Our Team

JP and his wife Tori live in Greer, SC with their two sons. His plan entering college was to be a full-time teaching pastor, but God had different plans. After completing his MA in Biblical Studies, JP was called to work in the children’s ministry department of his local church and learned that his passion was serving children. As part of his responsibilities, he directed an in-house after-school program and summer learning camp for students from the local public elementary school. Nine years later after seeing the impact it made on the students, their families, and the school, he decided to continue his passion and start Uplift Kids. 

Andrea “Andi” Clements is a professor in the Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University, associate director of research design and implementation for the ETSU/Ballad Health Strong BRAIN Institute, and co-founder and board president of Uplift Appalachia. Her main areas of research are religiosity, health, and trauma-related neuropsychological development, particularly focusing on addiction. She teaches and trains about the science of addiction, navigating addiction treatment options, and being trauma responsive (trauma informed care). She has taught measurement, evaluation, and research design for the past three decades. In her personal life, she has been a church planter and regularly mentors people who live with addiction and have been or currently are incarcerated.

For eight years Tanner Clements was a bi-vocational pastor and elder at Christ-Reconciled Church in a low income, high need area of Johnson City, Tennessee. He co-founded Uplift Appalachia in 2018, and served as the executive director for three years. He publishes and speaks publicly about the need to build community to address addiction. He holds a MDiv in Theological Studies from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and a BA from East Tennessee State University in digital media. He has spent eight years as video services manager at a large regional university in which he is able to tell stories through film and spent the previous seven years as web developer. In July 2023, he left the university to pursue freelance video work and devoted himself more fully to Uplift Appalachia's mission.