Meet the Team
Meet the staff.
Our staff at Needle’s Eye is passionate about equipping working and retired professionals in accordance with Scripture:
“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Ephesians 4:12-16
Lee Mitchell
Executive Director
"I have a heart for reaching lost men and women in the marketplace with the love of God because for so many years, I was one of them."
Lee came to Needle's Eye the way many people do: through a season of searching. Over 15 years in executive banking, he experienced firsthand the hunger that so many marketplace professionals carry beneath the surface. Needle's Eye met him there, and the relationship grew deep: he served six years on the Board of Directors, led the ministry's 40th anniversary fundraising campaign, and along the way met his wife Erica at a Young Professional group, one of many Needle's Eye couples, as he and Erica like to say. He has also served as a bi-vocational pastor and is an alumnus of the Richmond Christian Leadership Institute. Lee brings to the Executive Director role not just leadership experience, but a genuinely personal investment in this community and the city it serves. On weekends, he and Erica are usually loading their two daughters into the car with no real plan, chasing good food in Virginia's small towns, a Flying Squirrels game, or anything near the water.
Shanna Kabatznick
Director of Community Engagement
"I believe God has given me gifts that align with where Needle's Eye is headed, and I am honored HE is using them to help me support this wonderful ministry”
Shanna has spent most of her life building rooms where people feel like they belong. She started in financial services, where she learned that the fastest way to grow anything is to genuinely care about the person sitting across from you. That conviction eventually led her to create FABWOMEN, a Richmond community she grew from a twenty-person launch into a gathering place for hundreds of professional women.
What she learned while scaling FABWOMEN is that growth is not a numbers game. It is about connecting, belonging, and believing in the organization's vision. The more women felt genuinely known, the more they showed up, invited a friend, and stayed. Looking back, she can see that same thread running through every season of her career, whether she was working inside an organization, leading FABWOMEN, or speaking and training in front of a room. The industry changed. The work never did. It was always about relationships. She eventually wrote a book about it, Master the Art of Connecting, and she still speaks and trains on it today.
Coming to Needle's Eye feels less like a career move and more like an answer. As a proud Ecuadorian American and a woman of faith, she has spent years helping people find their voice at work. Here she gets to help them find something deeper, a community where faith and work belong together. She hopes that anyone who walks through the door at Needles Eye feels a sense of peace that surpasses understanding.
Leanne Lytle
Director of Ministry
"More than anything, I want people to experience the wholeness that comes from knowing they have been designed intentionally, loved completely, and promised full healing and restoration by the Creator of the World."
Leanne came to Needle's Eye from a career in education, already a long-time believer, and still found something here she hadn't encountered anywhere else: a community that took seriously what faithfulness looks like from 9 to 5. That experience shapes everything about how she leads as Director of Ministry. Leanne believes that God uses our work to form and shape us, and that sustained community with others on the same journey is what turns good intentions into real transformation. She is convinced that every person who engages with Needle's Eye carries a story worth telling, and her deepest hope is that they leave more equipped to tell it through their work. A committed morning person (rarely sleeping past 5am), Leanne starts each day in silence before the rest of the world wakes up, which might surprise anyone who knows her as the extrovert she is.
Aimee O’Flaherty
Director of Communications & Digital Engagement
"I believe the best stories are the ones that make people feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves, and I am excited to help tell that story every day."
Aimee brings over 10 years of experience in communications, operations, and people engagement to her role at Needle's Eye. She is passionate about storytelling that draws people in and creates a sense of belonging, helping others see themselves as part of something bigger than themselves.
Faith has been the thread woven through her entire life, and it's what drives the way she works, with intention, care, and a genuine desire to connect with the hearts and stories of the people around her.
She is here to listen, to connect, and to help tell the story of what God is doing in and through this ministry in a way that resonates and invites others in.
Michael Ferreira
Operations and Accounting Administrator
"We need to be reminded always of our identity in Christ and challenged to live out the great commission specifically in our day-to-day vocation."
Michael sees Needle's Eye as more than a place to work. He sees it as a prophetic witness to Richmond. The conviction that God pursues the lost through ordinary people in ordinary workplaces is something Michael finds both compelling and personal. He came to Richmond a few years ago, found his footing through ministry and nonprofit work, and landed at Needle's Eye in what he describes as an almost perfectly fitted role. Beyond the operations and accounting work that keeps the ministry running, Michael is passionate about emotional and relational health and is quick to recommend The Connected Life podcast to just about anyone. Outside the office, he's happiest outdoors: mountain biking, paddling, or skiing depending on the season.
Roxanne Crosby
Organizational Strategy Partner
“It was two different co-workers who brought the love and power of Jesus to me when I was a new believer in a high-stress corporate job. I have personal experience of the power of a witness to Christ.”
Roxanne doesn’t have to imagine what it means to encounter God through a colleague. She lived it. That experience is why Needle’s Eye’s mission isn’t abstract to her; it’s the story of her own faith. She brings deep strategic and organizational experience to the team, and approaches her work here with the conviction that every person has a real, lasting contribution to make to God’s redemptive purposes in the world. Lately, she’s been shaped by N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope, a reminder that what we do in our workplaces and communities is never wasted. Roxanne serves NEM as a volunteer partner.