POLYCENTRIC LEADERSHIP - Key Persons
Rev. Joseph W Handley, Jr., Ph.D. is currently president of A3 and serves ex-officio on the Board of Directors.
Background
Joe is a seasoned mission leader with over 30 years of global experience. Born and raised in Southern California, he received a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in theology from Azusa Pacific University. In 2020, he completed a Ph.D. in intercultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary. Joe served nine years at Azusa Pacific University as the founding director of their Office of World Missions and director of one of the first multi-national high school mission congresses in Mexico City in 1996. In 1998 the Lord called him to Rolling Hills Covenant Church where he served as the Global Outreach Pastor and shortly thereafter as Associate Pastor for Outreach Ministries. In July of 2008, Joe answered God's call becoming the fourth president of A3, a developer of Christ-like leaders seeking to accelerate Christ-centered movements around the world.
Michael T. Cooper, Ph.D. currently serves as an executive for a missions agency, training national leaders in evangelism, discipleship, leadership development, and church planting. He is the former president and CEO of an international NGO. In 2010, he founded a Business as Mission initiative that focused on helping alleviate spiritual and economic poverty in the developing world. For a decade he equipped undergraduate and graduate students at Trinity International University with skills to engage culture. He has thirty years of ministry and missions experience, ten years as a pioneer church planter in Romania after the fall of communism. He has helped equip Christian leaders in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He holds a MA in Missions from Columbia International University and a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Throughout his career, Michael has focused on creative ways to engage difficult-to-reach people with the gospel.