Three Elected to Board of Governors

Three men were elected to the community’s board of governors on May 14 in South Bend: Nick Holovaty (Mission Division, Evansville), Joel Kibler (Servant Branch) and John Zwerneman (South Bend).

Each will serve a six-year term that begins on December 1. They will join seven other men who will continue to serve on the board: Mike Coney (New Orleans), Craig Lent (chairman, South Bend), Bob McDonough (South Bend), Phil Monaco (Corvallis), Pat Murphy (Servant Branch), Jim Mysliwiec (Northern Virginia) and Mike Zusi (South Bend). Members of the board of governors are also known as head coordinators.

In December, current board members Charlie Fraga (Vancouver-Portland), Kerry Koller (South Bend) and Kevin Ranaghan (South Bend) will each complete a second consecutive term. Members who serve two terms consecutively are not immediately eligible for reelection, but can be reelected after a two-year break.

Joel Kibler is currently a member of the board and will begin his second term in December.

Dr. John Zwerneman is the principal branch coordinator for South Bend, a position he has held for almost 12 years. (His second term ends on October 15, 2014). John works as a hospital psychiatrist and also has a degree in internal medicine. He joined the community in 1977 in South Bend, together with his parents Jim and Nancy Zwerneman. (Nancy died in 1978, while Jim, a long time member of the northern Virginia branch, died in 2005.) John and his wife Amy married in 1983. Early in their marriage, they spent a year in Israel, where John worked as a missionary doctor. They lived in Grenada for six years, and three of their five children were born on the island. John’s brother Andrew is a member of the northern Virginia branch. John is a Roman Catholic.

Nick Holovaty has been the community’s Mission program coordinator since 2006. He is the head of a household of ten missionaries who live in Evansville, Indiana. Since joining the community in 2001, Nick has lived in South Bend, Servant Branch, Indianapolis, Shreveport and now Evansville. He helped establish the community’s new starts in Allendale and in Indianapolis. Nick has deep missionary roots. His parents, Orest and Susan Holovaty (South Bend), lived as missionaries in Russia and Ukraine. Nick lived with them in Russia for seven years as a child, and he is a fluent Russian speaker. His grandparents and great-grandparents include ordained Presbyterian ministers, an Eastern Rite Catholic priest, and missionaries to Brazil and the Congo. Nick is a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Board members are elected by an assembly comprised of the overall coordinator, head coordinators, principal branch coordinators and program coordinators, previous overall coordinators and head coordinators who have served as such within six years, according to the Principles of Structure and Government of the People of Praise.