The National Benevolent Association is pleased to announce that Rev. Bere Gil Soto has been named Director of Young Adult Leadership Development. She joined NBA in this capacity on March 1, 2025.

“I am thrilled to bring on Bere as our next Director of Young Adult Leadership Development,” said Rev. Monica Wedlock Kilpatrick, NBA’s Vice President of Organizational and Leadership Development. “Her energy, creativity, and innovative ideas, her commitments to justice and equity, along with her nearly five years of experience working with young adults at NBA, make her the ideal candidate to step in and steer our programming for young adults.”

In this role Rev. Gil Soto will oversee NBA’s Young Adult Leadership Development (YALD) program area, which seeks to create a variety of avenues for young adults to find support from NBA through all of our program areas. YALD works to co-create spaces for learning and engagement with and for young adults. These spaces cultivate healthy and holistic identity formation, discover and affirm leadership potential, explore leadership opportunities that transform the Church and local communities, and build capacity and skills for leadership in health, social services and justice work.

In addition to existing young adult Peer Learning & Wellness Groups and providing grants for young adults to pursue leadership development opportunities, NBA expanded the YALD program offerings in 2024 by launching a new Asian/Pacific Islander Young Adult Peer Learning & Wellness group and the Black Women’s Leadership Experience residency program.

Since 2020 Rev. Gil Soto has worked with NBA as a Peer Learning and Wellness Group Convener and helped design and implement a peer group program for young adults that supports their wellness and leadership potential. She has also served in ministry and leadership roles at both congregational and regional levels and has extensive experience working in various roles in the non-profit sector. Additionally, Rev. Gil Soto has served as a language and grantee consultant with the National Initiative to Address Economic Challenges Facing Pastoral Leaders.