadership areas

As a Certified Ministry Leadership coach through Valwood Coaching, he serves as a personal ministry and life coach for many leaders. Serving as the team leader of the Associational Partnerships Team for the Baptist State Convention of NC, Ken presently coordinates and coaches a systemic effort to provide basic and premium program and service assistance to Baptist associations and their leaders to reach their full kingdom potential and to provide innovative program and service assistance for the emerging 21st century associations. He also serves as coordinator for demographic data services and Senior Coach for Lake Hickory Learning Communities.

Ken is known best as the husband of Teresa Vaughn of Greenville, SC, and the father of three sons, Kevin, Bryan, and Jacob. In his spare time, Ken loves to read, play golf, follow college sports teams in basketball and football, and coach his youngest son in whatever sport is popular at the moment.

Linda Miller, MCC

Linda Miller believes that successful organizations are supported by strong internal dynamics. Holding two master's degrees, Linda worked for 12 years in the behavioral science field, specializing in building productive and collaborative relationships typically dealing with major sources of conflict. Today, Linda is known as an executive coach and facilitator. Her clients include leaders and teams from Alltel, Black and Decker, Boeing, Carlson, Deloitte, Delta Faucet, Disney, Duke Energy, KPMG, Nissan, and WD40. She also delivers coach training at career resource centers affiliated with Thunderbird, the University of Washington and USC's MBA programs.

Currently, Linda serves as an Executive Coach and Global Liaison for Coaching with The Ken Blanchard Companies. She is a founding recipient of the Master Certified Coach designation from the International Coach Federation and has served on their board.

In the not-for-profit arena, Linda and her husband have served on several church staffs. Part of her coaching ministry includes participating as a coach with a Lilly Grant to sustain pastoral excellence.

Linda lives in Phoenix, AZ and has two married daughters.

Phil Newell

Steve Stratos

Norm Thiesen

James Warrick, ACC, MA

James Warrick is a business and life coach. He is passionate about partnering with individuals and teams to help them live in their greatest potential. James develops a midsize company by bringing clarity, being a catalyst for vision, and implementing a plan for forward movement. As a coach, he walks along side people to reach their goals. People work with James for many different reasons – most commonly for personal growth in career performance, team development, life balance, transition, communication skills, relationships and health.

James has a Masters in Coaching and is credentialed with the International Coaching Federation. He enjoys using his education and experience to train new coaches. James cares deeply about leadership and community development. He has served on staff at a church and currently serves on the Board of Directors with Habitat for Humanity. Partnership, generosity, and hope are some of his values. James lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and 3 children.