Commissioners Ken and Jolene Hodder serve as the National Commander and National Secretary for Program respectively, for The Salvation Army in the United States, which operates more than 7,600 service facilities across America and serves more than 30 million people in need every year.
Commissioner Ken Hodder is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B. magna cum laude, 1980) and Harvard Law School (J.D., 1983). Commissioner Jolene Hodder holds a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Los Angeles (1982), and a Masters of Religion from Trevecca Nazarene University (2018).
In 1986, after several years in their chosen professions, Commissioners Hodder responded to God’s call to service as Salvation Army officers. Commissioned in 1988, they served in corps appointments in Glendale and Torrance, California, as instructors at the School for Officers Training, and later as staff officers at USA Western Territorial Headquarters. In 1997, they served for three years as Coordinators for the International Millennial Congress. Later they served at Southern California Divisional Headquarters in Los Angeles, and then as divisional leaders for the Cascade Division.
Commissioners Hodder were appointed in March, 2006 to serve as Chief Secretary and Territorial Leader of Women’s Ministries in the Kenya Territory. Three years later, the Hodders were appointed to International Headquarters, where Commissioner Ken Hodder served in dual roles as International Secretary for Personnel and as Legal and Constitutional Adviser to the General, and Commissioner Jolene Hodder served as Associate International Secretary for Personnel. They were subsequently appointed as the Territorial leaders for Kenya West in January of 2013, and then as Territorial leaders of The Salvation Army’s USA Western Territory in 2017. They were appointed to their current roles at National Headquarters on July 1, 2020.
Commissioner Jolene Hodder is the author of three books, Walking in White, A Bend in the Road and Sensational Grace. They have one daughter, Jessica Fagerstrom, and are grandparents to two amazing boys, Everett Kenneth and Oliver Mark.