Staff
Ryan Jones
Cofounder, Executive Director
ryan@ionahouse.org
Ryan grew up in Placerville, though he was away for over 25 years. He has a Masters of Divinity (Fuller Theological Seminary, 2008) and a doctorate through Nashotah House Theological Seminary (2025). 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, campus development, fundraising, overseeing the residency program, 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, leading retreats, and also serving as a priest-in-residence - available for confession, pastoral care, and sacramental leadership.
Aaron Wolcott
Director of Operations
Aaron grew up in Central and East Africa where his parents worked alongside the local church. Upon completing university at Wake Forest, he returned to Africa where he worked for over a decade in the Democratic Republic of Congo, serving the needs of marginalized groups in leadership roles with several non-profit organizations. He met his wife, Bethany, while working in Congo and they have two children. He has an MA in Christian Studies from Denver Seminary.
At Iona House, Aaron serves as the Director of Operations, utilizing his background in developing systems and processes for global non-profits to help Iona House function smoothly and transparently, enabling the vision to flourish.
Elizabeth Jones
Cofounder, Associate Director
Director of Formation
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, leading groups, overseeing the Residency Program, and offering individual and communal spiritual direction.
Rika Sourial
Director of Hospitality
hospitality@ionahouse.org
Rika is from South Africa and has spent time serving in ministry within a variety of settings including in Egypt and most recently the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Rika has spent most of her ministry focused on ministering to children and doing outreach to those on the margins. Rika is married to Ihab (another beloved member of the Iona House community). Together they have served the Lord faithfully in some of the most difficult places imaginable. They are renowned by all who know them for their deeply hospitable way of engaging all people and their generosity of spirit.
Rika is the primary point of contact for people desiring to participate in the ministry of Iona House (whether for an overnight guest stay or for day visits). Rika also develops formation resources for children.
Ema Wonder & Rachel Hernandez
Hospitality Managers
Ema and Rachel, both from Placerville, CA are friends, neighbors, and now co-laborers at Iona House. Together they work to make sure each guest quarters and all of the common areas of Iona House are clean, orderly, hygienic and hospitable.
Other Iona House Leaders
The operation of Iona House involves many different leaders operating in different spheres
Residents (Fellows + Interns)
Those who serve in, for example, the following areas
Food / Communal Meals
Library
Gardeners
Animal Caretakers
Project Leaders
Forestry
Many thanks to: Margaret Alterton, Kevin Park, Diane & John Wheeler, Mike Lewis, Barbara Low, The Hudaks (Pat, Becky, and Jana), Harlan Young, Amy Lin, Micah Hitchcock, and many others!
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:
Amy Lin
co-board chair
Amy lives in San Francisco and most recently worked in cancer diagnostics as Senior Vice President, Head of Global Portfolio Strategy at Foundation Medicine. She was previously in various strategy roles at Genentech, and prior to that she was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. Amy has a BS and MS from MIT and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management. She attends Reality Church in San Francisco and serves with their food pantry and children’s ministries.
Ben Chelf
co-board chair
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.
Daniel Pyke
Treasurer & Whistleblower Officer
Daniel lives in Oakland with his wife Rachel and son Elias. Daniel is a consultant and in the process of developing a Classical Christian School in Oakland. Previously, he worked at Donum Dei Classical Christian Academy in San Francisco and before that at L’Abri in Switzerland where he and Rachel met. 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
Secretary
Denise Lee Yohn is the Cofounder 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.
Andy Ku
Board member at large
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.
Ryan Jones
Ex-officio board member as the
Executive Director
See the bio information above.
Advisors
The Iona House vision has emerged in the midst of many, many conversations with faithful people offering wisdom. Below is a partial list of the folks who have assisted in shaping this vision and offered assistance at key moments.
Rt. Rev. Eric Menees (Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin)
Rev. Dr. Greg Peters (Professor at Biola University Torrey Honors Program & Nashotah House Theological Seminary)
Michele Ruby (Cofounder of Generosity Bay Area)
Greg Jones (Principal at Greg Jones Architecture)
Helpful input from many others including: Graham Shea, Lorna Brindley, Will Fogleman, Alex Fogleman, Julie Younger Aleman, Dave Lomas, Gordon Landies, Beth Conkle, Dashell Laryea