Chelsea Skillen has resigned as director of Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) effective Feb. 10. She has served in leadership of BVS for more than three years, since Oct. 24, 2022. She plans to move to Portugal and will be joining her husband’s publishing business.
Skillen’s passion for working with volunteers and nonprofit organizations has been lived out through her tenure with BVS, and previously as she served two years as a BVS volunteer including one as orientation assistant in the BVS office. During her tenure as director, BVS continued to develop new models for orientation and volunteer placement, added new volunteer placement sites, and most recently began an Early Enrollment Program to encourage volunteers to apply for specific placements, know their placement in advance, and have earlier access to limited international placements. One of the biggest changes of her BVS tenure was the team going remote.
In previous work related to the church, Skillen also served through On Earth Peace, the New Community Project, Camp Bethel, and a refugee program in Australia, and was a keynote speaker at Church of the Brethren events including National Junior High Conference, National Young Adult Conference, Annual Conference, and National Youth Conference.
Skillen is a graduate of Bridgewater (Va.) College with a bachelor of science degree in Liberal Studies, and of Regis University with a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership.
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