MEET OUR STAFF

Allison Isaacson Beahm graduated from Vanderbilt University with majors in economics and communications. During her thirteen years at SERVPRO HQ, she spearheaded data visibility through franchise key performance metrics, led cause marketing efforts, hosted personal development retreats, developed resources to support the business development of SERVPRO franchises, and managed communications—editorial, press, multimedia, and the intranet. She was also a founding leader of the SERVPRO Women’s Initiative. She has served on the boards of nonprofit organizations like the Sumner County Family YMCA, Restore Ministries, Pope Saint John Paul II Preparatory Academy, and the First Responders Children’s Foundation. After serving on the board of Empower Ministry, she joined the staff as CEO in 2025—eager to expand the Kingdom and help cement her father’s most important legacy.

Jason McCormick is a dynamic business leader and ministry executive with a track record of building organizations from the ground up. He holds dual degrees in Industrial & Organizational Psychology and General Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University. Early in his career, Jason demonstrated a rare entrepreneurial instinct — acquiring an underperforming Budget Car & Truck Rental location and growing it from $8,000 to over $90,000 in monthly revenue within six months. He went on to serve as a key sales leader for multiple companies, taking products international and later founding an independent sales firm. In 2013, he answered a clear call to ministry, joining the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as Area Director for Northern Middle Tennessee, where he grew his region more than 16x and developed a stellar team. Now serving as COO of Empower Ministry, Jason brings that same vision-driven, results-oriented leadership to equipping Christian leaders across the nation.

Krista Wharton brings nearly two decades of nonprofit ministry, faith-based business transformation, and Fortune 500 enterprise AI product development to her role as Chief Marketing and AI Product Officer at Empower Ministry.

She didn't set out to build a career. She set out to seek Jesus first. A single moment on a mission field in Mexico sent her to study management and marketing at the University of Central Florida — with one vision: bring organization and scale to the Church.

What followed looks like a tapestry only God could design. She's led marketing for congregations of 5,000 to 7,000. She developed the playbooks behind Explore God — a movement that united 340 Austin-area churches under one brand and shifted how an entire city talked about faith. She took mature business lines at Ramsey Solutions from flat to 3x growth. At Amazon, God opened doors for her to lead in tech — building agentic AI solutions and AI products that personalize learning and development for 400,000 people annually.

In July 2026, she joined Empower Ministry to build for the Church.

Tim Hertel brings more than 20 years of technology and operations leadership to his role as Chief Technology Officer at Empower Ministry. His experience spans financial technology, manufacturing and distribution operations, M&A readiness, and executive advisory work. He has led enterprise IT for a national lending institution, co-founded and scaled Axem Distributing from inception through a successful exit, and advises organizations on technology-driven operations, automation, and scalable systems.

Tim's passion for ministry has always been closely connected to technology and leadership. He began serving in church production and IT as a teenager and has continued serving through worship ministry and advisory leadership. Today, he supports church leadership behind the scenes as a member of the Resource Team at Long Hollow Church. At Empower Ministry, Tim is excited to use his God-given gifts to build technology and operational solutions that help ministry leaders steward resources wisely, scale with excellence, and focus more fully on the work God has called them to do.

Doug Napier brings more than twenty‑five years of executive pastor leadership, guiding multi‑site churches through seasons of significant growth and organizational change. Throughout his ministry career, he has led large staff teams, developed scalable systems, and built operational frameworks that help churches lead with greater clarity, health, and effectiveness. His experience includes oversight of multi‑million‑dollar budgets, major capital development projects, and a multi‑site congregation of more than 4,500 people, along with navigating double‑digit growth in attendance, volunteer engagement, and community impact.

Doug holds an MBA and has taught business and organizational management at a Christian university, equipping emerging leaders with practical tools for stewardship, strategy, and team development. He has also consulted with churches and nonprofits in the areas of organizational systems, leadership coaching, and organizational health, helping leaders simplify complexity, strengthen their teams, and operate more effectively.

At Empower Ministry, Doug is passionate about developing practical resources and frameworks that help church leaders lead with confidence and steward what God has entrusted to them. He believes healthy churches need both a compelling vision and the systems, people, and processes to support it. He is committed to equipping leaders and churches to thrive and expand their Kingdom impact.

Jason Gingerich graduated from North Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Magna Cum Laude. He went on to earn his MBA with a 4.0 GPA and a focus in financial statement analysis and strategic management and induction into the Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society. A Certified Public Accountant licensed in Tennessee, Jason brings more than fifteen years of financial leadership across accounting, technology, and high-growth SaaS organizations. As Chief Financial Officer of ConnectBooster, he scaled the company from ten to more than one hundred employees, structured over $20 million in capital, lending, and funding, and led the company’s sale at a ten-times-ARR valuation. He later served as a finance leader at Kaseya, where he guided financial planning, forecasting, pricing strategy, KPI development, and product profitability across a multi-product SaaS portfolio.

As Jason has grown in faith, he has felt called to use his financial gifts in ways that reach beyond the numbers, desiring to put his God-given abilities to work for God’s glory and Kingdom. He joined Empower Ministry in 2026 to do exactly that.

Giah Kress has more than 25 years of ministry and executive support experience. She has served churches and ministries across Middle Tennessee in roles ranging from Executive Assistant to Minister of Worship and Community Life. Her background includes supporting executives at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Faith Church of Gallatin, and College Heights Baptist Church—managing everything from calendars and travel to large, complex events. With a degree in Music Education from Union University and a lifelong love for ministry, Giah is excited to combine her love of ministry and administration to further the Kingdom. She brings steady leadership, attention to detail, and a heart for people and the Lord to everything she does.

Damarea is a Nashville-based creative and brand strategist working at the intersection of design, storytelling, and community. He studied graphic design at Middle Tennessee State University, where he won a Student Gold ADDY Award for his creative work. Damarea spent eight years inside Ramsey Solutions’ in-house creative team, growing from associate designer to Senior Brand Marketing Designer.

He led the redesign of the Ramsey+ landing page, driving a 2% conversion lift worth roughly $2 million in annual revenue, and grew EveryDollar’s social following past 100,000. He built a fan-photography storytelling process from scratch that scaled across three product teams and remains in use today. On SmartDollar’s key-accounts team, he designed marketing materials for national partners like Costco and U-Haul, partnering closely with UX/UI teams along the way, a foundation he’s building on as he grows into product design.

Raised in church, Damarea developed a foundation of faith practices as a child, but it wasn’t until college that he developed his own relationship with God. It’s his faith, he says, that gives him the capacity to overcome challenges and grow into a better person every day.

Outside of work, Damarea spends his time with his wife and their three little ones. He also helps lead worship at his church and loves creating, from sneaker customizations to art installations, as well as menswear styling on social media. In September 2026, he joined Empower Ministry as Product & Brand Experience Designer. He’s excited to get plugged in with the team, learn, grow, and help churches be their best.

Dr. Mason earned her Ph.D. in computer science from Vanderbilt University, where her research focused on improving hearing outcomes for patients with cochlear implants. Consisting of several published papers, her dissertation introduced a novel, deep-learning application of the Mumford Shah functional for finding invisible nerve fibers in CT images, as well as a novel AI-based approach to Augmented Reality assisted surgery dependent on patient-specific anatomy. After years spent helping people in the medical field, she is grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve people as a career. She has been a long-time participant of church volunteer teams, from serving in her church's media booth in middle school to her current role on the volunteer broadcast team at her church. She is excited to use her unique passion for technology and people to empower the church to bring God's love to all.