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Our Team.
This is your Team page. It's a great space to introduce your team and talk about what makes it special, such as your culture and work philosophy. Don't be afraid to illustrate personality and character to help users connect with your team.
Candy Christmas
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Candy Christmas is the Founder and CEO of The Bridge, Inc. Candy has spent her life giving to others through music. She began her career as an adolescent and quickly climbed to the top of the Christian charts. Later, she married and happily settled into family life, but she wanted a way to continue her ministry of giving. Her heart’s desire is to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. That is what prompted her to start The Bridge Ministry with her husband, Kent Christmas, in 2004. Candy has appeared in over 50 Gaither Homecoming Videos and traveled on tour for 6 years with Bill Gaither and The Homecoming Friends. Candy wrote a best-selling Christmas book in 2002.
Jennifer Ranson
Chief Operating Officer
Jennifer Ranson’s life is marked by a passionate desire to lead people to a transformed life in Jesus and empower them to walk fully in their God-given purpose. Her various pastoral roles over the past 20 years include youth ministry, small groups, church administration, production, missions, and outreach. With each assignment, she has successfully developed effective teams through her exuberant and focused leadership as well as her genuine care for those she leads and their families. Her enthusiasm and love for people are contagious. Through her leadership, the needs of thousands have been met by creating strategic partnerships with local and global organizations helping the broken and bruised of the world.
In January 2017, after almost a decade of faithful support to The Bridge Ministry, Jennifer stepped into a new area of service as the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this appointment, she had been a loyal weekly volunteer, team leader, and board member. Her passion to share the love of Christ and her skill in providing resources to Nashville’s under-resourced people are truly inspiring.
Originally from Louisiana, Jennifer and her husband relocated to Nashville in 1993. They founded and owned Delta Stage Lighting for 30 years, where Jennifer also served as the Vice President. Even with Jennifer’s vast responsibilities, she still regards family as her top priority. Tim and Jennifer have three adult children, two married, one in college, and two precious grandchildren.
Andrew Rice
Outreach Specialist
Born and raised in upstate New York, Andrew made his way to Tennessee through Boston and then California. The most traditionally educated of The Bridge team, Andrew completed his Bachelor’s in Business and Marketing and then moved on to a Doctorate of Pharmacy. Though one might wonder how a pharmacist winds up as an Outreach Specialist, Andrew would say the Lord had him “drop his net” of working in the medical field and fully surrender his will and plan for the Lord’s.
Andrew heard about The Bridge through his involvement with Regeneration Nashville. He started as a volunteer, faithfully driving four hours twice a week until God opened the door for him to become the full-time Outreach Specialist. Working with people one on one, to hear their stories and then see and hear God guide him to meet needs, solve problems, and ultimately, see the love of Christ remove barriers and move people to self-sustained living.
When he’s not at work, Andrew can be found working out, spending time with family and friends, and serving in the kid’s ministry at church. You also cannot know Andrew without knowing Jujee, his four-year-old Havapoo, who is often seen viewing the world from his dad’s shoulders.
Angel Kennedy
Executive Chef
Born in Maryland but raised in Central Florida, Angel found her way to Tennessee after she married her husband, Kristian, in 1998. For the last 17 years, she has called Chapel Hill, Tennessee, home, where she has been a homeschool mom and raised her two amazing children, Faith (22) and Jaeden (19), both Columbia State Community College graduates.
In her spare time, Angel enjoys working on the family’s Non-Profit farm, Melody Manor Ranch, founded in 2010, where she uses horses, goats, and dogs to bring hope, healing, and restoration to those in need.
Angel has run a successful cake business for over 20 years but recently joined the Bridge team full-time in Feb 2022 as Executive Chef. Angel cooks 1200-1500 hot meals weekly for The Bridge outreaches, bringing her version of comfort food to the streets of Nashville.
She has spent over two decades in pastoral roles alongside her husband, most recently serving seven years as Youth Pastors before coming to the Bridge.
Angel has a heart for the hurting and a passion to see God bring restoration to those desperately needing Him.
Around the office, Angel is known as the cake lady and is famous for making Candy’s absolute favorite birthday cake.
Carrington McDowell
Community Engagement
& Development Director
Behind all organizations, programs, projects, ideas, and challenges are people, and Carrington can always be found trying to unlock the greatness in people. Helping them see what they, for whatever reason, may have difficulty seeing in themselves. She loves hearing about their unique life experiences, learning how they see the world, and connecting how God has worked in and through their lives. This curiosity and a drive to see the best in people have fueled every leadership, management, and pastoral role she has been in throughout her career. Carrington believes that if you genuinely help people find and walk in their divine purpose and then see themselves the way God sees them, the team, project, company, and organization can’t help but succeed.
Carrington was born and raised in Maryland but went south for college, graduating from Lee University. She then moved to Nashville, where she met and married her husband, Ryan, who also is on staff at The Bridge. Her, Ryan, their two-year-old miracle daughter, Harris, and their husky Anori now live in Nolensville.
Don Ramsay
Warehouse Manager
Don was born in Jersey, made his way out West, and then moved to the Nashville area 17 years ago, with his wife and two kids, Dylan and Hannah. After 30 years in restaurant and corporate management, a former co-worker felt that Don would be a perfect addition to The Bridge team, and man, was he right! Very few people can build rapport and trust with a stranger as quickly as Don, and what a valuable asset that is when serving our under-resourced friends. His approach and heart for those in need come from his childhood, testimony, and seeing his wife radically transformed through the love and power of Jesus. His heart is to see that same transformation in those he has the privilege of serving daily at The Bridge.
When out of the office, Don can be found inventing, tinkering, and repurposing items of all sorts as well as using the mechanic skills he learned from his dad to help family and friends.
Kristian Kennedy
Director of Operations
Kristian and his wife of 25 years, Angel, who is also on staff for The Bridge, have lived in Chapel Hill, TN for 17 years. They have two amazingly talented children, daughter Faith, who works in the medical field, and son Jaeden, a business owner and entrepreneur.
Kristian and his wife are co-founders of a nonprofit organization, Melody Manor Ranch, that utilizes farm/rural life to help people unplug from the busyness of every day and connect to their God-given purpose. With the help of their horses, goats, one donkey, and several tail-waggers (doggies) their mission is to be a place of Hope, Healing, and Restoration.
Before joining The Bridge, Kristian successfully served in numerous leadership roles in the for-profit corporate sector, such as retail and telecommunications teams. He has also been a Pastor for over 25 years serving in various roles focused on helping people find purpose in their community and with the Lord. As Director of Operations at The Bridge, Kristian wears many hats and is always there to help solve a problem or bring a quick-witted joke to the conversation.
Melody Ramsay
Volunteer Coordinator
Melody thrives being with people. You can find her at the office leading a group of volunteers, but she also doesn’t shy away from the hard work of slinging boxes full of food in the warehouse.
With a truly unbelievable testimony of how God covered and protected her through her childhood and young adult years to then meet the Lord at 27, she has an inspiring perspective of loving people who are fighting their way out of the darkest circumstances.
For Melody, there is one goal - to see people overcome the world and walk in the fullness of Christ Jesus!
Melody has lived in the Nashville area for 17 years but originally hails from out West, where she met and married her husband Don, who also works for The Bridge. Don & Melody have 2 adult children, Dylan and Hannah; one is married and living in India, and the other in Chattanooga.
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Robert Bowman
Bridge to Kids Director
Born and raised on a small farm in Southwest Louisiana, Robert has always had a mindset of hard work and a heart for helping people. Growing up in church he surrendered his life to Christ as a child and since that time, has pursued the Lord with his life. Robert has been involved in a multitude of ministry positions over the past decade. In 2021, he earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary before joining The Bridge, Inc. team in August of that same year.
Robert loves being a source of encouragement to others and helping people rise to their full potential. He enjoys exploring the great outdoors and traveling the world. It is said that he makes the best cheesecake in the area. He enjoys a good laugh and creating puns that others may or may not laugh at. As the Bridge to Kids Director, Robert finds great joy in providing food and resources to kids in need and building up relational partnerships with the local schools.
Ryan McDowell
Assistant Bridge to Kids Director
Acts 4:20 has served as the “Life Verse” for Assistant Bridge To Kids Director, Ryan McDowell. “For we cannot keep silent about the things we have seen and heard” has been the mantra with which He has passionately proclaimed the Goodness of God.
It's been his heart’s desire to declare to both the world and his local community that God is a loving Father desiring relationship with the crown jewel of His creation, people. Ryan has operated in several different capacities of local ministry. Alongside his wife, Carrington, he has led worship in the context of the local church, served on staff in full-time ministry as a youth and associate pastor, and with a heart for evangelism, has also traveled throughout the US leading worship and preaching the Gospel.
The fertility journey that Ryan and his wife Carrington walked through to become parents constantly serves as inspiration for declaring the Faithfulness of God. Their miracle baby girl, Harris, daily produces fresh revelation, inspiration, and motivation for sharing the Grace made available through the finished work of Jesus.
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