Linda Heller, M.A.C.C.C.A., C.M., CAP-S – President
Ms. Heller has over 20 years of proven clinical, managerial, operational and leadership experience with hospitals and healthcare profit and non-profit companies, government and private organizations. She has significant experience in national and state health, aging and disability businesses. Ms. Heller currently owns Access Health, Aging and Disability Consulting, LLC (AHAD) She has done projects in the British West Indies, South America and Asia. She also has had project and lecturing assignments with the World Health Organization for the governments of the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and has consulted in Anguilla and Canada via assignment from the World Health Organization.
Currently, she is a consultant for the Solar Ear Corporation in Brazil. She serves on several Delaware state councils and committees. Some of awards include the “Delaware First State Award,” the highest civilian award given to a citizen, the Oticon Corporation in Sweden’s, “Focus on People” Award and special commendations from the Veteran’s Administration for the “Outstanding Employee of the Year” and the “VA Innovation Award.” She received several awards from the State of Delaware as a Senior Policy Advisor/Planner at the DHSS/Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities. Ms. Heller is on the board of several government and non-profit associations. She is also President/Founder of the Hearing Loss Association of Delaware.
She is Board President of the Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families (DECCF) because her passion is consumer health education and advocacy and feels DECCF, a faith based connector of congregations has an important and unique role to help improve health equity and diversity in Delaware. In her spare time, she kayaks, and collects Delacardian horses, etc.
LaVaida Owens-White, MSN, RN, BSN – Board Member
La Vaida Owens-White is Board President of Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families, and has served on the Board since 1994. Ms. Owens-White has over fifty years of nursing experience in acute and long-term care, rehabilitation, and community health. Ms. White retired from Christiana Care Health System – Community Health Outreach and Education in 2010, and currently serves as a consultant assisting congregations, synagogues, and temples in establishing congregational health ministries. She also assists civic associations in the development of health committees. Ms. Owens-White is a proponent of whole-person (mind, body, spirit) health and invested in the health of her community serving on numerous committees and leadership councils.
La Vaida holds a Masters degree as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in gerontology from the University of Delaware, and an undergraduate degree in Nursing from Wilmington University. She is a member of the American Nurses Association, the Delaware Nurses Association, and Tau Eta Chapter of Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., a professional nursing organization founded in 1932.
Rev. Marilyn E. Cale Turner, MDiv – Board Member
Rev. Turner has spent 31+ years of her professional career with Delmarva Power & Light Company, an Exelon Company, serving in several important roles. Most recently, she’s worked in the T&S Maintenance and Construction, Substation and Relay Departments. She is also an “Impact Leader” for the Newark DE Region, where she coordinates employee volunteer community service opportunities. In 2016 Rev. Turner was nominated, and chosen as the organization’s “Black Achiever”, which is a national program that mentors youth at various
YMCA centers. The program is designed to encourage young people to purse higher levels of education, advanced degrees, and professional career paths.
Rev. Turner’s efforts also include her involvement with Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a non-profit organization that supports 3rd world countries with strategizing and supplying safe drinking water. She has traveled to Liberia, West Africa to serve with the Union American Methodist Episcopal Church (UAME) Foreign Missions Board.
Her credentials include being a wife, mother, and grandmother. Rev. Turner is a graduate of Palmer Theological Seminary with a Pastoral Care Diploma, and Eastern University, St. David, PA, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership. She is also a 2008 graduate of Boulden Seminary and Biblical Institute – Certified Teacher, and Director of the Biblical Institute of Boulden Seminary Youth Counselor, and Facilitator of the UAME Youth Retreat.
Rev. Turner has served as a Quarter Conference assignee at Boulden & Mother UAME Churches, Wilmington; Mt. Raymond UAME Church, Downingtown, PA.She has pastored the New Hope UAME Church located in Wilmington DE, with a “mostly youth congregation. She is currently serving as a Quarter Conference Assignee at the Mt. Salem UAME Church in Delaware City DE.
Reverend Brian K. Sanders – DECCF Exec. Director, Ex-Officio Board Member
Brian has a dedicated career largely in health care and nonprofit leadership, both professionally and in community outreach. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Delaware Ecumenical Council on Children and Families. Prior to that Rev. Sanders was the Director of Health Promotions Action Coalition, Inc., a community health nonprofit in Atlanta, GA. He also held management positions with Novant Health (NC), The Georgetown University, and George Washington University Medical Systems (DC). In the community, he advocates for increased access and positive outcomes in the areas of health care, social justice, economic empowerment, and the value of arts and culture engagement. While in Charlotte, NC he worked closely with the Mecklenburg County Health Department as a member of the Advisory Board of its Village Heart Beat program; and also served as a member of the Ryan White Program Part A proposal evaluation team. Rev. Sanders is an ordained minister presently serving as an Associate Minister at Unity Church ELCA (Lutheran) in Wilmington, DE. He is a graduate of Boston University, and a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
CALL FOR NEW BOARD MEMBERS…
We are currently seeking to add members to Delaware Ecumenical Council’s Board of Directors. In order to best reflect the communities we serve throughout the State of Delaware, our aim is to reach out to active community members in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties. Please consider volunteering on our Board. Share your expertise, talents, commitment to excellence, and friendly warm spirit with us on behalf of the elderly, disabled, children and families that we serve throughout “The First State”. To apply for consideration, or for more information, please contact us.