Executive Director

Joanna Quintrell

Joanna Quintrell serves as the Executive Director of the Journey Center Association. It was in the year 2000 that she found herself in a spiritual crisis and first learned about spiritual direction, a gift that was life-changing and heart-transforming for her… no one had ever taught her how to nurture her own inner life with God. Joanna began her training as a spiritual director in 2003 (trained at the Mercy Center, Burlingame and the Center for Spiritual Direction in Chicago). She served as the founding director of Journey Center Santa Rosa in California through 2016 and then established the Journey Center Association in 2017. She has been the co-director of the Association’s 2-year Spiritual Director Formation Program since 2009. In addition to the joy of holding sacred space for others, Joanna loves organic gardening, hiking, traveling and grand-parenting. She and her husband live in Santa Rosa, California.

President

Jan Stanish

 Jan completed the 2-year Spiritual Direction Formation Program with the Journey Center Association in Santa Rosa, California, in 2011 and was also trained in group direction at that location. She was certified in spiritual direction supervision at North Park Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. She is currently part of the facilitator team for Journey Center Association’s Spiritual Direction Formation Program and serves on the Journey Center Association board. 

Movement toward a more contemplative way of life began for Jan in 1999 with a compelling invitation to know herself in more authentic ways.  This God-guided journey included redeeming truth from her early childhood.  As in a mirror, she saw evidence of who she was created to be:  deeply connected with nature, courageous, creative, secure in one who is loved and belonging to self and God.  Challenge and freedom are always part of holding these truths and living in them.   

As a Spiritual director, Jan creatively holds space for another’s sacred journey of encountering the Holy and embracing the true self.

After living a few miles north of San Francisco, CA for 40 years, a move to Tucson, AZ, in 2020 fulfilled a desire to be near family. 

Treasurer

Paldrom Collins

Paldrom’s first introduction to religion was with her parents as a young child in the First Baptist church in Oklahoma. But by the time she was in high school, her mother was studying Theosophy and her father had announced his agnosticism. She spent years seeking enlightenment first as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, then through the non-dual Advaita-Vedanta lineage of Ramana Maharshi. Now returning to her Christian roots, she, like T.S. Eliot, has found:

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Secretary

Pamela Carraher

Pamela Carraher is a listener, teacher, spiritual director, facilitator, and education consultant, with emphasis in spiritual formation and worldview studies. She mentors lifelong learners of all ages and carries a passion for bringing life’s deeper questions into meaningful conversations.

Pam received her training in Spiritual Direction and Contemplative Retreat Leadership from Journey Center Santa Rosa where she currently serves as a facilitator in their two-year formation Program. She received Supervision training in Chicago at North Park Seminary.

As a board member of the Journey Center Association, Pamela works with teams worldwide who have interest in developing Journey Centers in their areas, as well as developing Advanced Training Seminars intended for Spiritual Directors. Her newest project is a program in Spiritual Formation, currently in development.

She is married with three adult children and five grandchildren.

“As my formal career draws to a close, I find my deepest interest and desire is to facilitate groups that discuss and reflect upon our deepest longings and desires combined with meaningful action in and around our neighborhoods, communities and the world. I love reading, spending time with family and friends, nature study, art journaling, and Yosemite. “

Board Member

Emily Conway

Emily Conway is a writer, spiritual companion, and host of retreats, workshops, and travelers at her Airbnb, Sojourner House, in Omaha, NE. She received her training in companioning from Richmont Graduate University in Atlanta, GA. She is particularly passionate about companioning those who feel that their lives’ narratives fall outside the traditional ones that society often assigns us. As someone who spent many years feeling like she was standing at a window looking in at the rest of the world, she understands what it is like to live with the difference those with non-conforming sexual associations, beliefs, bodies, or other circumstances might experience. She is honored to accompany these individuals on their journeys.

Emily’s writing reflects her belief in the utmost importance of the interior and intentional life. Her newsletter and other publications seek to articulate this experience in hopes that others will find her words to be companions on their own journeys.

Emily is a partner, a mother of three teenagers, a gardener, swimmer, and meditator.