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Board of Directors

 

 

 
Louis Altman 		 LOUIS ALTMAN received a law degree from Harvard and started a career as an intellectual property attorney in both private and corporate practice. He has been involved with numerous humanist and nontheistic organizations, including serving on the board of the Sarasota Congregation for Humanistic Judaism and the Executive Committee of the board of the Humanists of Florida, an affiliate of the American Humanist Association. Since 2000, he has served on the Executive Committee of the Society for Humanistic Judaism in various roles, and has been their President since 2006.

Worried about the growing influence of theism on our nation, Altman has worked to defend the integrity of scientific research, the quality of eductation, and our tradition of separation of church and state.

 
  
Rob Boston
 ROBERT BOSTON is assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) and the assistant editor of AU's monthly magazine Church & State. He is recognized as a leading writer and researcher on church-state topics and an articulate advocate for the separation of church and state. He frequently writes about the political goals of the Religious Right and other church-state issues, such as religion in public schools, tax aid to sectarian education and religious freedom. He covers the U.S. Supreme Court for Church & State and has attended oral arguments in every church-state case at the high court since 1988.

Boston is the author of three books: Close Encounters with the Religious Right: Journeys into the Twilight Zone of Religion and Politics (Prometheus Books, 2000); The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition (Prometheus Books, 1996) and Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State (Prometheus Books, 1993; second edition, 2003).
 
Rebecca Hale,
Vice President
 REBECCA HALE is a lifelong Humanist, beginning as a child in New York under the official religious category of Unitarian. She holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Colorado, which she has used in careers as a city administrator, real estate/resort developer, and college administrator. She currently works tirelessly for freethought and Humanism by running EvolveFISH.com and serving on the board of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, both of which she and her husband Gary Betchan founded a little over eleven years ago. She was recently granted Celebrant status by the Humanist Society. Rebecca has been certified by the Educational Kinesiology Foundation and has continued in this work by developing programs and curriculum for teachers and seniors. She has two children, Josh, age 23, and Tani, age 5; they are both brilliant, free spirited Humanists in their own right.
 
Jennifer Kalmanson
 JENNIFER KALMANSON is a space systems engineer. She has provided system engineering support to the Hubble Space Telescope servicing Mission 4, the Dawn mission to the asteroid belt, and supported a Phase A study to design a mission to fly humankind’s first operational solar sail. She is a board member and chapter coordinator of the Washington Area Secular Humanists-DC Chapter and a Humanist Celebrant. She lives in Laurel, Maryland.
 
Howard Katz
 HOWARD KATZ is president of the Humanist Society, an adjunct of the American Humanist Association which certifies Humanist Celebrants. He has been a Celebrant for over seven years. Howard has been active with the Americans Civil Liberties Union and was awarded the ACLU of Illinois’ Volunteer of the Year award. He’s a former officer of Illinois National Organization for Women (NOW), board member of the local Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and board member of the Humanists of West Suburban Chicagoland. He’s held multiple public offices and is currently parliamentarian of his County Democratic organization. He’s been a member of the AHA for over 30 years after being introduced to humanism in his 20s.
 
Amanda Knief
 AMANDA KNIEF is the Government Relations Manager at the Secular Coalition for America and co-founder of the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. She formerly served as legal counsel for the Legislative Services Agency, the nonpartisan division of the Iowa Legislature. She is a graduate of Drake University Law School and Iowa State University. She is an avid rock climber and bibliophile.
 
Melvin Lipman,
Immediate Past President
 (Biography)
 
Raul Martinez
 RAUL MARTINEZ was introduced to skeptical thought by his father at a young age, borrowing copies of the Skeptical Inquierer magazine. He read the Humanist Manifesto before he was ten, and identified as a humanist when he was twelve, what he refers to as "the age of reason". Born in Mexico City, he moved to the United States in 1996, becoming a citizen in May of 2001. He joined the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada in 2002 and was elected Vice President of the organization in December of 2003. He became a board member of the Las Vegas Freethought Society in December of 2004.

Martinez has a BA in Marketing from the Institute of Technological Studies of Monterrey and worked in many fields since then. In spite of working full-time and spending time with his wife and two sons, he dedicates a large portion of his time to humanist causes. He is also the author of the children’s book, There is a Purple Dragon in my Washing Machine, a book introducing atheism to children.
 
David Niose,
President
 DAVID NIOSE's background includes experience in law and mass communication. Having practiced law in Massachusetts since 1990, Niose has also worked in print and broadcast media, taught both history and law, and written extensively on a wide array of issues. Upon joining the AHA board in 2005, Niose initiated and helped develop the AHA's media campaign. Niose has appeared in national media and spoken to groups around the country, emphasizing the importance of utilizing mass media to inject humanist ideas into the public dialogue, improve the public image of humanists, and sway public opinion away from the religious right. As an attorney, Niose has advocated for church/state separation and the rights of humanists and other nontheists, and he is currently involved in implementing a legal strategy to enforce the rights of humanists and other nontheists via the avenue of equal protection law. He has worked with the Secular Coalition for America in various positions to help advocate for the rights of Secular Americans, and has served on the boards of Greater Worcester Humanists and Greater Boston Humanists.
 
Susan Sackett,
Secretary

SUSAN SACKETT grew up in Connecticut and Florida and received both her BAE and MEd degrees from the University of Florida in Gainesville (1964;1965). After teaching elementary school in Miami for two years, she moved to Los Angeles in 1968, where she taught for a short time. But her lifelong dream of working in Hollywood persisted, and she quit her teaching job to work in the entertainment industry. In 1974 she landed a job as assistant to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and worked with him until his death in 1991. Her career with Roddenberry encompassed both production work and writing. She is the author of ten books and co-writer of several teleplays. It was Roddenberry who introduced Susan to Humanism. Realizing that she, too, was a Humanist, she joined the AHA in 1989.

In 1994 Susan left California and relocated to Arizona, where she became active in her local AHA chapter, the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix (HSGP). She has been president of HSGP since 2000. Thanks to her efforts, her chapter was selected AHA Chapter of the Year for 2001. In 2002 she founded HUMANICON SOUTHWEST Inc., a 501 (c) (3) corporation, dedicated to promoting Humanism throughout the Southwest by producing Humanistically-themed multi-media conventions. Humanicon Southwest was made possible by a major grant from the Institute for Humanist Studies. Additionally, under Susan's guidance, her Phoenix AHA chapter applied for and has received two Chapter Assembly grants to help promote Humanism in Arizona. A grant received in 2005 will go towards renovating the quarter of a million dollar property the Phoenix chapter has recently acquired. Susan has been a Certified Humanist Celebrant since 2001.
 
Herb Silverman
 HERB SILVERMAN became involved in religious freedom issues when he won a unanimous decision in the South Carolina Supreme Court striking down a statute in the state constitution prohibiting nontheists from serving in public office. He then founded the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry in Charleston, SC, and also founded and serves as a faculty advisor to the College of Charleston student Atheist/Humanist Alliance. He is a national board member of the Atheist Alliance International, an advisory board member of the Secular Student Alliance, a state board member of the South Carolina ACLU, a member of the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a board member of the Humanist Institute, and the president of the Secular Coalition for America.

Silverman has appeared in a number of debates representing the humanist point of view, including one at the Oxford Union in England on the topic: Does American Religion Undermine American Values? He has spoken at a number of conferences and written articles for the Humanist and other freethought publications. He also has a mathematics book on Complex Variables and a chapter called "Innerancy Turned Political" in The Fundamentals of Extremism.
 
Jason Torpy,
Treasurer
 JASON TORPY has been involved with the nontheist and humanist movement for over a decade - specifically through the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF), which he helped grow from an email listserv to a widely-recognized 501c3 organization. MAAF is now a member organization of the American Humanist Association.

Torpy has spent the last several years building coalitions among nontheist organizations.  He collaborated with American Atheists for the Veteran’s Day 2005 "Atheists in Foxholes March on the Mall" in Washington, DC.  Through SCA, he successfully lobbied the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee to investigate unconstitutional proselytism at Army training bases. He also serves on the board of the Secular Coalition for America.
 
Kristin Wintermute
 KRISTIN WINTERMUTE is a lifelong Humanist who attended the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis (FUS), led by Khoren Arisian, throughout her childhood and teen years. At first she was enrolled in their “Humanist Education Program,” and in high school she became a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student at the University of Montana, she used this curriculum at the Unitarian Fellowship of Missoula, Montana. Following graduate work at the University of Maine, Wintermute returned to Minneapolis and FUS. Seeing a need for a younger generation there, she began the twenties and thirties group. The goals were to learn more about Humanism through reading and discussion as well as to be in a community with like-minded individuals of our generation. The group's greatest accomplishment was a very well received Sunday Assembly on Generation X.

After pursuing a career for a number of years as a family therapist, Wintermute made a decision to leave the field of social work to become a stay-at-home mother. She pursued part-time work from home and was hired by the North American Committee for Humanism (NACH) to be their executive director in 1998. In 1999, NACH and its subsidiary, the Humanist Institute, became one organization. She became the business manager and is now the administrator of the Humanist Institute. She is also the full-time office manager for Schlenker and Associates and mother of two, Anya (age 8) and Ari (age 5).

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