Interfaith Alliance

Board Member Biographies

Marvin W. Chiles has been an active Board Member, Finance Chairman, Events Chairman an dpresently, Treasurer of The Interfaith Alliance of Oklahoma, Inc and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation of Oklahoma, Inc from the beginning ten years ago. He is a United Methodist serving the Commission on Religion and Race for the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. He is a member of the Oklahoma City University Diversity Council and an Advisory Board member of Growing Open Oklahoma Dialogue in Science, Technology and Religion, a product of the Wimberly School of Religion an dGraduate Theologial Center at Oklahoma City University. He has been in elected officer positions as a member of various professional organizations and social justice projects. In 2003 he received the 20th Annual Human Rights Award given by the State of Oklahoma Human Rights Commission. He is a native western Kansan graduating from Kansas State University. Mary Ellen and Marvin have been married 53 years. They have three daughters, three grandsons and one granddaughter.

The Rev. Dr. David R. Currie is the coordinator of Texas Baptists Committed, an organized, educational effort to resist takeover of the Baptist General Convention of Texas by fundamentalist, politically conservative groups. He has served as field coordinator of Baptists Committed to the Southern Baptist Convention and as a staff member of the Christian Life Commission. Dr. Currie is also an author or co-author of three books and hundreds of published articles in Baptist publications.

Dr. Diana L. Eck is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University where she serves on the Committee on the Study of Religion in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies as well as the Faculty of Divinity. Since 1991, Diana Eck has been heading a research team at Harvard University to explore the diversity of the United States and its meaning for the American pluralist experiment. The Pluralism Project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation has been documenting the growing presence of the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Zoroastrian communities in the U.S. This research project has involved students and professors at Harvard and in a dozen affiliate colleges and universities in research on America's new religious landscape. Diana received her B.A. from Smith College (1967) in Religion, her M.A. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1968) in South Asian History, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University (1976) in the Comparative Study of Religion.

The Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr., is the first African-American to serve as Senior Minister of The Riverside Church, an interdenominational, interracial, and international church built as a result of the generosity of John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1927. The 2,400-member church is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ. Known as the "preacher's preacher" in national and international religious circles, this pastor, educator, administrator, community activist, and interfaith leader was designated as one of America's greatest Black preachers by Ebony Magazine in 1984 and 1993. In 1995 he emerged in the Baylor University Survey as one of twelve remarkable and most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. From 1992 to the present, Dr. Forbes has been co-chair of A Partnership of Faith, an interfaith organization of clergy among New York's Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim communities. He is a consultant to the Congress of National Black Churches and past President of The Martin Luther King Fellows.

Helio Fred Garcia is a coach, counselor, teacher, writer, and speaker. Fred is an adjunct professor of management at New York University, where he has taught for 21 years. He teaches crisis management in the Executive MBA program of the Stern School of Business. He teaches courses in communication strategy and in communication ethics, law, and regulation in the Master’s in Corporate Communication program in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He has received the school’s awards for teaching excellence and for outstanding service. Fred is also on the associate faculty of the Starr King School for the Ministry - Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, where he teaches a seminar on religious leadership for social change. He is a frequent guest lecturer at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, the Center for Security Studies of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Brookings Institution, and other universities.

Rabbi David J. Gelfand, Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel of the City of New York, is a gifted teacher, caring pastor and eloquent preacher known for having created cutting-edge models of synagogue life based on pluralism, inclusivity, outreach, excellence in education for all ages and creating a vibrant spiritual life for all.  He has been an outspoken prophetic voice of social conscience, activist and vigilant in the cause of human rights, social justice, interfaith relations, outreach and inclusion and has been so recognized in the communities he has served and even internationally by the World Union for Progressive Judaism with their "International Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Pursuit of Justice."
 Previously, he was the Rabbi of The Jewish Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton, NY, where he initiated the highly acclaimed "Hamptons Jewish Summer Institute," a unique , creative form for Jewish learning, spirituality and culture.  Having begun his career at Temple Beth El of Great Neck, NY, he also served congregations in New Jersey and Ohio.  Presently he serves on numerous national boards and commissions of major Jewish and interfaith organizations and in leadership roles of the Interfaith Alliance (Vice Chair of IA Foundation & Chair of IA), the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Board of Governors; President's Council), World Union for Progressive Judaism (International Assembly; Vice-President North American Board; Vice-Chair of Rabbinic Board), NY Board of Rabbis (Board member), among others.
 He and his wife Kathy, a jewelry designer, and their four children reside in NYC & East Hampton.

Rev. Galen Guengerich is Senior Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church, an historic congregation located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He is the tenth person to hold this position in the congregation’s 188-year history. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Rev. Guengerich was educated at Franklin and Marshall College (BA, Phi Beta Kappa, 1982), Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1985), and The University of Chicago (PhD, 2004). His doctoral dissertation is titled Comprehensive Commitments and the Public World: Tillich, Rawls and Whitehead on the Nature of Justice.
Rev. Guengerich is widely acclaimed for his eloquent and thought-provoking sermons and speeches. His sermon at All Souls on Sept. 16, 2001—the Sunday after 9/11—was selected to be included in Representative American Speeches 2001-2002. Titled “The Shaking of the Foundations,” the sermon appears along with speeches by Governor George Pataki, President George Bush and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as one of seven “Responses to September 11th.”
He has appeared on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, as well as on The Fox Newschannel programs In Depth and On Religion, and he has been the featured speaker at conferences across the nation. He now regularly appears on Morning Meditation from All Souls, a semi-monthly half-hour radio show on WQXR, the radio station of The New York Times.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Holly G. Atkinson, MD, and daughter Zoë.

The Honorable Amo Houghton served as a United States Representative from the state of New York, 29th Congressional District. He is the founder of the John Quincy Adams Society which brings together moderat office holders with top business leaders, and is also a founding member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, which seeks to strenghten the political center. Amo has served on serval boards of major corporations, including Proctor & Gamble, IBM , Citicorp, N.Y. Telephone, B.F. Goodrich and Genentech. He is a former trustee of St. Paul's School, the Brookings Institution, a former member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, a past director of the Episcopal Theological Seminary and holds 16 honorary degrees. He now serves as a board member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, and is a special intern for Bishop Tom Shaw of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

Dr. Maureen McCormack, SL, is a Sister of Loretto and a former president of the Loretto Community. She is President of The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado and Nation al Secretary of The Interfaith Alliance. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology and education from the University of Denver, has taught at elementary, junior high and college levels and was a college dean of students. She has served on a number of local and national non-profit boards. Her publications include a chapter in a book, Midwives of the Future, on changes in religious life, articles on her work with women in prisons, and an article in the London Tablet on the role of religion in society. McCormack is a founding memeber of the Loretto Earth Network and is a co-founder of Women's History Week celbrations in the U.S. (now Women's History Month each March), coordinated a StudyAction event called "Women Gathered for Peace" for the State of Colorado, designed an International Roundtable on Women's Spirituality for the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing and participated in the World Conferences in Copenhagen and Nairobi. She was part of a National Women's delegation to Central America. She served as a consultant for management training for the US Forest Service.

Rabbi Jack Moline, Chair, is the rabbi of Agudas Achim congregation of Northern Virginia, in Alexandria. He is the former President of the Washington Board of Rabbis and the Alexandria Interfaith Association. Rabbi Moline has served on the boards of the Faith and Politics Institute, the Rabbinical Assembly, Gesher Jewish Day School, the Cathedral College of Washington National (Episcopal) Cathedral and Operation Understanding DC, among others. He is an adjunct faculty member of the Virginia Theological Seminary and frequent contributor to radio, television and newspaper coverage of religious affairs.

The Rev. Dr. Daniel Rosemergy is minister of the Greater Nashville Unitarian Universalist Congregation. He is deeply committed to peace, social justice, human rights, and interfaith issues. In addition to being a TIAF board member, Rev. Rosemergy is a founding Board member and current chair of the Interfaith Alliance of Middle Tennessee. He was recently elected to the national Board of Trustees of the Mountain Retreat and Learning Centers in Highlands, North Carolina. Dr. Rosemergy attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees. After serving four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, he pursued a first career in higher education administration, primarily at the University of Michigan. He received a Master of Divinity degree with honors from the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennesse, in 1982, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from the same institution in 1988.

Rabbi David Saperstein, has served as the director and chief legal counsel at the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center for more than 30 years. He currently co-chairs the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, and serves on the boards of the NAACP and People For the American Way. Saperstein lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, National Public Radio vice president for news Ellen Weiss. They are the parents of teenagers Daniel and Ari Saperstein.

Amandeep Singh Sidhu, is an associate at the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP in Washington, D.C. and serves as Pro Bono Counsel for the Sikh Coalition, a community-based advocacy organization. He was involved in the establishment of the Sikh Coalition's organizational presence in Washington, D.C. after September 11th, where he led education efforts in the local Sikh American community, worked with lawmakers, and interacted with federal agencies. Mr. Sidhu is currently involved with the advisory boards of A More Perfect Union "Anti-Bias Project" and the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, and previously served as Law Clerk to Chief Judge Walter S. Felton, Jr. on the Court of Appeals of Virginia and served on the Commission on Virginia Courts in the 21st Century: To Benefit All, To Exclude None. Additionally, he received the Virginia State Bar's 2005 Oliver White Hill Law Student Pro Bono Award in recognition of his contribution to public service initiatives engaging law students and members of the bar.

Dr. Herbert Valentine, is one of the original organizers of TIA and its Founding President. He has also served as Secretary/Treasurer of the TIA Foundation. In 1991, Dr. Valentine was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, its highest national office; he has also served the Presbyterian Church at the national level as a member of its General Assembly Council. He has served the Presbyterian Church both as a pastor and as an Executive Presbyter for Baltimore Presbytery, PC(USA). Throughout his ministry he has been active in ecumenical and interfaith activities, community organizing, urban ministry and the engagement of religion in the midst of the political market place. In retirement he is currently serving as an interim pastor.

Jacob J. Worenklein is chairman and chief executive officer of US Power Generating Company, which owns and operates power projects in the United States. Before forming US Power Generating Company in April 2003, Mr. Worenklein served as a senior banker at Lehman Brothers and Societe Generale. In 2002 he received the first Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Infrastructure Journal in London. Mr. Worenklein served as Adjunct Professor of Finance at New York University and is a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Globeleq, a power company owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation, and of Ormat Technologies, Inc., an NYSE-listed public company which develops and owns geothermal and other renewable energy projects in the United States and around the world. Mr. Worenklein has served on the Board of Trustees of United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc. and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. He has served for over 25 years as President and now Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Old Broadway Synagogue in New York. He has a BA degree from Columbia College (1969) and JD and MBA degrees from NYU Law School and from NYU Graduate School of Business Administration, now the Stern School of Business (1973).