Staff

Ryan Jones

Cofounder, Executive Director

ryan@ionahouse.org

Ryan grew up in Placerville, though he was away for 25 years. He has a Masters of Divinity (Fuller Theological Seminary, 2008) and is currently working on a doctorate through Nashotah House Theological Seminary. Previous to Iona House, Ryan was the founding Rector (lead pastor) of Eucharist Church in San Francisco. Over the course of his approx. 20 years of ministry, Ryan has served as a pastor on the staff of five congregations. Ryan is a Pastoral Fellow with the Catechesis Institute. He is ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in North America and currently serves as the founding rector of All Saints Church in Placerville. At Iona House, Ryan is responsible for vision, fundraising, and the development and management of the leadership team & staff. Together with Elizabeth, he is shaping the vision and cultivating the overall ethos of the ministry. Ryan’s role involves teaching workshops, leading retreats, and also serving as a priest-in-residence - available for confession, pastoral care, and sacramental leadership.

 

Elizabeth Jones

Cofounder, Associate Director
Director of Soul Care

elizabeth@ionahouse.org

Elizabeth is from the San Francisco Bay Area and has a master’s degree in counseling psychology (Santa Clara University) alongside receiving additional training to become a spiritual director. Elizabeth’s ministry the past few years has focused primarily on providing spiritual direction and counseling. In addition to this, Elizabeth was the co-director of San Francisco-based Eucharist Church’s spiritual formation cohort program (Catechumenate). Her role in this ministry included curriculum development, teaching, and group processing. She has also spent time as a music leader, a hospice grief counselor, spiritual disciplines instructor, equine-assisted psychotherapy horse expert, and project manager in Stanford’s Psychophysiology lab exploring the connection between our minds, bodies and emotions. Elizabeth is the Director of Music at All Saints Church in Placerville. At Iona House, Elizabeth utilizes her education in counseling psychology, spiritual direction, and theology to oversee many of the spiritual formation aspects of Iona House. Her role involves developing the Iona House Community Choir, teaching workshops, leading groups, and offering individual and group spiritual direction.

 

Emily Brannan

Director of Hospitality & Volunteer Coordinator

emily@ionahouse.org

Emily is from the East Bay (though now living in Placerville) and has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Sacramento State. Emily is currently training to be a Spiritual Director. Most recently, Emily worked as a Business Operations Specialist in the Computation Directorate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Previously, she was the Guest Service manager at a 400-unit retirement community in Livermore. She has been on staff at two churches in the East Bay as well as volunteering for a handful of organizations doing everything from planning events for 200+ people to serving meals at the local soup kitchen. At Iona House, Emily is responsible for helping to shape the guest experience by working with Elizabeth to envision aesthetics, managing the care of the interior of the homes, and assisting with the needs of those staying in the homes on retreats. Additionally, she coordinates the volunteer activities at Iona House - scheduling volunteers and assisting with volunteer projects.

 
Housekeeping Managers

Ema Wonder & Rachel Hernandez

Hospitality Managers

Ema and Rachel, both from Placerville, CA are dear friends, neighbors, and now co-laborers. Together they work to make sure each guest quarters and all of the common areas of Iona House are clean, orderly, hygienic and hospitable.

 
 
 

Leaders

Each of the leaders below invests in a particular area of our ministry; on any given week you will likely see them around campus

Margaret Alterton & Deb Brannan

Librarians

 

Pat & Becky Hudak

Lead Gardeners
(young assistant, Nathan Jones)

 

Barbara Low & Mike Lewis

Animals

 

Amy Lin

Strategic Development & Project Management

 

Harlan Young

Forestry

 

Diane Wheeler

Food for groups / events

 
 

Strategic Advisors

The Iona House vision has emerged in the midst of many, many conversations with faithful people offering wisdom. Below are a few of the folks who are guiding this vision and providing assistance.

Here are a few of the names of folks we have turned to over the past few years:

  • Professor at Nashotah House Theological Seminary & Biola University • Author & Scholar of Christian monasticism • Anglican Priest

    Expertise on all things monastic

  • Co-founder of Generosity Bay Area

    Guidance on fundraising and vision

  • Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin

    Spiritual oversight and pastoral care for Fr. Ryan & Elizabeth Jones

  • Founder of Ezra

    Guidance and assistance with vision and communication

  • Former co-director (alongside Fr. Thomas Brindley†) of St. Columba Retreat House (Inverness, CA)

    Practicalities of operating a retreat center

  • Founder / Principal of Greg Jones Architecture

    Architecture and campus layout

  • Director at McKesson • founding member of the Iona House board

    Overall vision, wisdom, and support

  • Executive Director of the Younger Family Foundation

    Partnerships, Fundraising, Nonprofit management

  • Founder & Lead Pastor of RealitySF

    Wisdom about ministry to urban, post-Christian contexts; aesthetics

  • Canon for Catechetical Formation for the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin; Founder and Director of the Anglican Catechist Training School

    Prayer, Spiritual warfare, Encouragement

  • CEO of Traction Holdings
    Growth Consulting for Founders and CEO’s. M&A Consulting for Technology Companies.

    Real estate acquisition, fundraising, faith

 
 
 

Board of Directors

Iona House is incorporated as the Institute for Christoformity, a religious, tax-exempt, nonprofit recognized as a 501(c)(3) by the IRS. As a nonprofit, the Institute for Christoformity abides by a set of bylaws and is operated under the authority of a Board of Directors. The Institute for Christoformity is currently in the process of developing a board of directors. The board (in development) currently consists of five committed Christians: 

 
Ben Chelf headshot.png

Ben Chelf

Ben and his wife Kim and two children live in San Francisco where he is a General Partner at Elementum Ventures. Ben also heads up the Venture Lab at Praxis, helping serial entrepreneurs research and develop new organizations from the moment of inspiration to incorporation. He was a co-founder of Coverity, a software quality and security company birthed from his research as a PhD student at Stanford. Ben is passionate about seeing people live out and deepen their faith. Ben and his family attend Epic Church in San Francisco.

Andy Ku

Andy lives in the Bay Area where he is a Partner at IQT. Prior to this he served as a White House Fellow. For most of his career, Andy has worked at tech companies including Google, Linkedin, and as a startup founder of his own company. Andy has a BS in Engineering from Stanford and a MBA from Harvard Business School. He attends Reality Church in San Francisco.

Daniel Pyke

Daniel lives in Oakland with his wife Rachel and son Elias. Daniel teaches and works as the Business Operations Director at Donum Dei Classical Academy in San Francisco. Previously, he worked at L’Abri in Switzerland where he and Rachel met. Daniel has also spent time working in consulting and several startup companies. Daniel has a B.A from UCLA and a Masters degree from Western Seminary. He and his family attend Eucharist Church in San Francisco.

Denise Yohn

Denise Lee Yohn is the Co-Executive Director of the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech, the Founder/Director of Faith & Work Journey, and a keynote speaker, consultant, and writer on brand leadership.  Her work calling is to help businesspeople faithfully steward their professional vocations.  Denise and her husband, Chris, have lived in San Francisco since 2016 and lead a community group at Christ Church East Bay.

 
 

Ryan Jones

See the bio information above.