Leadership Team

Celestia G.Tracy, M.A., L.P.C.

President and Founder

Author, Trainer, Counselor

Celestia has a background in Early Childhood Education from Arizona State University and worked as a teacher for many years. She received an M.A. in Counseling/Psychology from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon in 1994. Celestia and Steve have three grown children who are partners with them in ministries of justice and mercy. She enjoys a thriving private counseling practice of fourteen years and is the founder of Professional Counseling Associates in Mesa, Arizona, where she is a Clinical Supervisor and does professional development. Celestia has many years of experience and expertise with children and abuse, trauma, marriage, intimacy, and sexuality. She teaches, lectures and speaks both nationally and internationally with an emphasis in the following areas: directing Mending the Soul Trainings, soul care, children and abuse, theology of intimacy, bonding, healthy sexuality, sexuality and singles, and counseling. She is available for consultation to churches, counseling clinics, and secular organizations. Celestia develops and supervises a team of writers, professional artists, and mental health professionals that creatively collaborate on curricula and other resources.

For the past two years Steve and Celestia have conducted extensive abuse and sexuality seminars in the Democratic Republic of Congo for rape survivors, abuse care givers, prostituted women, pastors, and civic leaders. They have assisted various domestic and international ministries including: Food for the Hungry, PASCH (Peace and Safety in the Christian Home), Congo Initiative, Radio Bible Class, Overseas Council, and Frontiers. Steve and Celestia are the authors of several books and workbooks on abuse, marriage, and trauma healing, including: Mending the Soul: Understanding and Healing Abuse (Zondervan), Marriage at the Crossroads (InterVarsity), Mending the Soul Workbook (under consideration for publication), and Mending the Soul Healing Art Handbook (self published for use in Congo with a grant from Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.).

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Steven R. Tracy, M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D.

Founder

Curriculum Development and Teaching

Steve oversees the curriculum and research of Mending the Soul Ministries and serves on its board of directors. Steve and Celestia are also on staff with Global Training Network, an evangelical organization with a mission to equip and train leaders in the majority world. He uses his training and expertise to insure that the curriculum and services of MTS are biblically grounded and scientifically sound. Steve has served MTS from its inception. He received a B.A. from Arizona State, a M.Div. and Th.M. from Western Baptist Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the University of Sheffield (England) with a research focus on New Testament ethics.

Steve brings unique theological, ecclesiastical, and community expertise to MTS. He served for almost eight years as the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Phoenix Seminary, where he has taught since 1995. He is currently Professor of Theology and Ethics at Phoenix Seminary. Steve’s professional academic focus has been on sexuality, gender, and abuse. He is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society where he presents at the annual meetings and serves on the Executive Committee of the Gender Study Group. He is also a member of the Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect and the Society for Biblical Studies. Steve is the author of Mending the Soul: Understanding and Healing Abuse (Zondervan), co-author with Celestia Tracy of Marriage in Practice: A Dialogue (forthcoming, InterVarsity Press), editor of Mending the Soul Workbook, and has authored ten academic book chapters and journal articles as well as numerous articles and booklets on gender, sexuality, and abuse.

Steve served as a pastor for fifteen years and has extensive pastoral counseling experience with couples and singles, as well as with victims and perpetrators of physical and sexual abuse. Steve uses his abuse expertise extensively in the broader community. In addition to speaking frequently to community agencies and at secular conferences, in 2005 he was appointed by Janet Napolitano to The Governor’s Commission for the Prevention of Violence against Women. He has also served on The Fatality Review Team for the City of Phoenix. Steve has conducted extensive seminars for the Christian leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He provides training, curricula, and encouragement to the broader faith-based community of church and civic leaders in eastern Africa. Steve enjoys conducting much of his sexuality and abuse/trauma work with Celestia, his wife of thirty years. Steve and Celestia are grateful for their three grown children, Elizabeth, Luke, and Abby, who share their passion for the broken, abandoned, and abused.

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Christine F. Stephenson, M.Div., Ph.D.

President of the Board

Director, Speaking and Training

Christine Stephenson is originally from England but has lived in Arizona since 1990. She is a cancer cytogeneticist and is board certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics in clinical cytogenetics. She has a Ph.D. in leukemia cytogenetics from The Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland. She came to the United States to do her post-doctoral fellowship in Scottsdale, AZ. In 2004 Christine graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary (Southwest) with a Masters of Divinity. She teaches, lectures and speaks both nationally and internationally with emphasis in the following areas: theology of abuse, creation theology, sexuality, nature and effects of abuse, healing from sexual abuse, secondary effects of trauma, ethics of genetic technology, bioethics, the integration between science and faith. Christine also trains church and community leaders how to minister to those impacted by abuse and how to facilitate Mending the Soul small support groups. In addition, she has facilitated many MTS small support groups throughout the years. Christine has published both scientific and Christian articles and continues to be involved in writing and publishing in both fields.

Christine has also ministered overseas specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2007 and 2008 where she taught in abuse and sexuality seminars for community and church leaders, caregivers, prostituted women and abuse survivors. In 2008 Christine was the Congo team director and was responsible for leading the team and organizing the conferences in addition to teaching and training. She continues to work with our partner ministries in the DRC in ongoing training and development. Christine is passionate about ministry to the broken and training leaders and empowering them to minister in turn to the wounded.

Christine became the President of the Board in December 2007 and continues to be actively involved with MTS Ministry as the Director of Speaking and Training. Christine lives in Scottsdale, AZ.

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Janet E. Martin

Secretary of the Board

Janet is former President of the Arizona State Board of Education, former Director of Education Policy for Center for Arizona Policy, founding president of Parent’s F.R.E.E., and former Arizona State Director for Concerned Women for America. Janet is retired from classroom teaching, a profession she started in 1963 in Anderson, Indiana, after graduation from Indiana University School of Education. She has taught in public, private, and home school settings, most recently with the Tempe Elementary Schools. Janet has served on various state and national boards and focus groups addressing ways to improve student achievement and life choices.

She currently is an education consultant, serves on the Board of Directors for Mending the Soul Ministries, the site council for Kyrene de las Brisas Elementary School, and an elder at Hope Covenant Church in Chandler, AZ.

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Tanya Harris

Director of Small Group Training

Tanya Harris is a Licensed Associate Counselor in the state of Arizona. Tanya received her advanced degree in Counseling through a collaborative program between Ottawa University and Phoenix Seminary, both in Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated with a Masters of Arts in Professional Counseling and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Christian Counseling.  She is currently working under the supervision of Dr. Raymond Branton.  At Phoenix Seminary and through her internship at Scottsdale Bible Church Counseling Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, Tanya received training in theology and Christian faith integration in professional counseling.

Her practice consists of individual, marriage, and group counseling. Specializations include trauma/abuse issues, depression, anxiety, spiritual issues, grief, and dating and relationship issues.

Tanya has been involved with Mending the Soul Ministries since 2003 when she attended the original MTS training. She since has been involved with leading lay and professional groups, speaking at MTS events, and educating churches, para-church organizations, and other agencies on abuse issues. Tanya’s coursework at Phoenix Seminary and involvement in MTS has provided her with additional training and experience in the area of the nature of abuse and abusive families, effects of abuse, and healing from abuse.

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Dagny Mallory

Administrator

Dagny Mallory

As a staff member of Mending the Soul, Dagny adds her gift of administration through the day to day operations of the ministry. She previously worked as an administrator in the corporate world for over twelve years. She took several years off to spend at home while her children were young. Once they all started school, she took on a part-time position within her church. In addition to being on staff with MTS, Dagny is also one of our trained facilitators. Her heart for Mending the Soul comes out of her own healing from abuse as the Lord guided her through a MTS Small Group.

Dagny is grateful for the healing that has taken place in her life which, among many other things, allows her to be a better wife and mother. She loves spending time with her husband Shawn and their three children. She also enjoys the quiet moments provided for her to read, write poetry, and be with the Lord.