Meet the international team
Our international team includes people from all over the world to serve the Logos and Cosmos Initiative in Latin America and Francophone Africa.
Professor Ross McKenzie, Leader of the Logos and Cosmos Initiative, is an Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Queensland, Australia. He was an undergraduate at the Australian National University and received a PhD from Princeton University, USA.
Ross is married to Robin, whom he met in an Intervarsity USA group for graduate students, and has two adult children, both of whom were involved with AFES as undergraduates. Ross helped facilitate the Big Issues in the University Project (2017-18), and over the years, he has interacted with IFES student groups in the USA, Australia, South Asia, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden. He is a member of the Simeon Network (AFES) of Christian academics in Australia.
Ross enjoys writing two blogs: Soli Deo Gloria: Thoughts on theology, science and culture, and a blog related to his scientific research, Condensed Concepts.
Sophie van Houtryve works as Operations Manager for the Logos and Cosmos Initiative and is based at the IFES International Services in Oxford, UK. She holds a Masters in Translation (Dutch, English, French and Spanish) and a BA in Biblical & Intercultural Studies.
Sophie became a Christian through the IFES movement in Flanders, Belgium (Ichtus) and has worked in a variety of roles in IFES as well as the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. As a freelance translator and editor, she’s been involved in a number of publications over the years.
Sophie lives with her husband Tim and their three children in a village near Oxford.
As Curriculum Manager for the LCI, Dr Stephen Ney coordinates mentoring and online training for catalysts and advocates.
Formerly a lecturer in English & African literatures at the University of Sierra Leone, he continues to live in Freetown with his family. His postgraduate degrees are in Biblical Studies and West African literary history. But his first degree was in Maths & Computer Science, and he is grateful that the LCI has allowed him to reactivate some of the interests he had as an undergraduate.
Stephen has enjoyed participating in the conferences of IFES national movements in the Gambia, the Philippines, and Nigeria, as well as his native land Canada, where his father was on Inter-Varsity staff many years ago.
Sarah Orner is the Grant Writer for the Logos and Cosmos Initiative. She is currently based in West Virginia, but has lived in Florida, California, and Wisconsin, as well as Costa Rica and Panama. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University and has worked for IFES/USA since 2016. Prior to that, she worked as a copywriter and editor, and also for InterVarsity/USA on the Urbana Operations team. Sarah is married to Kevin, who is a university professor, and they have two children.
Dr Timothée Joset is married and lives in French-speaking Switzerland, were he works with the local IFES movement. He is responsible for the Faith & Studies ministry which trains students to integrate their faith and their studies. Having experienced Christian engagement with the University first hand, he wants to share his passion with others. Formerly student member of the IFES International Board, he’s currently doing a PhD which explores the rich past of IFES from historical, theological and missiological perspectives.
Timothée is a bookworm and serves as the LCI librarian.
Dr Penny Vinden is a freelance writer whose current focus is on content editing for the IFES e-learning program. She has been involved with IFES on and off since she served on the executive of her university’s IFES group in Canada. Her long and varied academic history has taken her from undergraduate studies in English literature and Philosophy through Theology to Education and Psychology. Time as a literary consultant with Wycliffe Bible Translators, her PhD research and university teaching have taken her to Peru, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon and the wilds of several US cities. She still loves learning about different cultural expressions of who we are as God’s creation.
Yadira Colin is the Translation Coordinator for the LCI. She was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She studied in a private French school but the social unrest in the country forced them to move to Paris where she studied an LEA Spanish/English degree and then moved to Granada (Spain) to a Translation and Interpreting Masters. Yadira became involved with IFES that year and started a study group for her flatmates. She has been part of interpretation team during World Assembly in 2015, 2019 and 2023 is excited to be part of the LCI team.
Elaine Bible is a freelance Communications Consultant for the LCI. She has worked in public relations and communications for a variety of organizations including the international development organization Oxfam, Oxford University, San Francisco State University and IFES.
She studied Geography at the University of Oxford where she was involved with OIICU, the IFES student group. Following graduation, she went onto work for IFES in a communications role, which marked the start of her more than 20- year communications career.
She lives with her husband and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Charlotte Screnock is the Project Coordinator for the Logos and Cosmos Initiative. Prior to this she worked as a Resource Manager for IFES Graduate Impact, where she saw the need to help people connect their faith to their work.
She has always enjoyed working with and learning from people of different nationalities. Born and raised in Minnesota, US, she holds a BA in English as a Foreign Language Education and in Bible, and has taught in the United States, Canada and Bangladesh. Charlotte now lives in a quiet village outside of Oxford, UK, with her husband John and their three children.
