Leadership

Dirk Gerlach

Director
Crisis Response Coordination Center

Dirk Gerlach is the Director of WEA’s new Crisis Response Coordination Center which has been established in 2022 to help local churches build capacities in disaster response and diaconic work when reaching out to people in need in
their community.

For more than 20 years he has served in relief and development in various capacities. From 2018 to 2022 Dirk established ZOA Germany, a Christian relief and recovery association working in conflict and disaster areas, with German government and EU donors. He was part of the Development Sections of EU Delegations in Kazakhstan and Vietnam as Sector Expert and Team Leader.

Additionally, he led in several capacities related to institutional funding and operations across the globe in major Christian NGOs such as World Vision, Christian Blind Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, Logos International and
International Mennonite Organisation.

Dirk enjoys donor engagement, project management, organisational development and strengthening abilities of colleagues in local churches and global networking with partners.

He is a native German and lived abroad in the United States, France, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea for many years. He is married to a Singaporean and lives with his two sons near Bonn and Cologne in Germany.