Our founders, team members, and board members are innovators. We are committed to creating more good in the world by empowering institutions, social enterprises, and entrepreneurs to create systemic change.
Shannon Hopkins
Co-Founder & Lead Cultivator
Shannon Hopkins is an extreme networker and social entrepreneur living in East London. Her passion for community and individual transformation has launched or influenced the formation of fifteen campaigns, projects, and organizations — and trained over 200 social entrepreneurs. In 2008, Shannon was awarded the Women of the UN and UK’s Annual Woman of Peace Award for The Truth isn’t Sexy, a campaign that addressed the demand side of human trafficking.
A Texas native, in 2004 Shannon moved to London and founded Matryoshka Haus. Part incubator, part community, part training organization, Matryoshka Haus was born of a fundamental belief that a different world is possible. Shannon is excited to see how over a decade’s worth of work, passion, and learning will live on and take new shape in the US through RootedGood. Shannon’s mission-centered focus on bridging the gap between partners, funders, and cause-related champions in a post-Christian secular world is rooted in one powerful concept: inspiration. In her words, “I think we undervalue what inspires us and moves us to act… but once someone is inspired it can really set a whole host of things in motion.”
Mark Sampson
Co-Founder & Lead Learner
Mark’s professional career spans the spectrum from profit to non-profit, from start-up to established, and his academic ‘side-hustle’ has focused on the intersection between theology and our contemporary socio-economic context. Mark has a Doctorate in Theology and Economics from King’s College London, with his thesis focusing on social enterprise as ‘faithful economic practice’. Prior to this Mark studied at Regent College, Vancouver, where Mark gained a MA in Theology and Culture and where Mark was also the Interim Director of the Marketplace Institute.
Mark is the former KLICE award holder for business ethics. Mark has a background in management consultancy and was the director of Cocreate Consulting, a co-operative social purpose consultancy. Prior to RootedGood, Mark was a director of Matryoshka Haus and the Transformational Index Group. Mark was the co-founder of The Paradise Cooperative, an urban farming and education charity in central London. Mark is also a non-executive director of The Curiosity Society. Mark’s dwelling place is outside Detroit, Michigan where he lives with his wife Katie and his three children Ember, Lucas and Elora. Prior to Michigan, the family lived in Mark’s native land, England.
Mark Elsdon
Co-Founder & Lead Builder
Mark Elsdon lives and works at the intersection of money and meaning as a non-profit executive director, pastor, consultant, speaker, and author. Mark engages in this work by combining his theological training with skill and experience in business development. Mark’s book, We Aren’t Broke: Uncovering Hidden Resources for Mission and Ministry, is now available!
In addition to his role as a Director with RootedGood, Mark is also Executive Director at Pres House, where he led the transformation of a dormant non-profit into a growing, vibrant, multi-million dollar organization, and president of the board of directors for Working Capital for Community Needs, a Madison-based impact investing fund that provides microfinance for the working poor in Latin America.
Mark has a BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin School of Business. Mark is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.
Mark is an avid cyclist and considers it a good year when he rides more miles on his bike than he drives in his car. He is married to Rev. Erica Liu — they have two kids together.
Tito Ponce
Director of Operations
Tito Ponce is a tech-savvy, detail-oriented leader in project management who thrives in the place where insight and play meet. He is motivated by community building and positive social change and inspired by human-centered design and the divine mundane.
Before arriving at RootedGood, Tito worked as the Project Coordinator for the Social-Emotional Teaching & Learning lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he also received his BA in Applied Psychology. Coming from a background in academic research, Tito grew knowledge of and a fascination for ecological contexts of development and how changes at any level of a system can lead to new and exciting possibilities for good.
In addition to his role as the OPM at RootedGood, Tito is also the Director of Evangelism and Design for the Inclusive Collective, a young-adult campus ministry based in Chicago.
Tito is a tea enthusiast who enjoys morning jogs along the Chicago lakefront trail and dinner parties with close friends and family.
Wayne Cerullo
Member, Board of Directors
Wayne Cerullo is an internationalist, cultural observer, and marketing strategist focused on helping B2B companies understand and improve how and why their prospects buy.
He founded the marketing consultancy B2P Partners on 9/11/01 to make B2B marketing more powerful by making it more personal. He works with many innovative SaaS startups and mid-tier challengers. Previously, Wayne helped shape the global marketing communications of IBM, Microsoft, and Intel.
Wayne co-founded Vocari, a non-profit for helping workers and students discover their workplace calling. A believer in the power of transforming weakness into strength, Wayne authored “REpossibility: Stories of companies that succeeded because of their challenges (not despite them)”.
Starting with a Princeton BA in the (oxymoronic) history of modernization, Wayne indulged his penchant for TLAs with an MBA from NYU. A former New Yorker and one-time Parisian, he lives in the San Francisco area with his patient wife, two surprisingly adult offspring, and a mountain bike.
Paula Garrett
Member, Board of Directors
Paula Garrett teaches “American” literature, interrogating assumptions about identity in national literature. She also teaches queer and southern literature and tries to offer insights into literature by writers of color. She presently serves as chair of the Department of English, returning to the classroom after having previously served for a decade as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.
Prior to moving to the mountains with her wife, Donna Read, she taught English and American Studies and directed the Writing Program at Millsaps College in Jackson, MS. Paula holds a B.S. Ed and a Master’s in English from Baylor University and a Ph.D. in English from Louisiana State University.
Paula has written and published broadly on 19th Century American women, rural healthcare, LGBTQ reproductive legalities, and contemporary civil rights. She also works closely with values-centered projects to secure funding for their work.
She and Donna have a teenage son, Read. Paula is an avid cyclist, a voracious reader, and a serious football fan.
Jim Knutsen
Member, Board of Directors
Jim Knutsen is the founder and principal at of Cast Consulting. Since 1990, Jim has working with boards of directors and senior leadership teams to help align organizations around shared vision, values, and goals, and clear strategic direction. Clients included Target, TOMS Shoes, Burton Snowboards, Universal Studios, Chevron, JCPenney, USBank, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and Matryoshka Haus(!).
Jim is currently engaged in a fractional executive role as Chief Culture & Strategy Officer at Evo, a Seattle-based outdoor retailer operating in the U.S. and Canada.
Jim has three grown children, and he his partner of 27 years, Angie, are empty nesting in Seattle (or at least they were before Covid). Jim is an avid snowboarder, fly fisherman, hiker, and reader.
Laura Peck
Member, Board of Directors
Laura Peck, is a partner at the law firm, Axley Brynelson, LLP. She focuses her practice on commercial lending, real estate transactions, non-profit organizations and general business matters. Her clients are small and large banks, for-profit and non-profit corporations, insurance companies and small businesses. Laura has worked in the world of finance for more than 25 years. Her experience as in-house counsel at several large and mid-sized institutions gives her deep industry knowledge and a unique ability to understand and respond to her clients’ needs and concerns.
Laura was a Women in the Law 2014 honoree, recognized by the Wisconsin Law Journal for her excellence in the legal field, as well as her commitment to creating opportunities for women to succeed within the profession. Laura was named the 2017 Banking and Finance “Lawyer of the Year” in Madison by Best Lawyers® and is frequently recognized for her industry knowledge as a top banking and finance attorney.
Tyler Sit
Member, Board of Directors
Kala Taylor
Member, Board of Directors
Kala Taylor has over 13 years of career and professional development experience and enjoys studying the intersection between confidence, purpose, and meaningful work. As a Gallup-certified strengths coach, Kala is a frequent speaker at both regional and national conferences, conducts team building workshops for a variety of organizations and coaches individuals and managers toward meaningful work.
Kala’s previous roles include, Assistant Dean of the Career and Professional Development Center at Campbell Law School, Associate Director for Career Development at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Associate Director of the Office of Career & Professional Development at Wake Forest University School of Law where she also served as a certified internal diversity trainer. Before transitioning into career and professional development, Kala practiced real estate law for a regional law firm. In 2021, Kala transitioned to the corporate world and is currently serving as a professional development manager at Red Hat, a global tech company.
Kala earned a BA in Sociology from Wake Forest University prior to obtaining both a BA in Civil Law and a JD from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Faith and Leadership at Campbell Divinity School. In her free time, Kala enjoys watching sports with her husband and children.
