Board of Directors
Brooks Knoble - Board Chair
Brooks is the Principal of The Cushman Group, Inc., a market research/audience & lead generation/team-building company in Greenville. Brooks also serves as Principal/COO for TimeOut Sports, which offers sports mentoring and social media marketing. He has also served as Principal for 2 market research companies (Carolina Market Research + Coastal Focus) and Principal/CMO for 2 internet companies (GoGroupgo.com + ASAPconnect.com), leading the latter to acquisition by a NASDAQ-traded company.
Brooks lives in Greenville, SC with his wife Stephanie and 2 children, Grant and Anna Dyer. He is a past member of the Episcopal Diocesan Executive Standing Committee and has chaired the Diocesan Commission on Congregations for 3 years. He is a national facilitator for the Episcopal Gathering of Leaders Leadership program. He is passionate about helping teams reach their maximum potential and helping messages reach the right audience. He is also a massive cinephile and audiophile. Email Brooks.
Dr. David Fink
David Fink is Assistant Professor of Religion at Furman University, where he teaches courses on the history of Christianity and Christian theology in the pre-modern world. He earned his BA in English from the University of Minnesota (2001), MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (2004), and PhD from Duke University (2010). He also serves as a chaplain in the US Air Force Reserve, assigned to Joint Base Charleston, SC. Before joining the faculty at Furman in 2013, he taught at Duke, Wake Forest, and Aurora University.
David’s wife, Sarah, is a fourth grade teacher and curriculum coordinator at Veritas Preparatory School in Greenville, SC, where their four children attend. In his free time, David enjoys hiking the foothills of the upstate and reading science fiction.
Mark Childress
Mark is a Modern Work Specialist at Microsoft. He is also a sports radio and television host. Mark hosts The Tiger Tailgate Show on over 25 radio stations before Clemson football games. He is also a sports reporter and anchor at WSPA Channel 7 in Greenville/Spartanburg. Mark was recently nominated for an Emmy for his roles as producer and host of the television series Clemson’s Greatest Games.
Mark is a graduate of Furman University with a degree in Public Communications. He currently lives in Greenville, SC and has two children – Faxon (19) and McCain (15).
Dr. Onarae Rice
Onarae Rice was born and raised in Spartanburg, S.C. He graduated from Wofford College with a B.S. in Psychology. While at Wofford, he interned for a semester at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island. After graduating, he accepted a job in the medical department at BNL.
While at BNL, he completed a PhD. in Biopsychology from Stony Brook University where he studied the brain's endogenous cannabinoid system and its potential role in mediating and modulating the rewarding properties of various classes of abusive drugs.
In 2006, Onarae accepted an Assistant Professor position in Furman’s Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program. He is now an Associate Professor and the Director of the Neuroscience program. His research employs behavioral assays and neural imaging techniques to better understand drug addiction and the role of various receptors in this process.
Toni Land
Toni Land is Head of Clinical Healthcare Experience at Medallia, an international customer experience software company, where she serves as the strategy and thought leader for patient, family and team member experiences across healthcare encounters in all settings.
Toni spent over 32 years in healthcare, allowing her to impact many areas of patient, family and employee experience. These areas include bedside nursing, educator, manager, home care, medical practice, performance improvement at Novant Health, establishing a system patient experience program at Prisma Health and, more recently, Chief Patient Experience & Quality Officer at Medical Center Health System. These experiences involved direct engagement with complex areas of healthcare, helping Toni evaluate how to implement and sustain change.
Toni has her Master’s in Business Administration, Bachelor’s in Nursing, and Patient Experience Certification through the Beryl Institute. She lives in Greenville with her husband. She is the mother of four adult children, grandmother to two beautiful grandchildren, and a “dog mom” to her adorable Havapoo, Sadie. She enjoys reading, running, crochet and cross stitch.
Founder of MCF
Shawn Plunkett
Along with James Granberry, Shawn Plunkett created Mere Christianity Forum in the fall of 2000. Leveraging mediocre Photoshop skills and a willingness to talk to anyone, Shawn grew a weekly book discussion into an thriving community thoughtfully exploring Christian faith at Furman University. Recognizing the need of a dedicated space to explore faith in lived community, Shawn founded Vista House, MCF's intentional Christian community on an eight acre property just outside of Furman's campus in 2003.
Shawn served the first Executive Director of Mere Christianity Forum from 2003 until 2005 and served as Board Chair from 2003-2015. At some point during his time at Furman University, Shawn found time to major in Philosophy with a concentration in Classics. He then studied ethics and comedy (!), graduating with honors from Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina in 2008. After a few years in non-profit consulting, Shawn dove head first into leadership coaching after completing a program at Georgetown University in 2011.
Shawn now lives in San Francisco where he coaches seed-stage startup founders.
Interested in being on our Board of Directors? Contact Rimes McElveen.