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Click here to view our 2023 Impact Report
Our Team
We would love to connect with you! Click on our names to email us and connect with us individually.
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Abby co-founded Kindred Exchange with Lauren Pinkston in 2020. She graduated from Lipscomb University, where she studied missional entrepreneurship. She has always had a heart for travel and connecting with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
Abby and her husband, Carson, are the founders of Littlefield Creative, a media marketing agency for travel brands and nonprofits. She is passionate about creative storytelling and loves the visual marketing side of running an organization.
The Littlefields are currently living in Jinja, Uganda and enjoy traveling as often as they can.
Ugandan Programs Director
Tom is driven by his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for making a difference in his community. Tom's journey began at Rochester College, where he discovered his love for business. After graduating in 2012, Tom moved back to Jinja and began working with Kibo Group.
Since 2022, Tom has faithfully overseen our Cohort program in Uganda. Tom has a passion for business as mission and seeing the Global Church uplift and support one another.
Beyond his professional achievements, Tom finds his greatest joy in his role as a loving husband to his beautiful wife, Irene, and as a devoted father to their three children: Becky, Caleb, and Silas.
Ugandan Programs Coordinator
Sam is a natural entrepreneur with a passion for creating income-generating opportunities in his community. In 2018, he founded Raise a Chick Africa (RACA), a chicken egg hatchery business that has grown into a platform for raising healthy chicks and empowering others to start their own ventures. Through village trainings and generous donations of chicks, Sam has helped countless individuals kickstart their own businesses.
After graduating from our 2023 Entrepreneurship Cohort, Sam has taken on a new role with our team, where he oversees community progress, assists with trainings, and facilitates business workshops.
Cross-Cultural Coordinator
Aaron has been married to his wife, Danielle, since 2004. They met as students at Ozark Christian College and have four children. Aaron spent 12 years working for an organization in East Asia, seven of which were located in country serving among the academic community as a professor in foreign language and culture.
He has a Master’s in Intercultural Studies from Wheaton College and a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Biola University, where his dissertation focused on contextualized evangelism strategy. He is also currently a Professor of Ministry at Ozark Christian College.
Administrative Assistant
Susan worked in the music industry in Nashville, TN for 13 years after studying Communications and Public Relations at Lipscomb University. With her background in organization, email and social media marketing, and her passion for communication, she loves assisting the Kindred Exchange team on an administrative level.
Susan lives in Nashville with her husband David and their two kids.
Board of Directors
Board Chair & Treasurer
Chella is the Executive Business Administrator of a healthcare company in North Texas where she lives with her husband, Steve, and their two (mostly grown) children.
As young parents, Steve and Chella first discovered a passion for cross-cultural connection through short-term mission opportunities in Nepal. This spark ultimately led to the Lorenz family relocating to Nepal for a season, during which time Chella organized and facilitated short-term trips for incoming teams. Since then, she’s had many opportunities to lead or participate in trips around the world, finding joy in simply connecting with and and learning from other cultures.
Chella loves to travel, will spend endless hours reading, and is happy to go anywhere there’s going to be live music. She especially loves taking unique trips with her family that revolve around concerts, record stores, and bookshops.
Co-Founder & Board Member
Lauren co-founded Kindred Exchange with Abby Littlefield in 2020. From 2014-2019, she lived in Southeast Asia combining community development philosophies with organic business models to bootstrap effective economic change for families needing safe work.
Lauren is a writer, a speaker, and a podcaster. She hosts the Upwardly Dependent podcast, where she dives into challenging conversations with guests on topics of modern Christianity.
Lauren enjoys traveling with her family, cooking, and writing about the convergence of faith, culture and justice. She is actively involved with civic responsibilities in her town of Columbia, Tennessee, and is an advocate for ethical supply chains and employment practices.
Board Member
In 2012, Rob co-founded The Well Coffeehouse as a social enterprise that turns profits into hope for those who lack access to clean water. He also planted and pastors Dwell, a marketplace church that meets at The Well, and preaches weekly at the Christ Family church.
Rob received the NASBA Center for the Public Trust Making a Difference Award in 2017, was named Nashville’s Business Innovator of the Year in 2016 by 12th and Broad, and awarded the Mary Morris Award For Exemplary Service in 2015.
As the the creator and Director of the Center for Vocational Discovery at Lipscomb University, Rob teaches and mentors students to think missionally about their future vocation. He earned a Master of Divinity from Lipscomb and served students for 16 years as a youth minister. Rob loves the outdoors, Jeep Wranglers, baseball, and podcasting. His greatest gift is his family. He is happily married to Aimee and they have four children.
Board Member
Ashlei is a Christ-led author, educator, coach, mentor, and consultant. In 2016, she started The Ash Exchange as a blog with the sole purpose of living out Isaiah 61:1-3. Over the years, the vision has expanded to embracing, educating, and empowering Christians globally through Christian education, educational consulting, mentoring, and coaching.
As an advocate of education, Ashlei has a B.A. in English Literature, M. Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction, and Ed.D. in Language, Literacy, & Special Populations. She desires to intertwine her love of the Bible and education to establish and support mentoring and literacy programs, schools, and orphanages that are founded on the principles of God's word. In order to further equip herself for the role she plays in ministry, she is currently pursuing a Master of Biblical and Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Aside from writing, teaching, coaching, mentoring, consulting, and traveling, she enjoys singing, reading, listening to music, watching movies, and fellowshipping with friends.
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