| Our Team |
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PER employs a core team of educational developers and practitioners with a broad background in experience-based and institutional education. All have spent a significant amount of time plugged into PER's leadership development process.
Ben Wilhite, Executive Director
Dr. Dennis M. Wilhite, Founder & Graduate Program Director
Dr. Dann Austin, Camp & Recreation Program Director
Dwight Peterson, WILD Director
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Mr. Wilhite stepped into the core enabler role at PER in early 2003 after spending five years in strategic project development and operational management at PSECU (Harrisburg, PA), a technology leader in the credit union industry. In 2007, he moved into the lead role with a focus on continued strategic development of PER's curriculum and delivery channels. Mr. Wilhite brings a lifetime (literally) of experience with the PER learning and leadership models and a strong background in applying technology and relationship management to the organization, along with a vision for people inherited from our founder, his father.
Dr. Wilhite is the driving creative force behind PER's continuous pursuit of educational excellence. His vision for practical integration of learning and experience is braided into all of PER's efforts, creating an organizational culture of personal and team growth. In reality, PER as an organization is Dr. Wilhite's laboratory for the very products and services it provides to other organizations. Dr. Wilhite's background includes 20 years in youth ministry (the original catalyst for Pilgrimage) and 13 years as an undergraduate and graduate educator and administrator at Baptist Bible College, Clarks Summit, PA. He currently serves as Chair of the Global Ministries Division at BBC. Dr. Wilhite is also a co-founder of Koinonia Educational Ministries, a non-profit educational organization. 
Dr. Austin served as Pastor of Educational Ministries at Calvary Baptist Church (Grand Rapids, MI) for 28 years. During that time, he had oversight of 28 adult classes ministering to over 500 adults on a weekly basis, developed an effective small-group ministry and directed a twelve month internship program for pastors. Dr. Austin also created a ministry placement program that helped church members to assess their personal giftedness and, consequently, where they fit in the ministry of that local church body. His resume also includes development and oversight of both a residential and a day camp owned and operated by Calvary Baptist Church. He directed an educational conference that trained up to 1000 local church leaders annually. Dr. Austin has also as an adjunct professor for the Grand Rapids School of Bible and Music, Cornerstone University and Baptist Bible Seminary. Since 1999, he has been serving as chaplain and professor at Baptist Bible Seminary. Dr. Austin has been serving as a Board Member of Lake Ann Baptist Camp since 1997. 
Since 1985, Mr. Peterson has logged and led almost as many wilderness trips as has PER president, Dr. Wilhite, making him uniquely qualified to direct the Wilderness Institute for Leadership Development. After serving for three years as Youth Pastor at Brookdale Baptist Church (Bloomfield, NJ), Mr. Peterson accepted the Youth Pastor role at First Baptist Church (Elkhart, IN), where he served for 14 years. His area of responsibility included junior high, senior high and college ministry along with oversight of the Bible curriculum and discipleship functions at the Christian school operated by the church. In Elkhart, Mr. Peterson developed training courses for his youth ministry teams while also making them available in workshop and written formats as curriculum to other youth ministries. Mr. Peterson also created and continuously develops