Richard Stephenson

Richard Stephenson serves as the director of Information Technology (IT) Services for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America.

Richard graduated from Southern Adventist University with a degree in religion and education, and began working for the denomination in 1998, serving as chaplain and campus pastor for Madison Academy in Nashville, Tenn. 

In 2005, while still serving as chaplain, Richard became IT Director for Madison Academy. In that role, he launched one of the first 1-to-1 laptop programs in the Division, equipping every student with a laptop and printer, and leading the shift to an online learning environment. In 2008, Richard transitioned to director of IT for the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, their first full-time IT director. Richard placed a significant emphasis on educational technology for the dozens of schools in the conference. 

In 2009 Richard accepted the call to serve as associate director of IT for the Southern Union Conference in Norcross, Ga., where he oversaw the launch of the Union’s first hosting environment for their eight conferences. Under Richard’s direction, the Southern Union began to host centralized payroll and accounting at the union office, as well as many other services, on behalf of their conferences. Richard was asked to take over IT operations at the Southern Union in 2013, and served as the director of IT Services for the Southern Union for the next five years. During this period Richard pushed for centralization and standardization of services provided to the denomination. 

Richard accepted the call to serve as Director of IT Services for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America in 2018. Since that time, he has overseen the launch of the NAD Private Cloud, a collocation and hosting service for Adventist organizations. Richard loves to integrate technology into the organization in a way that produces positive change. More than this, Richard loves the Lord and has a heart for ministry. Richard is married to Desiree Stephenson, and they are the parents of two growing boys.