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Meet the Team

School of Ministry Team

STAFF

Dawn Whitestone

Founding Director, Deeper Walk School of Ministry

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Dawn Whitestone, M.A., L.M.H.C.
Founding Director, Deeper Walk School of Ministry Executive Coach, Trainer, Author

Dawn Whitestone was thrilled to help launch the Deeper Walk School of Ministry as its first Director. The Deeper Walk School of Ministry equips pastors, missionaries and lay ministers with practical skills and tools to help real people with real problems. Training includes a Biblical foundation for understanding emotional wounds and trauma, spiritual warfare and growing in maturity.

Dawn’s passion is growing people and organizations into their full potential. Since 2013 she has served as an executive coach, strategic planner, and training designer. Her unique approach to following God’s purposes and plans is captured in the book Strategic Business Prayer and its companion workbook.

Dawn’s zest for joyful living is rooted in a strong family, vibrant faith, and familiarity with suffering. Her personal experiences with divorce, grief, and family illness give her a compassion that undergirds her love for life and passion for people. Dawn fills her joy bucket loving her husband, volunteering in her church, and spending time with friends in Lakeland, Florida.

Emily Duenser

Executive Director, Deeper Walk School of Ministry

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Emily Duenser
Executive Director, Deeper Walk School of Ministry

Emily is a seasoned administrator who combines those skills with a passion for joining God in his work to heal his people. She is honored to serve as the Executive Director in the Deeper Walk School of Ministry. Emily’s background as a teacher as well as her 10+ years of leadership experience in the non-profit and ministry world makes this role quite a sweet spot for her. Emily is certified as a prayer minister with Deeper Walk and has ministered for many years to/with trauma survivors. God has used her life experiences and healing journey as a calling to walk with people through the things they’ve suffered, to invite them to experience the kindness, freedom, and restoration available from the Lord through Jesus Christ.

Outside of this role, Emily tries to keep up with her three active kids and two spoiled fur-babies. She aspires to someday get caught up on laundry, blog consistently, learn to play the piano, have a therapy dog, paddle-board, climb mountains, & never get over seeing God work in miraculous ways.

FACULTY

Lisa Nirva

Instructor

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Lisa Nirva, M.A.

Lisa is excited to be a part of Deeper Walk School of Ministry and assist in training prayer ministers for a season such as this. Since the early 1990s, God has called her to participate in inner healing prayer ministry, leadership, and training at the churches where she had attended and the non-profit ministries where she served. She has been trained in Theophostic Approach, SOZO, Immanuel Approach, Freedom in Christ, Internal Family Systems and REAL Prayer. In November 2022, she completed Deeper Walk’s School of Ministry prayer ministry 10-month certification as well as AACC Christian coaching certificate.

Professionally she is a college planner and offers prayer ministry to individuals. She has been a high school English teacher in Hong Kong, California and Washington D.C. and in Minnesota where she currently lives.

Christy Edge

Instructor

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Christy Edge

Christy Edge has walked her own healing journey for the last 25 years and seen the Lord bring much freedom. As she’s walked this out it has given her a desire for others in the body of Christ to walk in freedom as well. Christy ministers to people locally in her community just south of Nashville, TN, and thanks to Zoom, anywhere around the country. For the last 18 years Christy has also worked with a church planting organization to share the Good news of Jesus with those on the other side of the world. As she has interacted with other cultures and seen the Lord work The Lord has opened doors to bring inner healing prayer ministry to many refugees who have come out of traumatic events, and to train many American believers to be trauma informed when serving the hurting people of the world.

Christy loves to bake, read, cuddle dogs, and hang out with like minded friends. Since going through DWI’s School of Ministry, she has now opened her home as a place of respite and inner healing for those looking for breakthrough.

Melissa Finger

Instructor

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Melissa Finger, M.S., N.C.C.
Founder & Executive Director of Trauma Healing Center

Melissa Finger is the founder and executive director of the Trauma Healing Center in Kansas City. In addition, she has worked as a biblical counselor for more than a decade assisting clients both locally and internationally as they heal from complex trauma. Melissa has a masters degree in Marriage and Family Counseling, has written three books on healing from trauma, and has spoken at dozens of events and workshops across the country. Her heart is to share God’s perspective of trauma and His plan of healing for every individual!

Dan Allison

Instructor

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Dan Allison

Dan and Sarah Allison live in Eastern Iowa. They are the proud parents of 4 amazing sons, 2 incredible daughters-in-law, and 4 fantastic grandchildren! Dan is the Founding Pastor of Crossroads Church, Peosta. Along with his wife Sarah, he currently teaches Faith Formation classes at Crossroads Church. They also lead women’s and men’s retreat weekends each fall, utilizing Deeper Walk’s content church-wide.

Dan’s role in the kingdom is “Catalyst” and the Lord has led Dan to catalyze engines that carry the gospel and healing of Jesus to others. This includes helping plant several churches in Eastern Iowa and starting multiple ministries both inside and outside the church. Dan currently serves as President of The Oak Grove Inc, a non-profit dedicated to helping people recover from the effects of childhood trauma. In addition to full-time ministry work, Dan has been serving in the Retirement Industry for 32 years. He is currently a Managing Director at Empower, the nation’s second largest Retirement provider. He also manages to find time in the woods, at his farm, and on the water, harvesting some of our lands’ most delicious fish and game.

Jim Kampa

Teacher's Assistant

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Jim Kampa

Jim is excited to be joining Deeper Walk, and in particular the Prayer Ministry Certification Program. Jim graduated in December of 2024, and has been utilizing all the great tools he learned in his work as a Prayer Minister with Heart to Heart Ministries in Nebraska. Jim works primarily with Men, Addictions and Recovery, and Spiritual Warfare.

Jim has retired from a secular counseling career, which has seen him work in a variety of settings including Community AODA Prevention, Intervention and Treatment, Juvenile Court, Inpatient Psychiatric, and K-12 School Counseling and Social Work. He has also recently retired from the Green Bay (Wi) School District, where he has worked both Teacher Staff Development, and High School School Counseling and Social Work.

Jim is very active in his local church, teaching courses around discipleship and spiritual warfare. Jim also teaches nationally with Understanding the Wounded Heart. He has been married to his wife Laurie for 41 years, Has 3 believing daughters, 3 son in laws, and 5 grandchildren.

In his spare time, Jim likes hiking, biking, snowshoeing, and whitewater kayaking and rafting.

Jim also has completed the Advanced Spiritual Warfare Tools and Training with Deeper Walk, and has been excited to see the level of freedom that people have been able to achieve in their walk with The Lord after participating in Freedom Sessions.

Ben Graham

Teacher's Assistant

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Ben Graham

Ben is following Immanuel down the trail of life, one step at a time, finding healing, new challenges, and wonderful opportunities for connection and ministry. With a passion for the local church, his desire is to spread heart-focused (hesed) discipleship spread into and through churches and the Church. With decades serving in various roles within local churches, Ben currently serves his local community through prayer ministry, coaching, and finding other needs as Immanuel brings them along the trail of life.

Ben loves spending time with his wife and two children. They enjoy being outdoors, traveling, and just being with people. Aside from just loving relationships, he is a self-professed gear-head (he loves vehicles and racing) and rabid Georgia Bulldog. A graduate of the school of ministry himself, he is excited to take part in spreading these wonderful skills and resources!

Craig Salmonson

Teacher's Assistant

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Craig Salmonson

My name is Craig Salmonson, I live in Asbury, IA, and graduated from the Deeper Walk Prayer Ministry course in 12/25. I have been a police officer for over twenty years. Prayer Ministry has been crucial in working through my years of trauma and connecting me to a joy I didn’t think was possible. I have experienced freedom and healing through Prayer Ministry and am excited to continue my journey with Deeper Walk International.

Jim Teague

Teacher's Assistant

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Jim Teague

Jim Teague serves as a Teaching Assistant for the Deeper Walk International School of Ministry, where he helps create a joy-based, heart-safe space for transformational growth and healing. A native of Waynesville, North Carolina—tucked deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains—Jim has lived a full and adventurous life, shaped by years of service as a critical care flight paramedic and now as an active-duty Army Reserve soldier. He and his wife of 17 years currently live in Illinois with their two amazing sons, and he is also a proud father to a remarkable adult daughter.

Jim’s story is marked by grace-filled seasons of transition, restoration, and calling. These experiences have deepened his passion for walking with others through emotional pain and spiritual growth. He is a graduate of Deeper Walk’s Prayer Ministry Certification program and is the founder of Foxfire Ministries, where he helps others discover healing, identity, and wholeness in Christ. Whether serving soldiers, friends, or family, Jim is committed to ministering to the heart and guiding others toward deeper intimacy with God.

Samuel Jensen

Teacher's Assistant

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Samuel Jensen

Samuel Jensen is a bi-vocational lead pastor and business owner. He currently serves on the board of Circle Church as well as the vice president of First Love Ministries Inc, a non-profit ministry that strives to bring discipleship and healing through conferences, trainings, and inner healing prayer ministry. In 2025 First Love Ministries launched First Love Freedom which offers inner healing prayer ministry through Immanuel Prayer and deliverance through Freedom Prayer. Samuel graduated from Montana State University in 2009. In 2023 he went on to graduate from Jesus School in Orlando, FL. Samuel has also completed a year of Charis Bible College online in 2022. Samuel received a certification for Advanced Spiritual Warfare from Deeper Walk International in the spring of 2025. He has been a missionary in Honduras and has gone on multiple mission’s trips in Mexico, Nicaragua, Ukraine and the Dominican Republic. Samuel is married to his hot wife, Joelle, and they have 4 amazing kids together.

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