Pastors & Staff

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Dean Smith

Pastor

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Dean serves as the lead pastor at the Palo Alto campus. One of the co-founders of The Highway Community (see History), Dean has over 25 years of ministry experience in just about every facet of pastoral ministry. Dean and his wife, Diane, have 3 kids and live in Sunnyvale with their alpha female Dachshund Abigail, and newest puppy Hazel. Dean enjoys ambient music, cars that run, children that obey, and modifying the Wikipedia Dachshund page.

John Riemenschnitter

Pastor

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John serves as the lead pastor of the Mountain View campus. Also a co-founder of The Highway Community, John and his wife Lynn live in Sunnyvale with their four kids—Kyle, Trevor, Blake, and Shelby. John enjoys music (listening to it, playing it, writing it), coaching youth soccer, working with the family’s two Australian shepherds, Sadie and Murphy, and roasting coffee beans in his garage. He also is president of the largest Michael Bolton fan club in the USA, boasting 17 members.

Chris McCormick

Family Ministries Pastor

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Chris serves as pastor of family ministries, providing oversight for Highway Kids and student ministries as well as mentoring parents through the spiritual training process of their children. Chris, his wife Michelle, and their son, Blake, are currently living in San Jose (Evan is at Colorado State University). Chris enjoys underwater diving (and the exotic places, like Belize, where that hobby takes him), fishing, and watching movies. He can also commonly be found in his office listening to vintage gospel LPs hand picked from his father’s record library.

Steve Joh

Community Development Pastor

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Steve Joh oversees the development of community at Highway by providing leadership for our connecting ministries, small groups, and common interest outreach groups. Steve is also the connection to our various expressions of mission, both locally and globally. He can also be seen playing various instruments in our worship band (read: anything with strings). Steve is mildly obsessive about soccer and collects jerseys from around the world. He also loves to bake artisan bread, brew Kombucha, and eat good food. Steve, who is on the cusp of completing a degree at Fuller Theological Seminary, lives with his wife Amy and daughters Bethany and Kyra in East Palo Alto, where they also coach soccer and serve incarnationally.

Steve Saccone

Ministry Development Pastor

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Steve serves as Highway’s Ministry Development Pastor. Steve served at Willow Creek church while earning his Master’s Degree from Bethel Theological Seminary, and then spent 7 years as Leadership Catalyst at Mosaic in Los Angeles, where he founded The Protégé Program– a 2-year global leadership experience designed for future entrepreneurs, church planters, and spiritual leaders. Steve is also the author of two books, a speaker, and a consultant who specializes in leadership development, inner life formation, and maximizing talent, creativity, and organizational effectiveness. He and his wife Cheri live in Mountain View with their two sons, Hudson and Holden. Steve has more shoes than any guy should admit to, one of his greatest talents is starting books and never finishing them, and his favorite TV character is Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords (He tries hard to copy his look, but who could ever look as good as Jemaine?)

Kevin Marks

Creative Arts Director

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Kevin serves as Director of Creative Arts, encouraging artists and artistic expression at The Highway Community. Kevin has completed a year of post-graduate study in screen-play writing at UCLA, and is a gifted writer, songwriter, musician, video editor… you get the idea! He and his wife Kimmie live in San Jose with their two boys, Judah and Finn. Kevin can outlast anyone in a CD store, loves sushi and Korean BBQ, and can be found at any Neil Finn concert in the continental US.

Ryan Kingsmith

Creative Arts Director

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Ryan leads worship and oversees the creative arts teams at the Mountain View campus. Ryan met his wife, Anna, while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Bible and Theology with a minor in Pastoral Ministry at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, OR. A talented musician and songwriter who once played drums in a metal band, Ryan enjoys live music, writing songs, bicycles, and French movies.

Jehaan Mathew

Post-College and College Director

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Jehaan leads our post-college and college groups, facilitating spiritual community through weekly gatherings, events, and retreats. He is currently pursuing an M.A. at Western seminary, as well as the perfect egg nog recipe. Jehaan graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. Jehaan likes to surf, hike, skateboard, and eat—all while hanging out with his wife Julie and watching Jack Bauer save the world from the comfortable confines of their home in Sunnyvale.

Seth Dickson

Missional Formation Director

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Seth leads Highway’s missional formation process, which involves creating an environment that moves people toward the living out of their true calling within community. Formerly of the investment banking world, Seth is also interested in finding creative and compassionate ways to use capitalism to help solve problems related to social inequalities. When he’s not reading geeky academic journals, this Fuller Theological Seminary graduate can be found longing for the imminent return of the 49ers dynasty or catching up with The Office on Hulu. And it shouldn’t go without mention, he loves all things Cuban … the people, the culture, the food, and yes, his family.

Lisa Evans

Student Ministries Director

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Lisa is a student ministries superstar who oversees our Middle School and High School group. Just one job is not enough! A recent graduate of Stanford, Lisa brings four years of experience with Sonshine Ministries and an infectious enthusiasm to our student ministries. A self-proclaimed extrovert who often suffers from FOMO (“Fear of Missing Out”), Lisa can usually be found meeting with kids at Red Rock, or just hanging out with friends. And her minors in Spanish and Italian not only make her a walking translator, but also enable her to talk to almost anyone!

Julie Pederson

Highway Kids Director

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After a career in high tech marketing and channel strategy, Julie now serves as the Highway Kids Director at the Mountain View campus. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, she and her husband, Ted, live in Sunnyvale with their two daughters, Deena and Melody. Julie enjoys rock climbing, volleyball, all kinds of music. But it’s her love for art—painting, drawing, and photography—that enabled her, as an elementary school student, to win a bicycle in a Kellogg’s “Stick up for Breakfast” poster contest. Grrrrrreat!

Kristi Paszkeicz

Highway Kids Events Coordinator

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Kristi works with the Highway Kids team to create an environment in which kids can grow in their relationship with Jesus through creative events that encourage kids to discover and use their unique talents and gifts. A graduate of Westmont College, Kristi and her husband, Damian, live in San Jose with their son, Zachary, their daughter, Natalie, and their puggle, Bogey. Kristi loves loves classic movies, art, design, music, piano, scrabble, and crossword puzzles. She also shamelessly admits knowing the words to all the songs from High School Musical and Camp Rock.

Tram Hammer

Highway Kids Director

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Tram is the newest addition to our staff and, as a new mother of twins, is uniquely prepared to serve as the Highway Kids Director at the Palo Alto campus. A graduate of Santa Clara University and former eBay employee, Tram, her husband Jason, and their twins, Evan and Natalie, live in Santa Clara, where they enjoy working on their home and pureeing baby food. Prior to becoming a mom, Tram’s favorite pastime was sleeping.

Emily Schreiber

Operations Director

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Emily is possibly the most organized, “neat” person imaginable—qualities which are indispensable when it comes to administrating Highway’s many-faceted ministry. As Director of Operations, Emily is all about the details. A gradaute of San Diego State University’s teaching program, Emily spent 2007 as the manager of Red Rock Coffee while continuing to develop her own organizing business, “Emily’s Neat.” Besides organizing, Emily enjoys good food, being outdoors, hanging out with her family, and volunteering. She also has an uncontrollable penchant for anything pickled.

Bob Logan

Mentoring Pastor

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A seasoned ministry veteran, Bob oversees ministry to adults and mentoring at the Mountain View campus. He and his wife Willine, who are proud grandparents, live in Mountain View, and are often seen together enjoying a beverage at Red Rock. Bob is a loyal, die hard fan of the San Francisco 49ers.

Maria Kucera

Receptionist and Administrator

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Maria answers the phone when you call, and provides invaluable administrative support of all varieties to the Highway staff. Maria and her husband, Keith, live in Sunnyvale, and have two sons. Born in Germany, Maria brings linguistic diversity and insight to the staff, as well as a love for fine German cuisine—“bratens” and “krauts” and the like. She also enjoys traveling the world on exotic and adventursome vacations with her husband.