Dr. Chip Roper is the Executive Director and Principal Consultant of LEAD.NYC’s Voca Center (Formerly called the New York City Leadership Center’s Marketplace Initiative). Dr. Roper is building a bridge across the vocational divide, the disconnect many people live between their Sunday faith and their Monday reality. This compartmentalization is experienced at the individual level and reinforced at the institutional level. To build this bridge, Chip creates experiences and delivers resources that equip professionals who work in New York City to engage in their jobs with a robust sense of calling. He also trains pastors to validate and support their people in their workplace vocations. Chip turns the daily grind into a spiritual adventure, serving 1000’s of people annually.
Chip tackles the vocational challenge from 30 years of experience as a small businessman, a pastor, a career coach, and a business consultant. In addition to his work at Voca, Chip is one of two city directors for the Made to Flourish Network, he writes the blog Marketplace Faith for Patheos.com and serves as a teaching pastor at Lower Manhattan Community Church.
Chip and his wife of 28 years, Audrey have three daughters, one still at home. They live along the East River in the Hunters Point Queens neighborhood of New York City.