Martin Institute Staff

Gary W. Moon, M.Div. Ph.D. served as the founding Executive Director of the Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture and the Dallas Willard Center at Westmont College. He continues to serve as a Senior Fellow of the Martin Institute and Director of Conversatio Divina.

He is married to Regina Reynolds Moon and they have two daughters, Jessica Erin, and Jenna Rebeccah.

Mark Nelson grew up near Chicago, graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in philosophy, and earned a master’s degree and doctorate in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Before coming to Westmont in 2006, he taught at the University of Leeds in England. He studies ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of religion. His many publications include: “What the Utilitarian Cannot Think,” “Ethical Theory and Moral Practice,” “Non-contradiction: Oh Yeah and So What,” “Think,” and “Y and Z are not off the Hook: the Survival Lottery made Fairer.”

Mariah is the Associate Director for the Martin Institute and Director of the Dallas Willard Center. She especially enjoys cultivating spaces for students, faculty and staff to encounter the Trinity.

Mariah earned her B.A. in Religious Studies from Westmont College in 2010. She grew up in the mountains of Colorado and smiles whenever she smells pine trees or sees hummingbirds. She is married to Eduardo and together they have a beautiful boy named Leandro.

Joel Patterson served as Westmont College’s Director of Music and Worship from 2003 until 2018. He currently serves as a part-time video editor for the Martin Institute, as well as a consultant for the Capax Dei small group ministry.

He is an alumnus of Hope College and Fuller Seminary (MA). He is married to Erin and is the father of Josephine and James.

McKenna Donner serves as the Martin Institute Assistant. She grew up in Thousand Oaks, CA. In 2018 she graduated from Grand Canyon University, but most of her undergraduate career was spent at Wheaton College in Illinois.  She is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Pepperdine University and is married to David Donner, a Westmont alumni.