The Center for Youth Evangelism (CYE), affiliated with Andrews University, has named Pedro Perez as the new director of the International Pathfinder Camporee. The announcement was made in June 2026 and released by the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and by official publications of the denomination in the United States.
Perez succeeds Ron Whitehead, who directed the event and served as executive director of the CYE for 29 years. The transition comes a little more than three years before the next North American Division camporee, set for August 2029, in Gillette, in the U.S. state of Wyoming — one of the largest Pathfinder gatherings on the planet, drawing tens of thousands of participants.
What was announced
According to the North American Division (NAD), the Center for Youth Evangelism confirmed Pedro Perez as director of the International Pathfinder Camporee. The CYE is the arm of Andrews University — an Adventist institution based in Berrien Springs, in the U.S. state of Michigan — responsible for organizing the gathering.
The appointment ends the search for a successor to Ron Whitehead, who simultaneously held the executive direction of the CYE and the direction of the camporee. According to the church's official publications in the United States, Whitehead led this work for 29 years, a period during which the event grew until it became one of the largest gatherings of Pathfinders in the world.
For those just starting out in the club, it is worth framing what is at stake: the International Camporee is a large-scale campout, held every few years, that brings together Pathfinders from dozens of countries in a single city. Changing who directs this gathering is not a routine change — it means deciding who will lead the logistics, the spiritual program and the safety of an event with tens of thousands of people.
Who is Pedro Perez
Before the appointment, Perez was director of the Pathfinder and Adventurer ministries for the Florida Conference, a position he had held since 2017. In the same Conference, he had been director of Youth Ministry between 2010 and 2017, adding up to more than a decade and a half of direct work with children, adolescents and young people.
In the academic area, Perez holds a Doctor of Ministry and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Theology from Union College. It is a path that combines field experience — the routine of counselor, instructor and club director — with theological training.
According to the material released by the North American Division, the leadership's expectation is that this experience in club ministries will help prepare the 2029 camporee. For the Pathfinder, it is a choice that speaks closely: the person who will lead the largest international gathering is someone who spent years organizing units, classes and investitures, and not just large events.
Read alsoInternational Camporee draws more than 60,000 to Gillette and records 1,187 baptismsRon Whitehead's legacy
Ron Whitehead's departure marks the end of a long cycle. It was 29 years at the head of the Center for Youth Evangelism and the International Camporee, a time in which the event established itself on the worldwide Pathfinder calendar and began to attract participants from outside the United States, including delegations from South America.
Under Whitehead's direction, the camporee consolidated the format that is now a reference: a temporary city set up in a few days, with nighttime programming, dozens of honors offered simultaneously, field activities and ceremonies that bring together thousands of people at the same time. The change of command does not alter this design — but it passes the responsibility of maintaining and updating it to a new director.
The immediate challenge: the 2029 camporee
Perez's most concrete task already has a date and place. The next International Camporee of the North American Division is scheduled for August 2029, in Gillette, a city in the state of Wyoming that hosted the previous edition of the gathering, in 2024. The theme released for the event is "Stand Strong".
A camporee of this scale requires years of preparation: negotiation with local authorities, setup of water, energy, food and health infrastructure, in addition to coordination with unions and conferences from various countries that send delegations. Taking over the direction less than three years before the event means stepping into machinery already in motion, inheriting part of the planning started under the previous administration.
For the Brazilian Pathfinder, the North American camporee is not the same event as the camporee of their own Field, but it serves as a reference and, in some cases, as a destination: delegations from South America have already taken part in international editions in the United States. Following who directs the gathering helps to understand where the ministry is heading on a global scale.
Understand the structure: CYE, Division and camporee
For those outside the United States, it is worth highlighting three pieces that appear in this news story. The North American Division is the administrative region of the Adventist Church that brings together, among others, the clubs of the United States and Canada — equivalent, in the worldwide structure, to the role that the South American Division (SAD) plays in Brazil and neighboring countries.
The Center for Youth Evangelism is a department of Andrews University dedicated to youth ministry, and it is this department — not a local conference — that organizes the International Camporee for this division. That is why the appointment of the director comes from the university, and not from a specific Field.
The International Camporee, in turn, is the gathering itself. In Brazil, the Pathfinder is more accustomed to regional camporees, of Field or Union, and to the SAD camporee. The North American model follows the same logic of campout, classes and investiture practiced here, only on another scale and with its own organization.