Chris Hoke is the cofounder and executive director of Underground Ministries, mobilizing faith communities and businesses across the Pacific Northwest into relationships of mutual spiritual transformation with men and women releasing from prison. He is the creator of the "One Parish One Prisoner" model and movement, where Presbyterian, Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, evangelical and Unitarian congregations are learning how to draw closer to the tombs of America's mass incarceration system, rolling away the heavy reentry barriers that keep millions of Americans shut out of our communities, and so rediscover their purpose as resurrection communities. Based in his sixteen years as a jail chaplain and pastor among gang members in Washington's Skagit Valley, Chris Hoke created Underground Coffee with a former meth cook and a local coffee roaster, which has led to networks of more Underground Employers in multiple industries hiring individuals leaving prison and addiction, and together reimagining such "transferrable skills." He is the author of WANTED: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jail, Among Outlaws and Across Borders (HarperOne), and is quickly becoming a prominent leader at the intersection of Christianity's roots, future and the landscape of American incarceration.

Links to other VERGE 2021 Speakers