Board of Directors

Learn more about our independent voting AHA Board Members below.

boston_robROBERT BOSTON (Board Member since 2009) is senior adviser for Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) and the 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 has covered the U.S. Supreme Court for Church & State and has attended numerous oral arguments in church-state cases at the high court since 1988.

Boston is the author of four 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); Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State (Prometheus Books, 1993; second edition, 2003 and ​Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn’t Give The Right To Tell Other People What To Do ​(Prometheus Books, 2014).

hale_beckyREBECCA HALE (Board Member since 2005) is the Immediate Past President of the American Humanist Association, serving from 2013-2018. Hale is a lifelong humanist, although she didn’t know there was an AHA until 1996. She was born in New York City to Humanist parents, although they called themselves Unitarians. Throughout her upbringing and life the focus has always grounded on a life philosophy of personal responsibility. If there is something that needs doing it is incumbent on each of us to do what we can towards getting it done. This carries through on all aspects of life; from cleaning up after dinner to cleaning up the environment.

The unexplained has always been that which science does not yet understand. After her own due diligence Rebecca has come to appreciate the value of laughter, beautiful music, friendship, a walk on the beach and good nutrition. As the late great Albuquerque humanist, Harry Wilson, wrote in Freedom from God there is this sense of wonder and awe, the “oceanic” feeling one gets when confronted with the magnificence of nature.

In 1976 Rebecca received her MPA (Master in Public Administration) and embarked on a career in government, real estate development, and college administration. In 1993, observing the unsavory effects of the rise of evangelical Christians in Colorado Springs, her husband and she started the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs and subsequently their web based business, EvolveFISH.com. In 1997 EvolveFISH was asked to take over the Humanist Book store, by its founder Lew Dunlap. They attended the 1998 AHA convention and every convention since (except 1999, that is the weekend their daughter, Tani, was born!) Attending the conventions she discovered the AHA and found her philosophical home. Being a humanist makes Rebecca a better person.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Humanists International (formerly International Humanist and Ethical Union).

JOHN HOOPER, Ph.D. is the Treasurer of the American Humanist Association. Dr. Hooper is a retired scientist and research director, having pursued a career in molecular imaging and spectroscopy. Shortly before retiring, he received a Master of Arts in Liberal Arts degree in an area of avocational interest: epistemology.  Hooper has held local and national leadership positions in organizations involving naturalism, Humanism, and Unitarian Universalist social action. He is immediate past president of the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association (HUUmanists.org); treasurer of the American Humanist Association and The Humanist Institute; a board member of the Secular Coalition for America and president of the SCA Education Fund; and a board member of The Institute for Humanist Studies. John is a cofounder of the Humanists and Freethinkers of Fairfield County (CT).  He and his wife, Dr. Gail M. Pesyna, a retired foundation executive, now live in Pittsburgh, PA.

kalmanson_jenniferJENNIFER KALMANSON (Board Member since 2011) is the Vice President of the American Humanist Association and President of the Institute for Humanist Studies. She serves as the AHA Board Liaison to the Humanist Foundation. After 16 years of providing space system engineering support to the Hubble Space Telescope servicing Mission 4, the Dawn mission to the asteroid belt, and solar sail designs, she decided that the sailing life suited her better, so she sold her home and moved aboard her sailboat. Now she writes science fiction and has taken up gem cutting, metalworking, and jewelry making.

HOWARD KATZ (Board Member since 2011) has been a Humanist 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 and holds the elected office of Township Clerk. He’s been a member of the AHA for over 30 years after being introduced to humanism in his 20s.

DR. MONICA R. MILLER (Board Member since January 1, 2019) is an associate professor of religion and Africana studies at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She also serves as the director of women, gender, and sexuality studies. Miller holds research interests in religion/irreligion in youth cultures and popular culture, changing contours of identity and difference, new black religious movements, diasporic mobility in transatlantic context, and theory and method in the academic study of religion.

DR. JUHEM NAVARRO-RIVERA (Board Member since January 1, 2019) is one of the leading scholars at the intersection of race, religion, and politics in the United States. Born in Puerto Rico, Navarro-Rivera holds degrees in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico (B.A.) and the University of Connecticut (M.A., Ph.D.).

SUNIL PANIKKATH (Board Member since 2017) is the President of the American Humanist Association. He is a financial economist by background and has worked at the interface of financial risk management and technology for more than 20 years, many times in leadership roles managing teams and being responsible for achieving critical goals.

Sunil has been a nonbeliever his entire adult life and a member and supporter of the AHA for more than fifteen years. He has been a regular attendee at AHA annual conferences and IHEU World Humanist Congresses for nearly ten years. He served for a year as the International Humanist and Ethical Union’s volunteer representative to the UN NGO community in New York. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Humanist Foundation.

Sunil holds a Ph.D. in finance from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and a Bachelor of Technology in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Sunil has lived in New York City for more than fifteen years. He is a New Yorker who enjoys all that the city has to offer: world class museums, great live music, diverse film festivals, top-notch restaurants and the occasional hurricane.

CHRISTINE SHELLSKA (Board Member since 2015) is the Secretary of the American Humanist Association. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Communication, Media, and Film, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her research involves studying the strategies employed by the Intelligent Design Creationism movement, and her areas of focus include history, philosophy and sociology of science, Actor Network Theory, and rhetoric. Christine is past President and current Director for Atheist Alliance International, and a regular co-host on the Calgary-based Legion of Reason podcast. She has delivered presentations at local venues (including guest lectures and debates), as well as at prominent conferences in Canada and the US, on various topics of interest to humanists and secularists.

ELLEN SUTLIFF (Board Member since January 1, 2019) is a Humanist Celebrant and the founder and president of Humanists & Freethinkers of New Bern, North Carolina. She founded the chapter in October 2012 to provide a secular community for humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, nonbelievers, and nontheists in eastern North Carolina.

MANDISA THOMAS (Board Member since May 3, 2019) a native of New York City, is the founder and President of Black Nonbelievers, Inc. Although never formally indoctrinated into belief, Mandisa was heavily exposed to Christianity, Black Nationalism, and Islam. As a child she loved reading, and enjoyed various tales of Gods from different cultures, including Greek and Ghanaian. “Through reading these stories and being taught about other cultures at an early age, I quickly noticed that there were similarities and differences between those deities and the God of the Christian Bible. I couldn’t help but wonder what made this God so special that he warrants such prevalence today.” she recalls.

Mandisa has many media appearances to her credit, including CBS Sunday Morning, CNN.com, and Playboy, The Humanist, and JET magazines. She has been a guest on podcasts such as The Humanist Hour and Ask an Atheist, as well as the documentaries Contradiction and My Week in Atheism. Mandisa currently serves on the Board for American Atheists and previously for Foundation Beyond Belief, the 2016 Reason Rally Coalition, and the Secular Coalition for America. She is also an active speaker and has presented at conferences/conventions for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Secular Student Alliance, and many others.

Mandisa, named the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Freethought Heroine for 2019, and was also the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association’s 2018 Person of the Year.

As the president of Black Nonbelievers, Inc., Mandisa works to encourage more Blacks to come out and stand strong with their nonbelief in the face of such strong religious overtones.

“The more we make our presence known, the better our chances of working together to turn around some of the disparities we face. We are NOT alone.”

DR. SHARON WELCH (Board Member since January 1, 2019) is a social ethicist who is the author of six books, most recently, After the Protests Are Heard: Enacting Civic Engagement and Social Transformation (NYU Press, 2019). Welch holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in theology from Vanderbilt University, and has held faculty and administrative positions at the Unitarian Universalist Theology School (Meadville Lombard) the University of Missouri and Harvard Divinity School.

MICHAEL WERNER (Ex-officio, Non-voting Board Member since June 3, 2019) is a past president of the American Humanist Association and is currently a member of the Humanists and Freethinkers of Cape Fear, a local chapter of the AHA. Werner is the author of What Can You Believe if You Don’t Believe in God?.