Announcing the 2025 ADM Fellows
Anglican Deaconess Ministries is delighted to announce our 2025 Fellows cohort. With ADM’s support, these four women will bring together their areas of expertise and their faith to complete major projects that engage our sceptical and hurting world with the gospel.
From an engagement strategy for local churches to effectively reach the South Asian community to the application of Family Systems Theory in ministry contexts, the 2025 Fellows’ projects cover a broad range of topics.
CEO of ADM Mary Un says: “Reading the Fellows applications is one of my favourite activities each year. I am astounded by the applicants’ gifts and how they are creatively able to use them in the service of Jesus. I am convicted that the 2025 Fellows’ projects will have a lasting impact on the church and that their ministries will continue well beyond the 12 months we get to work with them. ‘Public gospel witness’ is one of ADM’s key strategic pillars, and so we are looking forward to seeing how the 2025 cohort use this time to engage our world with the gospel.”
Since 2016, ADM has supported over 40 Fellows through the annual program, and a further 11 through Summer and Visiting Fellowships. The 2025 Fellows will be ADM’s ninth annual cohort.
ADM Fellows are provided with office space and a bursary, as well as tailored professional development opportunities led by our Development Coach. Fellowships are completed over a 6- or 12-month period, with each Fellow designing their own unique project and working to reach their goals over the course of their Fellowship. Working in the ADM office in Sydney, Fellows benefit from the support of their cohort as well as other ADM staff.
ADM’s growing network of Fellows Alumni continue to publish, speak, work and minister across a wide array of settings.
Introducing our 2025 ADM Fellows
Dr Leisa Aitken
ADM Senior Fellow
Fellowship project: Rediscovering hope
Dr Leisa Aitken is a clinical psychologist who has been counselling for nearly 30 years. She recently completed a PhD through the University of Sydney on ‘The Psychology of Hope’, and, alongside clinical practice, Leisa regularly speaks at schools, churches and conferences on this topic. She is a member of the Clinical College of the Australian Psychological Society.
Leisa will use her ADM Fellowship to write a book exploring how believers can nurture their experience of hope. Her book will look at what the Bible says about hope as well as how theologians and philosophers have reflected on hope throughout history. Engaging with psychological and neuroscience research along with her clinical experience, Leisa will explore how hope generally, and hope in Christ specifically, can best be understood and nurtured.
Leisa says, “As we look back to Jesus' death and resurrection, we find the grounds for our hope, and this propels us forward to the wonderful eschatological plans of God for the New creation. This vision of hope in both God's deeds from the past and promises for our future inevitably impacts our present experience and motivates us to participate with Him in the task of blessing the world—an inherently hopeful activity! I anticipate that by helping believers develop an excitement about God's presence in their future, it enables them to be more confident now to share and live out the hope-filled message of Jesus to a world often in despair.”
Jeri Jones Sparks
ADM Senior Fellow
Fellowship project: Church culture that reaches South Asian cultures
Jeri Jones Sparks is an Indian-Australian Tamil woman who is passionate about equipping the local church to reach those from South Asia and the Hindu world. Jeri has been the Outreach Minister at St James Anglican Church Croydon since 2020,the Director of the Good News Series and part of the SATYA Network Committee.
Jeri will use her ADM Fellowship to undertake a research and development project with the goal of establishing an engagement strategy for local churches so they can effectively reach the South Asian community. This project meets the opportunity to reach the biggest migrant group of Australia with a culturally fluent model for engagement.
Jeri says, “I have a vision to see the kind of cultural humility and honour that is required of Christ’s unified and diverse body, that will enable us to effectively engage the South Asian community with the good news of Jesus. Ultimately, I want to see more and more positions of meaningful leadership held by key South Asian Christians to reach the South Asian community, the tables where decisions are made and the platforms where church culture is shaped being increasingly South Asian.”
Danielle Terceiro
ADM Fellow
Fellowship project: The holy fool in the 21st century
Danielle Terceiro is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity. She has just completed a PhD by publication in the area of Literature and Theology on "Teaching children to read the world: Retelling stories in picture books, graphic novels and animations" at Alphacrucis University College.
Danielle will use her ADM Fellowship to write a scholarly yet accessible book on ‘The holy fool in the 21st century’, examining contemporary novels, movies and multimodal texts and considering why the Judeo-Christian idea of the ‘holy fool’ is still a compelling one, even for religious sceptics. She hopes to help readers grapple with the continuing cultural power of this Judeo-Christian trope, and its continuing appeal to secular readers as a way of making sense of the world.
Danielle says, “I believe that Jesus is the ‘first among fools’ and that the wisdom of the cross is the balm for our hurting age. Jesus lived as a holy fool, drawing the ire of the leaders around him. He deliberately feasted with the ‘sinners’ in his society. And of course, Christians understand that the whole trajectory of Jesus’ life is a ‘foolish’ one: a life lived toward crucifixion, outside the camp of respectability.”
Nicky Fortescue
ADM Fellow
Fellowship project: Understanding our creatureliness as a way to facilitate maturity, godliness and love
Nicky is a Family Systems coach and qualified Pastoral Supervisor who is actively engaged in learning, teaching, coaching, and applying Bowen Family Systems Theory in various contexts. Nicky is on the Faculty of the Family Systems Institute, specialising in Systems in Ministry, and holds a Graduate Certificate in Professional (Pastoral) Supervision and a Certificate in Family Systems Theory and Practice.
Nicky will use her ADM Fellowship to work on a project that takes Family Systems Theory and applies it to Christian leadership and church communities. Nicky believes the theory can help Christians better navigate the challenges of being human in relationships, providing time and space for wiser choices and greater compassion, grace and forgiveness in our interactions.
Nicky says, “When God created humans, he placed us in families. As most will attest, being in a family presents us with challenges alongside blessings, profoundly shaping the way we engage in relationships as adults. Interestingly, as creatures, the relationship challenges we face are quite predictable. While it is natural to focus on the faults of others, real growth comes from recognising and managing our own reactions, seeking to take responsibility for ourselves while staying lovingly connected to others. By developing emotional maturity, individuals can gradually bring greater love, grace, and maturity to their relationships and, in turn, positively influence the broader systems they are part of.”