Chris is a jail chaplain and pastor to gangs and violent offenders in Washington’s Skagit Valley. He is the founding co-director of Underground Ministries and cofounder of Underground Coffee, both connecting those from the underground of incarceration to communities for mutual transformation. Chris and his Co-Director José “Neaners” Garcia — a former gang leader and solitary confinement prisoner — travel and speak on the mutual transformation we experience when we open ourselves to the realities repressed within ourselves and to the lives buried in the national subconscious. On the “outside,” they are organizing church denominations in Washington State to respond to an age of mass incarceration with a new OneParishOnePrisoner initiative. On the “inside,” Chris is exploring how Eastern Orthodox theology and trauma-informed monastic practices might be applied by inmates to repurpose their time and cells for spiritual resistance and renewal deep within society’s dumpsters. Chris received his BA from the University of California at Berkeley and his MFA in creative nonfiction from Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of WANTED: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jail, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders.