Staff

David Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries, editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird website, and co-host of both The Mockingcast and The Brothers Zahl podcasts. Zahl is the author of Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What To Do About It and Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself). His latest book, The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World appeared in April 2025 from Brazos Press. His writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Christianity Today, and The Guardian, among other venues. He and his family live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he also serves on the staff of Christ Episcopal Church.

Even after all these years, he’s still mourning the end of Calvin and Hobbes (and hoping that Morrissey and Marr will bury the hatchet). His favorite theologian is probably a cross between Johnny Cash, Flannery O’Connor and his brother Simeon.

Todd Brewer is the managing editor of the Mockingbird website. He graduated from Durham University with a Phd in New Testament Studies. His wrote Hermeneutics and Early Christian Gospels, published by Mohr Siebeck, which compared narrative and non-narrative interpretive approaches to the Jesus tradition through a study of the Gospels of Thomas, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He also co-edited the Cambridge Companion to the Gospels, 2nd edition.

Christopher Green is the editor-in-chief of The Mockingbird print magazine and the head of Mockingbird publications. Since 2015 he has overseen the release of many books including Daily Grace, The Elegy Beta, and An Easy Stroll Through a Short Gospel; in 2017 he co-authored Mockingbird’s first children’s book The Very Persistent Pirate. Born and raised in Virginia, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Meaghan Mitts is the managing editor for The Mockingbird magazine. She also works for Bridge Projects, a curatorial platform and art gallery interested in contemporary art, spirituality, and religious traditions. Before that she worked as Director of Communications for Image, and before that as Associate Publisher of Commonweal. She made the mistake of tattooing the Luther Rose on the back of her calf when she was eighteen.

Cali Yee is the assistant editor of The Mockingbird print magazine and the Mockingbird website. Cali is the host of Mockingbird’s newest podcast, Terrible Parables. She studied at Concordia University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 2021, Cali graduated with a degree in Christian Ministry and Nonprofit Management. She’s bad at adulting, but is proficient at making a mean bowl of butter noodles and giving Barnes and Noble all her money. She also loves to talk about herself in the third person.

Emily Newton works as Mbird’s Social Media Manager and delights in filling your feeds with the relieving word of grace. Born and raised in San Antonio, TX along with her three siblings, she graduated from the University of Texas in 2010, where she majored in English and Education. She taught high school English for fifteen years, making a name for herself as the eccentric one on the hall to use a fog machine every time she taught Macbeth. She currently resides in Austin with her husband, John (Rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church), and children, Annie (9), KK (7), Jack (2), and June (36 in dog years).

Deanna Roche is the administrative director of Mockingbird Ministries. She began the first third of her
life in a New Jersey suburb of New York City and then spent a number of years moving around the US
and Europe. Her last position was with Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL, where she
served as the Human Resource Director. At Coral Ridge, she was introduced to the freeing gospel of
grace by a guest speaker named David Zahl. When she and her husband Jim moved to Charlottesville,
VA, in 2018 to be closer to children and grandchildren, she had no idea that it was the home of
Mockingbird Ministries. To her delight, David offered her a position and she is blessed to be spending
the last third of her life working with the amazing and talented staff of Mockingbird.

Luke Roland is the Director of Development and Events at Mockingbird.  He is a graduate of Appalachian State University with a degree in Philosophy and Religion.  He lives near Asheville, NC with his two children.

Arlene Campbell is an administrative assistant at Mockingbird Ministries. She grew up in “NOVA”, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Chile. Her Catholic grandparents in the Philippines and Lutheran grandmother in the U.S. Virgin Islands were major figures in her introduction to God’s love for us.
As the spouse of a Marine Officer, she worshiped in multiple Christian denominations in VA, CA, SC, GA, and Japan. Since she’s a former language immersion teacher, one should always feel free to practice their Spanish, French, or Portuguese when speaking with Arlene. She feels her ‘cup runneth over’ with the blessings of the Mockingbird staff and the Christ Episcopal Church community.

Sarah Condon is an assistant editor of the Mockingbird website, author of Churchy, and co-host of The Mockingcast. She also served as the Episcopal chaplain to Rice University. She went to Yale for Divinity School. And she only drinks organic milk. If you’re starting to feel crappy about your life reading this, please keep in mind that Sarah is deeply neurotic, originally from a state with the highest teen pregnancy rate (I see you, Mississippi), and is Mockingbird’s in-house expert for the Housewives Franchise. She is astonished that God loves and forgives even her. And she can’t stop writing about it.