Kevin M. Ressler, M.Div has spent his life seeking ways to bring about an equitable peace and justice for all. These endeavors started as early as elementary school speaking against bullies, through Middle School where he disrupted a semester-long Revolutionary War history simulation (having been made Governor of Pennsylvania, he demanded freeing slaves as part of the Declaration of Independence), through forming Peace Club in High School.
Kevin’s personal journey increasingly interacted with the realities of poverty and the negative historical and social repercussions beginning with a learning tour to Nicaragua at fifteen years of age with Witness for Peace to visits to his mother’s homeland in Eastern Africa during formative years, to a month-long trip to Southern Africa and Zimbabwe during Mennonite World Conference and eventually studying a semester in the Middle East while attaining his B.A at Eastern Mennonite University. His first post-college job was a year-long volunteer year in Oakland, California with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service living with an intentional community before returning to Lancaster for an AmeriCorps VISTA year with Community First Fund when he bought a house in an economically distressed part of Lancaster City, where he and his wife, Melissa, still reside while raising their daughters Acacia and Iriana as active participants in the neighborhood and SDOL.
Kevin earned a Master of Divinity through Lancaster Theological Seminary, hoping to integrate his spiritual and moral concerns with the professional activities he could engage in through non-profit leadership. He spent 5 years growing Meals on Wheels of Lancaster and joined United Way of Lancaster County on January 1, 2020. His volunteer work includes board and committee work as Board President of Meals on Wheels of Lancaster, Board Chair of Everence Federal Credit Union, and at large member of Landis Quality Living, UPMC Lititz Hospital, United Way of Pennsylvania, Conestoga Valley Education Foundation, Partnership for Public Health and a variety of community steering committees including Hunger-Free Lancaster County and the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition. He also enjoys public speaking and preaching, writing, and acting.