Board of Advisors

Advisor

Col., USA (Ret.), Chaplain Corps

Lake Elmo, MN

Chaplain Gauthier served as an Army Chaplain for 26 years, including eleven years with Army Special Operations, two deployments to Iraq, one to Afghanistan, and one to Kuwait. He is the Pastor for Mentoring and Leadership Development at Lake City Community Church in Lakewood, WA. He travels regularly to developing nations within the global south to train pastors and develop leaders. He is the Cohort Director of the WA State South Sound Colson Fellows. He serves as the Chaplain Endorser for his denominational faith group. Chaplain Gauthier overseas a Reboot Combat Recovery ministry within his local church and believes that caring for our veterans is a sacred honor.

Marc served on the Cross The Divide board for two terms prior to accepting his most recent call to be the Executive Director of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.

Advisor

CDR, USN (Ret.), SEAL

Wallowa, OR

Having served in the U.S. Navy for 35 years, both as enlisted and an officer, Commander James can relate to veterans from many eras. His skills lend well to administrative organization, team building, non-profit fundraising, speaking to community organizations and schools, and working with other veterans’ services organizations to build up networking relationships. Commander James continues to serve the community by doing volunteer work with Enterprise Christian Church, the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, Nez Perez Homeland project, and is a qualified Veterans Service Officer for the Disabled American Veterans organization, where he assists fellow Veterans in navigating the Veterans Administration Disability Program. As a “Legacy Recruiter” for the Navy Challenge Programs, he works with youth who are interested in learning about the Navy as a job/career. He has also led many team-building exercises called “Act of Valor Challenges.”

Advisor

LtCol, USAF (Ret.)

Wallowa, OR

Lt. Col. James retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserves in 2011 after 32 years of service. She identifies with female veterans and civilians, volunteering for over ten years to provide advocacy on behalf of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She participated in curriculum development of psycho-educational programs and provided delivery and oversight of said programs. As the Director of Kitsap County (WA) Veterans Program, she developed and coordinated veteran's assistance programs and facilitated community efforts to establish and maintain quality service delivery systems for veterans. Lt. Col. James served as the staff representative to the Veterans Advisory Board, which advised County Commissioners on matters impacting local veterans. She coordinated the Veteran Stand Down events twice a year, and the annual "The Unforgotten, Run to Tahoma" ceremony on Memorial Day weekend honoring the unclaimed remains of deceased veterans. She resides with her husband, Jack James (CD, USN retired), and pets Daisy, Budd, Buttercup, and Bluebonnet in Wallowa, OR. She and Jack facilitated Christian-based marriage enrichment retreats and group studies for ten years.

Advisor

CAPT, USN (Ret.), SEAL

Addy, WA

Captain Pittelkow dedicated his “working years” to the military and continues to do so after retiring from active duty. Following retirement from active military service, Captain Pittelkow moved with his family to rural Northeast Washington State to operate a small farm. He serves as a volunteer firefighter and a consultant to military and civilian entities. He finds fulfillment and purpose in serving alongside and assisting active and veteran military members and their families. These are “his people.” His passion in personal ministry is through leadership mentoring. He believes in sharing what he learned from a lifetime of service to the Nation with others. He genuinely appreciates the service and sacrifices, particularly of post-9/11 combat wounded veterans, and he served as Cross the Divide’s first president for two terms. He is enthusiastic about serving veterans in rugged, outdoor environments and in seeing the benefits derived by them from time spent there.

Advisor

Commander, USN (Ret.)

Washington D.C.

Jake Wadsley retired in 2022 after 22 years in the Submarine Force. Jake was born in Iowa, where he grew up with his parents and two siblings. In college Jake was called to ministry in the submarine force, where God does not maintain a professional clergy presence. Jake was commissioned into the Navy and served on four submarines, culminating in command of USS NEBRASKA.

Jake met Mo and Rhonda in 2004 in Italy, and they have been friends ever since. When Jake was compelled through strange circumstances to teach himself bow hunting, Mo was gracious to lend sage advice in 2013-2014. When blessed to be stationed together again from 2016-2019, Jake was able to spend a week hunting elk in Washington with Mo, getting to observe firsthand Mo’s exceptional skills at elk calling, playing both ‘Romeo’ and ‘Julliette’ in rapid succession.

Jake currently serves at a Christian non-profit SIL International (Bible translation teammates with Wycliffe, Biblica, and JAARS) as the Director for Capability Innovation. In this role, Jake is responsible for leading the effort to develop and incubate new capabilities in support of SIL’s mission. He helps manage scouting for new capabilities, internal stakeholder engagement, designing new capabilities and integrating capabilities into the organization. His portfolio includes helping SIL develop capabilities such as Artificial Intelligence, Program Management, and Field Testing.

Jake moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 2019, where he now lives with his wife and four daughters. In his free time, he enjoys worshiping God outdoors, hunting, gardening, building and fixing things with his daughters, smoking savory delicacies, brewing melomel, and playing as much Mario Kart and cribbage as he can.