Team

Pete Ramirez is the CSBC executive director. Elected in May 2022, Ramirez is responsible for leading staff in the ministry areas of church planting, church revitalization, evangelism and missions. He also leads the area related to business services and communications.
His passion is for local churches to reach their communities and win people to Jesus. His primary goal is to work with California Southern Baptist churches to push back the darkness for 35 million Californians who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus.
He served as leader of the CSBC Evangelism and Missions Team and as associate executive director before being elected chief executive officer of CSBC.
Pete is married to Anabella. They have two daughters and one grandson.

Mike Bivins is volunteer mobilization and Disaster Relief coordinator for the California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibility is to assist churches and individuals to engage in missions and Disaster Relief ministries. Bivins challenges CSBC congregations to be “disaster ready” for when calamity strikes their community.

Jason Blankenship is the leader of the Evangelism and Missions Initiatives Team for California Southern Baptist Convention. As team leader, Jason is an evangelism advocate for CSBC congregations responsible for developing and implementing a plan to assist churches with ministries to evangelize the unchurched in communities throughout the state.

Roger Byrd is a member of the CSBC Church Revitalization Initiatives Team. His primary responsibility is to work with churches in the Count the Cost ministry for new churches and those in need of revitalization. Roger also supports the ministry of music and worship for CSBC congregations, as well as prayer ministry.

Francis Chung is a life-long California Southern Baptists who will bring cultural, secular work and church leadership experience to the newly developed Missions Initiatives Team for California Southern Baptists.
Francis grew up as part of the Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles in Alhambra, a leading church in missions involvement and giving among California Southern Baptists. The church for many years has been the top giver to special mission offerings – state, national and international – among California Southern Baptist churches.
Because of his leadership position in the Mandarin congregation, Francis also has been active in state and national fellowships of Chinese Baptists.
He is an honors graduate of Brandeis University in Massachusetts with a bachelor of arts degree in biochemistry. He attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary) and received a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Sarah Graham was saved at a young age in a Southern Baptist church in La Habra, and has served several CSBC congregations, most notably 18 years at Green Hills Baptist, where she served first as the Worship Leader and then later as Director of Family Ministries and Church Administrator. Her experience in managing the day-to-day operations of the church and her abilities to plan large scale events are some of her greatest assets for the role of Director of Communications for CSBC. She has a Bachelors from Azusa Pacific University and a Masters of Leadership and Management Studies from California Baptist University.

Oscar Sanchez is migrant ministries field specialist for California Southern Baptist Convention. His primary responsibility is to develop plans to train and enlist churches to adopt a California migrant community or center as part of the Convention’s Feeding Those Who Feed Us ministry.

Cathie most recently served as ministry wives coordinator for the Great Commission Association. She will serve primarily in the areas of women’s ministry and ministers’ wives for California Southern Baptist Convention. She also will assist in the International Mission Board Partnership with the East Asia Peoples Affinity Group.

For 10 years, Cathie and her husband served the International Mission Board, primarily in Spain. However, Cathie’s international missions service also includes Ecuador, Japan and Guatemala. She also has served as a director of special needs for a local church, is bilingual and served as an
ESL teacher. Cathie holds a bachelor’s degree in family development from Oklahoma Baptist University. She also earned master of divinity and doctor of educational ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Marc Tempesta, a Certified Public Accountant, is the chief financial officer for California Southern Baptist Convention. He also is the leader for the CSBC Business Services Team and provides oversight of risk management, human resources, data management, mail services and facilities management.