Leadership
Pasco A. Manzo, President
Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey
Since Pasco’s introduction to Teen Challenge some 35 years ago, he has been passionately involved in its mission. Now, under his new leadership as President, many positive changes are happening.
“Student First” has been applied as our motto! In last phase of the program, students choose from four different tracks; college, career, ministry, and TC apprenticeship and every student graduates with their GED.
Our leaders are continually being developed through the annual Leadership Management Conference.
Several of our facilities have been remodeled, making them aesthetically pleasing and more comfortable.
Pasco has also established our “End Addiction Campaign”. Through city billboards and promotional materials such as postcards, t-shirts and wristbands, Teen Challenge is on the front lines fighting addiction. Teen Challenge staff is also raising awareness of the epidemic of addiction in high schools through the “Make Good Decisions” program.
Pasco’s studies have earned him a Master of Arts in Christian Ministries with a concentration in Culture and People distinguished with Summa cum Laude. He also received a Master’s of Divinity Equivalency from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. He loves the classroom and has taught over twelve years as an adjunct professor. He authored two books: Urim and Thummim – Discovering the Will of God and Broken Flowers: A Commentary on the Tragedy of Sex Slavery in America and compiled Changed Lives Books One and Two – Ten True Stories From Addiction to Freedom.
Pasco is also an appointed U.S. Missionary with the Assemblies of God. He has had the honor to minister for Jesus on every populated continent and has traveled to over 40 countries. He gives God ALL the glory for everything He has done.
To contact Pasco Manzo, contact Melissa Oliveira, President Assistant at moliveira@tcnewengland.org or 508-408-4378
OSCAR CRUZ, Vice President of Finance
Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey
Oscar Cruz serves as the Vice President of Finance of Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey and the Director of the Teen Challenge Brockton Men’s Campus. Oscar has been involved with Teen Challenge ministries for over 14 years. At one point, living a normal life was beyond his grasp, but through the power of Jesus Christ and the ministry of Teen Challenge, Oscar’s life was changed! Oscar was just 14 years old when his best friend, his dad, walked out the door. He had said he would leave many times before and that day he never came back. It was then that Oscar found drugs. By age 16, he was a full blown addict and by 18 years of age, he had a drug possession record and nothing more than a string of shattered dreams and relationships.
According to statistics, Oscar was not going to make it. In desperation, he cried out to God and sought help at Teen Challenge. While at Teen Challenge, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. His life could have been considered beyond hope, but since coming to Teen Challenge, his life has been changed and his family has been restored from the devastation of addiction!
Oscar graduated from Southern California Teen Challenge Ministry Institute (TCMI) and completed his ministerial licensing studies from Global University. After graduating TCMI, Oscar served in inner-city missions at the Los Angeles Dream Center. Oscar previously worked in business as a licensed California Real Estate agent. Oscar’s life is now committed to serving the Lord and dedicated to the mission of Teen Challenge in New England. He finds great joy in seeing men set free from addiction. God has blessed Oscar with his wife, Allison and children, Kylie and Carter. As Matthew 19:26 says, “With God all things are possible!”
To contact Oscar Cruz: ocruz@tcnewengland.org
TOM PARKER, Administrator
Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey
On January 19, 1984, Tom got down on his knees in his one room apartment and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. Tom had spent the previous 20 years of his life bound to drug addiction and criminal activity, which led to numerous incarcerations starting at age 14. Tom first heard the Gospel message from a man who assisted David Wilkerson with a Boston Crusade. He came every week to share the Gospel at a federally funded therapeutic community in Boston where Tom spent 14 months.
Tom accepted Christ and moved in with this man and his family and for the next six months, they drove to nearly every Teen Challenge center on the East Coast and ministered to the students in the Teen Challenge program.
In August 1984, Tom began working at Teen Challenge New England. Tom attended Teen Challenge Institute (later known as YCIBI) in Sunbury, PA where he earned a 3 year Diploma in Bible and further discipleship in his faith. After graduation, Tom returned to work at Teen Challenge New England and earned a BS Degree in Human Services from Springfield College in 1989, and an MA Degree in Counseling from Liberty University in 2002. In 1995, Jesus blessed Tom with his beautiful wife and best friend, Shirley (who is now with the Lord).
For the past 30 years, Tom has served at Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey where he is currently the Administrator. Jesus miraculously stepped into Tom’s life when he was utterly lost and without any hope and gave him a new heart and a new life, which Tom will never, ever forget! Tom wants everyone who comes to Teen Challenge to know if Jesus could do this for him, He can do it for you too!
To contact Tom Parker: tparker@tcnewengland.org
STEPHEN GADOMSKI, Executive Director of New Hampshire and Maine
Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey
Stephen Gadomski knows firsthand the power of God to transform lives. In 1989 he made a life changing commitment to Christ that turned him from drug and alcohol abuse and led him into a ministry that daily brings hope to those in the bondage of addiction. Since Steve’s conversion, he felt God calling him to start a Teen Challenge center in New Hampshire. He began to reach out to men in prison and on the streets to help them find a bed in a Teen Challenge center in the northeast so that they could receive the help they so desperately needed. He began his theological studies through Global University correspondence program. He became a licensed minister in 1993 with the Assemblies of God and in the year 2003 was ordained to the ministry with the Assemblies of God.
Steve opened a Teen Challenge Crisis Referral Center in Nashua, New Hampshire in 1998 and eventually united in 2000 with Teen Challenge New England and New Jersey. A building was purchased in Manchester and a ministry began that serves as a lifeline for those needing help in that area.Rev. Gadomski now serves as Executive Director for the Teen Challenge campuses in Maine, and New Hampshire.
Steve and his wife, Noreen, are the parents of four adult children.
To contact Steve Gadomski: sgadomski@tcnewhampshire.org
JACQUELINE STROTHOFF, Founder & Co-Director of Rhode Island
Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey
Twelve years of drug addiction drove Jacqueline Strothoff to participate in every rehabilitation effort presented to her as she desperately struggled to overcome her addiction. Those years were devastating as she was committed several times to psychiatric hospitals and incarcerated for criminal activities.
During one of those stays in a psychiatric hospital in 1974, Jacqui experienced a life-changing encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Upon her release, she entered New Life For Girls, a one year Christian residential discipleship program in Pennsylvania. From there, she enrolled in a ministerial training program at Rev. David Wilkerson’s Twin Oaks Leadership Academy in Texas, where she met her husband, Bob. They spent the next several years working in Teen Challenge centers across the country and then settled in Springfield, Missouri where Jacqui earned a degree in social work from Southwest Missouri State College.
Jacqui has ably served the Lord in a variety of capacities in churches and ministries. Her life and testimony has impacted thousands of hurting lives. Today that impact continues as she serves Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey in a senior leadership role.
Jacqui is the proud mother of two adult children and the ecstatic grandmother of two adorable grandchildren.
To contact Jacqui Strothoff: jstrothoff@womenjersey.wpengine.com
RICHARD WELCH, Executive Director of Vermont and Connecticut
Teen Challenge New England & New Jersey
In 1997 Richard Welch was desperate to change his life after years of drug addiction and alcohol abuse. Hopeless and destitute, he decided to give Teen Challenge a try.
At the Teen Challenge center in New Haven, Connecticut, Rick found new life and new purpose. Eternally transformed, he longed to bring God’s healing touch to those who are as hopeless as he once was. Upon completion of the program, Rick decided to stay on and serve in the ministry, first as an intern and then moving to a staff position. He soon realized that he would never desire to do anything with his life except to serve God and to passionately bring the inspirational message of the Gospel to the addicted and to their hurting families.
After years of visiting and ministering in Vermont with the Connecticut choir, Rick relocated to Vermont in 2000 with a burden to plant a ministry there. In 2003, Richard was appointed Executive Director of the first Teen Challenge center in Vermont. Today, Rev. Welch oversees the Teen Challenge campuses in Connecticut and Vermont.
Reverend Welch attended Global University and is credentialed with the Northern New England District of the Assemblies of God. Rick and his wife Carrie live in Johnson, Vermont with their son, Timmy.
To contact Rick Welch: rwelch@tcvermont.org