Dr. John Ruskay
Executive Vice President & CEO, UJA Federation of New York
NRPE Treasurer

Dr. David Saperstein
Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Dr. Ronald Sider
President, Evangelicals for Social Action
NRPE Vice Chairman

Board Biographies

Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell is presently the Director of Religion at the historic Chautauqua Institution. Before coming to Chautauqua, Dr. Campbell, a distinguished life-long ecumenist, was the first ordained woman to serve as General Secretary of the National Councils of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. She served from 1990 through 1999. Prior to her time at the NCCC U.S.A., Dr. Campbell served as Director of the U.S. Office of the World Council of Churches. During those years her commitment to peace with justice, crafted during her life-changing time with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was deepened in the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa. Today, Dr. Campbell holds numerous national and local offices, including: past member of the U.S. State Department advisory committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, Trustee for the Council for a Parliament of the World Religions, the Fund for Education in South Africa, the advisory committee for Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba, life member of the NAACP, Chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, and many others. As Chair of the GPIW, she has given leadership to the Initiative’s important work with women in the Middle East. In this capacity, she chaired a conference in Jordan that brought together 97 Israeli women and 77 Palestinian women to explore with international peace leaders the hope for justice reconciliation. She also serves as a member of both the Global Agenda Council on Faith and Council on Values as a Delegate to the World Economic Forum.  During her time as General Secretary to the NCCC, Rev. Campbell, in concert with Paul Gorman, Carl Sagan, Dean James Morton, and Albert Gore, was a founder of what is today the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.  Her accomplishments and achievements are many and varied, including eleven honorary doctorate degrees. Her work has been published widely and she is a sought after lecturer and preacher. Her most recent book, Living Into Hope – A Call to Spiritual Action for Such a Time as This, was published in 2010.

John Carr serves as Executive Director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development at the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference.  In this role, he assists bishops in sharing Catholic social teaching, advocating on major issues of justice and peace and building the Catholic community's capacity to act on its social mission.  Carr coordinates the Catholic Bishops' policy development and advocacy efforts on  a wide range of national and global issues, including poverty, hunger and heath care; human rights and religious freedom; debt, development, and trade; and war and peace.   He has assisted the U.S. Bishops develop a number of significant statements: Communities of Salt and Light, Sharing Catholic Teaching, Called to Global Solidarity, Everyday Christianity, and Faithful Citizenship.  Carr writes frequently on Catholic Social Teaching and the moral dimension of public issues.  He speaks regularly on the social mission and message of the Catholic Church and the demands of faith in public life.  He has represented the U.S. Bishops' Conference at the Vatican and in the Middle East, Central America, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Russia.  For three decades, Carr has been a leader in Catholic social ministry, serving at the USCCB and as Cardinal Hickey's Secretary of Social Concerns in Washington, D.C.; as Education Director of the Campaign for Human Development, and as Legislative Coordinator for the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis.   Outside the Church, Carr has served as Executive Director of the White House Conference on Family and as Director of the National Committee for Full Employment.  He currently serves on the board of Bread for the World, the Catholic Health Association, and the Law School of the University of St. Thomas.  He is a regular presenter at Preaching the Just Word retreats offered to priests around the country.  Carr is a graduate of St. John Vianney Seminary and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, and has received honors and awards from Barry University, University of St. Thomas, Crosier Seminary, the Roundtable of Social Action Directors, the Archdiocese of Washington, and the Center for Community Change.  He recently received the "Vision Award" from Catholic Charities USA.  He also was given the Msgr. John Egan Award by the National Pastoral Life Center and was named a "Hunger Hero" by Bread for the World.

Clare J. Chapman is Deputy General Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC).   Chapman also served as NCC Acting General Secretary from September 1, 2007 until January 1, 2008. Before joining the NCC staff, Chapman served on several committees, commissions and task forces for the past six years.   Most recently, she was on the staff of the United Methodist Church's General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns as its associate general secretary for program and administration.   She has held several administrative positions for the Methodist agency for 19 years.  Chapman has extensive ecumenical and interfaith experience.  She has twice been an advisor to the United Methodist delegation to the World Methodist Council. Currently she serves the World Council of Churches' board of the U.S. conference.   This year, Chapman was a member of the first official United Methodist delegation to the Vatican for discussions on Christian unity. Chapman was chair of the drafting committee of "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made," the NCC policy statement on human biotechnology that was adopted by the 2006 General Assembly of the NCC and Church World Service. Ms. Chapman holds four academic degrees.  She received her Juris Doctor from New York Law School, a Master of Music from the University of Arizona, and two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Central Florida, one in music and one in English. (more). 

Dr. Jan Curry has been a faculty member in Geology, Geography and Environmental Studies at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI since 1996. She completed a BA at Bethel College, earned an MA in geography at the University of Minnesota and received her PhD in geography from the University of Minnesota. She previously taught at Central College in Pella, Iowa. She also served as the Calvin Dean of Research & Scholarship and is currently the Gary and Henrietta Byker Chair in Christian Perspectives on Political, Social, and Economic Thought. Through a Fulbright Scholarship, she recently spent a semester in Hong Kong. She serves on the Grand Rapids city planning commission and has been active in local environmental sustainability efforts. She currently chairs the board of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

Rabbi Steve Gutow is President and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the coordinating body for 14 national Jewish agencies and 125 local Jewish community relations councils and federations.  He is a lawyer, rabbi, and activist.  Steve served on the Economic Recovery Task Force of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is one of the JCPA representatives on the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, a coalition of 18 Jewish social justice organizations building a unified movement that is part of the national Jewish agenda.  He chaired the Save Darfur Coalition.  Steve was the founding executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council and the first southwest regional director for AIPAC.   He is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.  Steve was the Rabbi of the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis and served as an Adjunct Law Professor at St. Louis University. Steve has been named to the "Forward 50."  In 2009 and 2010, Newsweek named him the 20th most influential rabbi in the U.S.  In January of 2010, Steve had an article appear on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency website co-written with Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center entitled, "Our Tu b'Shevat Responsibility."  Steve has delivered his passionate beliefs on Jewish environmentalism in numerous sermons, speeches, and presentations to various synagogues, environmental events, at the Institute on Religion & Public Policy's 2008 Inter-parliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom, and on several occasions before the Senate Democratic Outreach Steering Committee.  And in July of 2011, Steve began his co-chairmanship of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.

Dr. Jo Anne Lyon was elected the General Superintendent of The Wesleyan Church in 2008. Prior to this election she was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of World Hope International, Inc., a faith-based relief and development organization present in thirty countries around the world. Dr. Lyon has traveled in over sixty countries as a lecturer, performing site assessments and organizing development projects. A licensed professional counselor and an ordained minister of The Wesleyan Church, she had thirty years prior experience in administering domestic urban and rural human service programs as well as local church ministries. Dr. Lyon has been a guest to the White House on several occasions: in 2006 and 2007 for World AIDS Day roundtables, specifically related to World Hope International; in 2000 to engage religious leaders on the confluence of social issues and faith; for anti-trafficking and HIV/AIDS consultations; and has been actively involved in an advisory capacity with the Department of State. Dr. Lyon assisted in launching the Evangelical Environmental Network and represented the signatories of the Evangelical Climate Initiative to the National Press Club and the Senate. She has also participated in many dialogue groups, including several Christian/Muslim dialogues and most recently an Evangelical/Catholic dialogue, "Finding the Common Ground for the Common Good," at Georgetown University. Dr. Lyon holds three academic degrees, five honorary degrees, was an adjunct professor of Church and Society at Asbury Theological Seminary and Indiana Wesleyan University, and is a contributor to several publications. She also serves on the Board of Directors of National Association of Evangelicals, Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability, and Evangelicals for Social Action.  (more)

Dr. John Ruskay is the Executive Vice President & CEO of the UJA Federation of New York. After earning his doctorate in Political Science at Columbia University, Dr. Ruskay served for six years as Educational Director of the 92nd Street Y and then eight years (1985-1993) as Vice Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He came to UJA-Federation in 1992, where he served in several positions before being appointed Executive Vice President and CEO in October 1999. In this post, he serves as the senior professional of the largest federation in North America and the largest local philanthropy in the world.

Rabbi David Saperstein represents the Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the Administration as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC).  He was selected by Newsweek magazine as the most influential rabbi in the country and described in a Washington Post profile as the “quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill.” During his over three-decade tenure at the helm of the RAC, Rabbi Saperstein has headed several national religious coalitions, including the Coalition to Protect Religious Liberty. He serves on the board of numerous national organizations including the NAACP, People For the American Way, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life and the World Bank’s “World Faith Development Dialogue.”  In 1999, Rabbi Saperstein was elected as the first Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, created by a unanimous vote of Congress and in 2009 was appointed by President Obama as a member of the first White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In 2004 and 2006, the Wall Street Journal and the Religion News Service respectively described him as among the country’s most influential shapers of religious issues in national elections.  Also an attorney, Rabbi Saperstein teaches seminars in First Amendment Church-State Law and in Jewish Law at Georgetown University Law School.

Dr. Ronald J. Sider is Professor of Theology, Holistic Ministry and Public Policy and Director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary and President of Evangelicals for Social Action. A widely known evangelical speaker and writer, Dr. Sider has spoken on six continents, published thirty-one books and scores of articles. In 1982, The Christian Century named him  one of the twelve "most influential persons in the field of religion in the U.S."  His Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger was recognized by Christianity Today as one of the one hundred more influential religious books of the twentieth century and named the seventh most influential book in the evangelical world in the last fifty years.  His most recent books are The Scandal of the Evangelical Politics: Why are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World and I Am Not a Social Activist.  Among his other publications are: The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World, Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America and Churches That Make a Difference: Reaching Your Community with Good News and Good Works (with Phil Olson and Heidi Unruh). Sider is the publisher of PRISM magazine and a contributing editor of Christianity Today and Sojourners. He has lectured at scores of colleges and universities around the world, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford.

Bishop William Skylstad is an ordained a priest of the Diocese of Spokane. 
Bishop Skylstad was appointed and installed as Bishop of Yakima in 1977, and was appointed and installed as fifth Bishop of Spokane in 1990. Bishop Skylstad attended Washington State University and Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington. His religious career includes: assistant pastor, Pullman, Washington 1960-1961; 
teacher, Mater Cleri Seminary, Colbert, Washington 1960-1968; rector, Mater Cleri Seminary, Colbert, Washington 1968-1974; 
pastor, St. Joseph Parish, Colbert, Washington 1968-1974; pastor, Assumption Parish, Spokane, Washington 1974-1976; chancellor, Diocese of Spokane 1976-1977; bishop, Diocese of Yakima 1977-1990; bishop, Diocese of Spokane 1990-2010. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1960, and as bishop in 1977. He was elected Vice President of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2001, and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2004. In addition to NRPE, he is also a board member of Catholic Relief Services Foundation.  Bishop Skylstad retired as Bishop of Spokane in 2010.