Our Board

James Himsworth - Executive Director

I received my BA in History from the Ohio State University in 1976, and my Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield Illinois. After seminary I worked with delinquent youth and youth gangs for 6 years, first as a youth counselor and then as assistant coordinator for the Youth Outreach Project in Columbus.

In 1987 we moved to Brazil with Project Amazon, where we learned language and culture, and then worked to equip Brazilian pastors as they lead churches and cared for their communities. In 1994 we joined World Team in southern Brazil. I was named Brazil Field Director in 1997 and worked to develop strategic plans, provided research, training support and vision to the national churches.

During this time I was named to the Americas leadership team, and the international training team, these two assignments lead to training, evaluation and coaching invitations in many countries around the world. In 2002 I was elected to be a field representative to the World Team Board.

We returned to the Columbus to stay in 2006 and I worked as a case manager at Southeast Mental Health for one year before joining Opening Doors in 2007.

My wife Beth and I have been married for almost 34 years, we have two wonderful children and a son in law and a daughter in law we love.

David Fenstermaker

Director Distribution System Reliabilty for AEP's Distribution Services Organization. In his position Fenstermaker provides direction in reliability strategy, station and circuit capacity planning, vegetation management, distribution dispatching and emergency restoration planning for the seven AEP operating companies.   

Fenstermaker has more than 35 years of experience in distribution engineering and design. He began his career at AEP in 1971 as a supervisor in customer services. Through the years, he has held numerous supervisory and management positions in energy delivery.

A graduate of Ohio University with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Fenstermaker has completed The Ohio State University's Management Development Program and the Program for Senior Executives in the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Fenstermaker is a past board member of the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus and is an elder at Worthington Christian Church. He lives in the Westerville area with his wife, Peggy.  They have two sons and four granddaughters.

David A. Krebs, CPA

Graduate of Miami of Ohio University, BS Business, Accounting Major
Formerly with Coopers & Lybrand
Wife: Pat
Children: Josef (24), Kelley (22), Alyssa (16), and Joshua (12)
Currently
♦ Author & Professional Speaker with Gear Up Tax Seminars
♦ President of Krebs & Co. Seminars
♦ CVO of the CPA Advisory Group
♦ CEO of Envision Financial Services, LLC
Served or Serving on the Board of:
♦ Ohio Society of CPA's Columbus; Past President of Columbus Chapter
♦ Delta Upsilon International Fraternity Educational Foundation; Past Trustee & Treasurer
♦ University Kiwanis; Past President
♦ Toastmasters; Past Chapter Treasurer & Trustee
♦ Community Connections for Ohio Public Offenders; Past Chairman of the Board
Active Member:
♦ National Speakers Association
♦ Ohio Speakers Forum
♦ American Institute of CPA's
♦ Ohio Society of CPA's
♦ National Society of Public Accountants
Honors:
♦ 2001 and 1993 Small Business Accounting Advocate of the Year
♦ Outstanding Young Man of America
♦ Who's Who in the Midwest & Among Emerging Leaders
♦ Toastmaster's District Impromptu Speaking Champion
♦ Columbus Area Leadership Program Representative

Jon Pence

Born in Chicago, Illinois, raised on a farm outside of Piketon, Ohio and currently live in Latham, Ohio. My wife Peggy and I have 4 children, a son-in-law and one granddaughter. I am a case manager at Ross Correctional Institution (RCI) in Chillicothe, Ohio where I have been employed since 1988. Graduated from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio with a B.A in Sociology and a minor in Psychology. My first introduction to Opening Doors® and Deborah Roeger was in 2002 at Marion Correctional Institution at a one day staff introduction to Opening Doors. I thought I was simply getting an introduction to a program that was going to be offered in prisons across the state. What I did not realize was that through this program my eyes and heart would be opened to allow God to do what He wanted to do with me. Since that first introduction I have been the staff coordinator of Opening Doors® at RCI, have participated in Opening Doors® in the Workplace and have completed the facilitator's training for it. I am also the staff facilitator for DA2LJ (Discipling Another to Love Jesus) for RCI and actively involved in the monthly intercessory prayer team at RCI. I serve as an usher at our local church and on the intercessory prayer team there. My wife and I also head up the Visitation Team and Prison Ministry at our church. My desire is to serve God in all I do wherever He will have me go.

Derf Roeger - Co-Founder

I have a B.S in Electronic Engineering Technology and have been working in the control systems engineering profession since 1974. For the past 20 years I have had various management responsibilities at ATS Ohio, a global leader in manufacturing automation that designs and builds automation equipment for various industries in the U.S. and other parts of the world.  I recently retired in order to switch careers between ministry and part time contract engineering.

I have had a passion for serving in ministry since my youth. In recent years I have served as a Trustee for First Baptist Church in Newark, Ohio and currently serve as a Deacon for Worthington Christian Church. I also teach part-time as an adult Bible Fellowship teacher at Worthington Christian. I was born and raised in Columbus. My heart for prison ministry actually began when I was quite young. Even as a 4 year old kid I remember going with my dad, mom and older sister as we went into the old Mound Street Jail to visit with and minister to the men there. When my wife, Debbie, was called to begin volunteering at Marion Correctional it was natural for me to begin serving beside her. As a result, when the Horizon Interfaith program at MCI began in 2000 to look for men to be outside brothers to a Horizon inmate participant, it fit perfectly with my interest and the time I had made available in my schedule. I continued over the course of 5 years to be an outside brother to 5 different Christian inmates at Marion and consider the friendships I established there to be some of the strongest bonds I have ever built with a brother in Christ. When Opening Doors became incorporated as a non-profit in October, 2002, I stepped into the position of Board President.

The delight of my life has been my family. Debbie and I dated in high school and college and were married in 1974. I enjoyed my role as dad immensely as together Debbie and I raised a son and a daughter. Both of our children are now young adults, have graduated from college and are married. One of my favorite roles in this stage of my life is being a grandfather!

Deborah L. Roeger - Founder

I have a B.S. in Business Administration, a Master's in Human Resources Management and my Juris Doctorate. Before God blessed me with the opportunity for early retirement, I worked in the field of Human Resources Management for 15 years (including 6 years as a Vice President of a Human Resources department); spent 5 years as outside defense counsel with the Columbus, Ohio-based law firm of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur where my primary practice areas were employment law, litigation and immigration; and for 5 years I was in-house counsel with a rapidly growing wireless phone company. At the time I retired, I was Senior Counsel for the Eastern Region of the U.S. for Vodafone AirTouch (now Verizon Wireless). I am also a trained and experienced mediator.

Following retirement from my legal practice in1999, I developed a private mediation practice. However God's plans were different than my own and I discontinued that practice at the end of 2004 when my work inside the Ohio prisons began to require my fulltime focus and commitment. After almost 2 years as a very active volunteer at Marion Correctional Institution, a medium security men's prison in Marion, Ohio; I received an invitation from the Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to expand my volunteer programming and services into other Ohio prisons. As a result, in 2002 I began working with additional prisons in the state to create new cooperative partnerships with the faith community and introduce no-cost programming and services related to staff and inmate dispute resolution and conflict management. As a part of this expanding work, I founded Opening Doors of Ohio, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit corporation.

As our work has grown, our focus has expanded to now include the family members of offenders, support for Christian ex-offenders, and adding services to incarcerated youth and their families.

In 2001 I was awarded the Gold Star Award by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections for exemplary efforts in promoting Ohio Quality Corrections and in 2004 I was honored by Ross Correctional Institution staff and inmates when selected as their "Volunteer of the Year."

I was married in 1974 to Derf, my high school sweetheart. Together we have two married children, Jeremy (a professional technical writer married to Jennifer) and Kimberly (a fulltime nanny married to Nathan). We were blessed with our first grandchild in August, 2003.