WHO WE ARE
OUR TEAM
Glen Fitzjerrell - President & Founder
Glen Fitzjerrell is the President and founder of Mission:USA.
Glen has 30 years of frontline ministry experience and has done pioneering work in both gang outreach and prison aftercare programs. In 2004 he launched The Bridge, a first of its kind program in post-prison work and has continued to be a nationally recognized leader in this area ever since. He frequently speaks and mentors people around the world who are interested in developing this type of program.
His work has been profiled on NPR’s "This American Life," Moody Radio, and NBC news.
Glen is originally from Houston, Texas, where he began his career as the chaplain in the nation’s top juvenile correctional facility. He and Jane have been married since 1992.
Glen has recently written a book about his experience and learnings from his decades long ministry career. Click HERE for details.
Grace Andersen - Bridge Program Director
Grace Andersen is our Bridge Program Director. She runs all aspects of our flagship service, The Bridge. Grace makes sure the staff and volunteers and pastors and logistics are in place each week. Grace supports our women’s program, mentoring and helping women in need of jobs, housing, and other social services, as they make positive changes in their lives. She is a part of our jail team and frequently goes into Cook County jail to lead programs and invite inmates to the Bridge.
Grace loves working with children and will be developing new ways to support families, single parents, and children of incarcerated parents.
Grace is from Salt Lake City, Utah, and is a graduate of our Bridge Internship program! She also has a degree in Psychology, with minors in Sociology and Urban Studies from Wheaton College. She and Mark have been married since 2016.
Mark Andersen - Worship Director
Mark helps organize our unique brand of Bridge style worship, where everything is tailored to Bridge attenders, including writing entirely new worship songs designed specifically for the service. Mark coordinates a combination of existing Bridge staff, as well as people who have come up through The Bridge program, to create a loving and celebratory worship experience. Mark is also a graduate of Wheaton College with a degree in music.
Billy Brown - Program Coordinator
Billy is a part-time staff member who began attending the Bridge in 2021. He completed his Bridge Builder training and joined our staff team in 2022. Before getting involved with Mission:USA, Billy was a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Facilitator and Group Leader at Human Resource Development Institute (HRDI) in Chicago, an organization that helps people with self- sufficiency and substance-free living. Billy frequently speaks at the Bridge and handles logistics. He partners with Kevin to run the Crossover Homeless outreach program.
Sarah Nelson - Social Media and Digital Coordinator
Sarah Nelson is our Social Media and Digital Coordinator Volunteer. She supports our online work as we reach people beyond Chicago. Sarah worked with us in Chicago as our Women's Program Coordinator before she married and relocated to California. Sarah's experience with the Bridge and all our programs gives her the perfect perspective to translate our exciting Chicago work to the online community.
Sarah comes to us from Toronto, Canada where she worked at an anti sex-trafficking nonprofit for 3 years. She's passionate about creating community and surrounding ourselves with healthy relationships, to foster healing, transformation, and growth. She and her husband Jovan have been married since 2023.
Laurel Saltzman - Office Manager
Laurel Saltzman is our part-time bookkeeper and Office Manager. She manages our contributions and monthly accounting processes. She keeps our office running smoothly and she is the person you can speak with about contribution questions. Laurel joined Mission:USA in 2019 and also works as a licensed real estate agent.
BRIDGE BUILDERS
Sandy Dunson
Sandy is our women's ministry coordinator for the Bridge Builders. She builds relationships with the women and helps them connect to services they need. Sandy also helps with our women's craft outreach with one of our recovery partners. Sandy brings deep insights from her recovery experience to share on topics at the Bridge when she preaches and participates in our Bridge Builder Panel.
Hector Santiago
Hector helps our Bridge attendees connect with 12 step programs and any other recovery resources they may need. He also kicks off every Bridge service with his segment “The Launching Pad”, which helps the speakers focus on the essential details for every night’s topic.
Mike Atkins
Mike is our Men's Ministry leader. He is committed to sharing his own journey of growth and recovery to encourage others. He is amazing at welcoming people to the Bridge and making sure they know that they belong! He brings his refreshingly honest perspective to provide wisdom during his preaching and the Bridge Builder Panel segment. He is consistent in his willingness to serve and step in to help wherever he is needed.OUR HISTORY
In 1990, in his home town of Houston, Glen Fitzjerrell was hired to be the chaplain of the nation’s top juvenile correctional facility. However, working behind bars proved limiting. Glen moved to Chicago in 1992 to work with gang members both in jail AND on the streets. Glen and Jane were married in 1992 and she began work with female gang members in Chicago.
Gang members are influencers in their neighborhood, and Glen worked with gang leaders, within the gang structure, to develop his street outreach. In 1995, the gang leaders began bringing their girlfriends, children and family members to Glen’s programs, challenging him to think bigger than just gang outreach.
Glen founded Mission:USA as a 501(c)3 in 1996 to continue working with gang members, ex-cons, and recovering addicts and their families. He did not want Mission:USA to be a church, but rather to partner with churches to receive the men and women and provide for their long term growth.
By 2002, Glen began developing a program idea to invite multiple pastors to a single location, so the pastors could meet with all the men and women Glen and his staff were reaching. He and his staff began visiting churches all over the Chicagoland area to find good church homes.
Part of this new program also included Host Teams, church volunteers who bring a meal to be served after the meeting, thus giving the pastors a chance to get around and invite people to their respective churches. With all these pieces in place, the program that would be known as The Bridge was born.
The Bridge launched in 2004 and became the foundation of Mission:USA’s work in Chicago. The culture of partnership was deeply entrenched in the Bridge, and soon we developed relationships with residential recovery partnerships, jobs programs, housing programs, and many other social service organizations.
The Bridge is a place for making connections, from finding jobs and housing resources, to recovery meetings, to meeting a person who wants to be your pastor. All this and a nice warm meal is lovingly provided to men and women moving through challenging seasons - such as leaving jail, recovering from addiction, and moving out of homelessness. It’s a community of overcomers. The Bridge supports and encourages people who are exerting this tremendous courage to change. And yes, they can bring their families, partners and children, too!
We recently celebrated 20 years of non-stop Bridge services!
Highlights over the years:
- Developing partnerships with over a dozen addiction recovery programs;
- Growing our female attendance from 2% to over 50%;
- Operating 15-passenger vans each Tuesday with multiple pickups for Bridge attenders;
- Continuing weekly men’s jail chapel and launching a women’s jail program; both of which have brought many ex-offenders into the Bridge;
- Developing a housing referral program to match attenders with the right program;
- Supporting job readiness and placement;
- Launching our BridgeBuilders program to train and equip Bridge members to support the program;
- Developing our Crossover Program to give men and women attending the Bridge a place to serve and find new community;
- Partnering with Host Teams from all over the U.S. to serve and support the Bridge;
- Training and equipping men and women working in similar areas from all over the world, including London, Australia, and the Philippines.
Future Goals:
- Hire additional staff to cover program demands we currently cannot meet;
- Add newer vans for transporting people to The Bridge;
- Build new Crossover programs;
- Organize our digital media and training materials into an online center of excellence to support individuals and organizations around the globe.
Media Recognition
The following are quotes from various articles that have appeared in the secular press. For further information, including access to archived articles, please contact info@missionusa.com.
"They are undoubtedly on a mission of heavenly proportions - to give gang-bangers and drug dealers, burn-outs and dropouts, cold blooded killers and convicted felons, a new shot at life by providing them with a foundation of trust, love and family under a renewed belief in God"
StreetWise Magazine
"Mission: USA was started as an extension of their Christian activism. Their approach is not to simply preach the Bible, but to help gang members out of the rut that their lives have become. They deserve a measure of credit for keeping peace on the streets."
WGN-TV Superstation News Broadcast, Eddie Aruza News Anchor
"It's all in a day's work for Glen and Jane who find no neighborhood too dangerous to enter, no past too dark to overcome. The Fitzjerrells are deeply spiritual and radically practical...This couple will do anything to help their listeners understand."
New City (Chicago)
"The Bridge is providing a sense of community and a renewed sense of purpose. Through The Bridge telling this population that they are still important to God, it addresses the heart as well as issues on the outside.”
The Forest Park Review
"Not your Typical Church Service - or Congregation"
Chicago Tribune
"Giving Ex-cons a Bridge of Hope"
Chicago Tribune
"Anger and Forgiveness (Act 4)"
This American Life
WHAT WE BELIEVE
We are a mission organization walking beside and helping men and women at the bottom of life. We hold to the values of the Christian faith as described in the Bible.
Please email us if you have further questions at info@missionusa.com.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
We believe the Bible is the authoritative, divinely inspired word of God, infallible in the original writings.
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, who became man without ceasing to be God, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His death in payment for the sins of the world, His resurrection, and His return.
We believe that salvation is the gift of God by grace received through personal faith, allowing for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, atoning of sin, and permanent adoption into the family of God.
We believe all who accept salvation belong to the family of God, regardless of church denomination.
We believe that all those who receive the free gift of salvation are eternally secure and that their salvation cannot be lost.
We believe it is a responsibility and privilege for all believers to serve the Kingdom of God in some capacity and to consistently grow in their knowledge and understanding of God.