Our Leaders
Dr. Tom Grassano
Founder/Director
Dr. Tom Grassano is an author, speaker, and change maker who leads strategic outreach to the poor and disenfranchised. He is an accomplished performer and composer with a Doctorate in Music from Florida State University. After serving in summer outreach projects in and outside the U.S., he eventually left his music career and founded Urban Harvest in 1994 in the South Bronx community called “Fort Apache.” Opposition, limited resources and even death threats did not prevent the fulfillment of the vision to bring hope to some of the most desolate places. He expanded Urban Harvest to Detroit in 2005 and founded Hope for the City, an initiative uniting people across cultural, racial and economic boundaries to bring hope to suffering communities in Detroit. Dr. Grassano now leads Go-Mission which is empowering the poor, building bridges across cultures and providing life-changing opportunities to serve in the US and abroad.
Tom has dedicated his life to bringing hope to the unreached and disenfranchised and empowering others to do the same. He has served as a speaker, teacher, and outreach leader in more than 40 states and 20 nations. His greatest passion is his family – his wife, Lidia, and his children, Angel and Tommy. United in mission, God is using this family as agents of hope and catalysts for change in some of the most desperate places.
Angel Grassano
Assistant Director
Angel Grassano, daughter of Dr. Tom & Lidia Grassano, was four years old when her family moved to New York to establish Urban Harvest Ministries in the South Bronx. Her parents taught her that “God has no grandchildren, only children” meaning that it had to be her personal decision to serve Jesus. She made that decision at a young age and grew up very involved at the Harvest Center, participating in the programs and serving in various capacities. Angel is a gifted musician and singer. She completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education in 2012 and felt called to serve full-time with Urban Harvest Ministries. She completed her Master’s Degree in Education three years later.
God has uniquely and powerfully joined her education and upbringing in missions. Angel is mentoring teachers and establishing child evangelism and discipleship ministries among the unchurched, while also writing curriculum for these ministries. Children who have never heard the Gospel are hearing the Good News and telling their parents, resulting in families knowing the hope only found in Christ. Angel also leads the IGNITE Ministry for young adults. Her desire is to see teenagers and young adults serve God with integrity, making choices that honor God and sharing His hope with others.
Tommy Grassano
Director of Communications
Tommy was born in New York and grew up immersed in the ministry of Urban Harvest in the Bronx and Detroit. He served in outreach projects and later became a gifted leader. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication in 2021 and felt called to serve full-time with Urban Harvest Ministries. Tommy leads outreach projects, coordinates the child sponsorship program, and directs communications for the organization. He has founded D.M.I. Ministries, using media to communicate the vision of Urban Harvest and the Gospel with relevance to the unchurched.
Tommy devoted much of his life developing his skills as an ice hockey goalie. He was a witness in every team. While playing Division 1 hockey at Oakland University in Michigan, Tommy established a chapel ministry that resulted in the changed lives of many of his teammates. He continues to influence youth by coaching goalies.
Harvest Leadership
Pastor Chris and Camil Garcia began working under the mentorship of Dr. Grassano in 2023 and now lead the congregation in the South Bronx. Chris has a passion for evangelism and a powerful story of transformation. Though brought up in church, drugs and the streets lured him into a lifestyle with no purpose. God did a miracle by changing the life of a man he sold drugs with and then using that man as an instrument to bring Chris into the Love of Jesus Christ. God changed Chris’s life and broke his addiction. With intense hunger for God, Chris began to go to the streets to preach the Gospel. He witnessed healing, breakthrough, and addiction broken as souls accepted Christ. Chris’s wife, Camil, is also passionate about souls and stands united with him in ministry.
Chris says, “Meeting Pastor Tom Grassano and his family has been a great blessing for my life and for my family. Hearing Pastor Tom’s heart and seeing everything that God has done with him, his family and ministry, has truly spoken to my life. God uses him to pour into my life. The history of Harvest Church and the vision that God gave Pastor Tom has greatly impacted me. I want to see it here just like the book of Acts with the Lord adding souls to the body of Christ and making disciples who desire Him!”
We thank God for Pastor Chris and Camil Garcia!
Vietnam Leadership
God has assembled a leadership team of faithful men and women of integrity, hungry for God, and with compassion for the lost and hurting. They are led by “Joshua and Abigail”, faithful servants who have adopted the vision and mission of Urban Harvest and Go-Mission as their own. Though these leaders often work in difficult circumstances, God continues to strengthen their faith, giving them wisdom and boldness to empower the poor and share the hope of Christ.
It is one of our greatest honors to serve with these dedicated servants. We ask for your prayers for them and for this ministry, as God is changing lives and communities and bringing hope to those who have never heard.
Our Board of Directors
The Board of Directors of Urban Harvest Ministries is a body of spiritual cover and oversight for the ministry. The Board consists of dedicated Christians of various areas of expertise whose lives demonstrate moral and spiritual integrity and who are committed to the vision and mission of UHM. We are honored to have a Board who loves God, who has compassion for the suffering, and who desires to see the Great Commission effectively fulfilled wherever God leads Urban Harvest Ministries.