Board
Chair
William Schulz
"William Schulz…has done more than anyone in the American human rights movement to make human rights issues known in the United States." The New York Review of Books, 2002
From the refugee camps of Darfur, Sudan, to the poorest villages in India; from the prison cells of Monrovia, Liberia, to the business suites of Hong Kong to Louisiana’s death row, Dr. William F. Schulz has traveled the globe in pursuit of a world free from human rights violations. As Executive Director of Amnesty International USA from 1994-2006, Dr. Schulz headed the American section of the world’s oldest and largest international human rights organization.
Currently Dr. Schulz is President and CEO of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in Cambridge, MA, and serves or has served as a consultant to a variety of foundations, including the MacArthur Foundation, UN Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, and Humanity United. He is an Adjunct Professor of Public Administration at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and an Affiliated Professor at Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago.
During his twelve years at Amnesty, Dr. Schulz led missions to Liberia, Tunisia, Northern Ireland, and Sudan. He also traveled tens of thousands miles in the United States promoting human rights causes and was frequently quoted in the media. He is the author of two books on human rights, In Our Own Best Interest: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All (2001, Beacon Press) and Tainted Legacy: 9/11 and the Ruin of Human Rights (2003, Nation Books); and the contributing editor of The Phenomenon of Torture: Readings and Commentary (2007, University of Pennsylvania Press) and The Future of Human Rights: US Policy for a New Era (2008, University of Pennsylvania Press). All of this prompted the New York Review of Books to say in 2002, "William Schulz…has done more than anyone in the American human rights movement to make human rights issues known in the United States."
An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Dr. Schulz came to Amnesty after eight years (1985-93) as President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. He has served on the boards of People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and many other organizations.
Dr. Schulz is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College, holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Meadville/Lombard Theological School (at the University of Chicago) as well as eight honorary degrees.
He is the author of Making the Manifesto: The Birth of Religious Humanism (Skinner House Books, 2002) and was the 2000 recipient of the Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association.
Board Members
Mahmoud Braima
Professor Mahmoud Braima balances his roles as President of the Darfur Association and as Chair of Mass Communications at Southern University.
Dr. Braima was born in El Fasher, North Darfur where he worked as a middle school teacher. He received a scholarship to study Journalism at a Saudi university and then earned his Ph.D. in the United States.
Dr. Braima is now married to his graduate school sweetheart. They live with their two children in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Bennett Freeman
Mr. Freeman leads Calvert's Sustainability Research Department and oversees its company research and analysis as well as its policy and advocacy work. From 2003 until early 2006, he led Burson-Marsteller's Global Corporate Responsibility practice advising multinationals on policy development, stakeholder engagement and communications strategies related to human rights, labor rights and sustainable development.
During the Clinton Administration he served in three positions as a presidential appointee in the State Department, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999 to early 2001. In that capacity, he led the development of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the first human rights standard forged by governments, companies and NGOs for the extractive sectors. Earlier in his career he was Manager-Corporate Affairs for General Electric and a presidential campaign aide to former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Mr. Freeman serves on the Boards of Oxfam America, the Institute for Business and Human Rights, the Revenue Watch Institute, the Global Network Initiative (GNI), the Genocide Intervention Network and EG Justice. From 2006-09 he served on the Board of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) representing Oxfam. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a frequent speaker and media commentator on sustainable investment, corporate responsibility, human rights and U.S. foreign policy.
Mr. Freeman received an MA in Modern History from the University of Oxford, where he studied as an English Speaking Union Churchill Scholar at Balliol College, and an AB in History from the University of California at Berkeley.
Harold Freilich
Harold I. Freilich is a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he is a member of the Corporate, Securities and Finance practice group and focuses on international and domestic financing transactions. He advises equity investors and project lenders in some of the world’s most challenging emerging markets, including Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Europe, South America, and Asia.
Mr. Freilich also counsels industrial, high-technology, natural resources, and financial services firms (including broker-dealers, banks, and venture capital providers) in domestic and cross-border securities offerings. He also advises clients in general corporate and business transactions, securities regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial real estate matters.
David Emmanuel Goatley
David Emmanuel Goatley is the Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, an international Christian missions agency founded in 1897 that helps churches extend their witness to the ends of the earth. He is also the Executive Director of Lott Carey International, a global relief and development agency that helps improve the quality of life in marginalized communities around the world. As the chief executive officer of these two agencies, Dr. Goatley oversees vision, administration, and development efforts to invest in indigenous leadership and programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America.
An ordained Baptist minister who has been a pastor, university professor, and seminary professor, Dr. Goatley earned degrees from the University of Louisville, KY (AAS and BS) and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, KY (MDiv and PhD). In addition to journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Goatley is the author of Were You There?: Godforsakenness in Slave Religion and the editor of Black Religion, Black Theology: Selected Writings of J. Deotis Roberts.
In July 2006, Dr. Goatley was elected as a member of the 64-seat national Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest civil rights organization in the United States. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Save Darfur Coalition and the President of the North American Baptist Fellowship, the regional body of 21 Baptist denominations and organizations affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance, with membership of more than 20 million Baptists in Canada and North America.
Rabbi Steve Gutow
Rabbi Steve Gutow is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the public policy and community relations agency of the American Jewish community. He has advocated that the government end genocide in Darfur, reform immigration policy, support Israel, protect individual rights, enhance anti-poverty programs, and create a sustainable environment. He has also promoted stronger bonds among the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, and has been named among the 20 most influential American rabbis by Newsweek and the 50 most influential American Jews by The Forward.
Under Mr. Gutows’s leadership, the JCPA has become central in combating hunger in America through initiatives such as the 2008 “food stamp challenge.” His environmental campaigning includes “A Light Unto the Nations,” and his commitment to interfaith bridges led to milestones such as a joint prayer with major Christian and Muslim leaders during the Gaza War. A community organizer at heart, Mr. Gutow has helped build national grassroots coalitions on issues including interfaith relations, judicial independence, and the security of Israel.
Previously, Mr. Gutow practiced law in his native Texas, where he served as chair of the Dallas Jewish Community Relations Council and was the founding regional director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s Southwest Region. He also became the founding executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
In 2003, Mr. Gutow was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and served as a pulpit rabbi at the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis, where he represented the St. Louis Rabbinical Association on the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis. While there, he also taught as Adjunct Professor of Law at St. Louis University Law School.
Mr. Gutow’s work has also addressed racial harmony, religious pluralism and civil liberties, poverty and healthcare. His publications and awards include “Tikkun Olam: A Public Policy Focus” (The Reconstructionist, Fall 2001), the 2001 Reconstructionist Student Association Prize for Social Action within RRC, and the Rabbi Devora Bartnoff Memorial Prize for Spiritually Motivated Social Action.
Mark Hanis
As co-founder and president of Genocide Intervention Network, Mark Hanis led that organization's merger with the Save Darfur Coalition to create United to End Genocide, where he was the founding president and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors.
Hanis graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Public Policy. He is the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors and was raised in Quito, Ecuador. From February-August 2003, Hanis worked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Mark has been awarded several prestigious fellowships for social entrepreneurship, including Ashoka, Echoing Green, Draper Richards Kaplan, and Hunt Alternatives Prime Movers. Mark was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
Hanis serves on the Board of Stakeholders of the University of Pacific's Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship, is a faculty member with Public Squared, and an advisory board member of Generation Citizen.
Mark and United to End Genocide have been featured in The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Voice of America, The New Republic and The Huffington Post. Mark has appeared on a number of media outlets, including CNN Headline News, MSNBC and NPR.
Mark gives presentations on a range of topics, including genocide past and present; Darfur, Sudan and emerging conflicts; and grassroots activism.
Omer Ismail
Omer Ismail was born in the Darfur region of Sudan. He has spent over 20 years working both independently and with international organizations on relief efforts and human rights.
Mr. Ismail fled Sudan in 1989 as a result of his political views. He helped found the Sudan Democratic Forum, a think tank of Sudanese intellectuals working for the advancement of democracy in Sudan. He also co-founded the Darfur Peace and Development organization to raise awareness about the crisis in his troubled region.
Mr. Ismail currently works as Policy Advisor to several agencies working in crisis management and conflict resolution in Africa. He was a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.
Tony Kireopoulos
Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos is Senior Program Director for Faith and Order and Interfaith Relations of the National Council of Churches USA.
Dr. Kireopoulos most recently served as NCC Associate General Secretary for International Affairs and Peace. Previously, his responsibilities included helping the NCC formulate its position on international issues and U.S. foreign policy, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iraq War, and Darfur. In the last four years he was extensively involved in initiatives of the Interfaith Relations Commission.
Previously, Dr. Kireopoulos served as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Religions for Peace, which promotes multi-religious collaboration and religious-secular partnerships on issues cutting across community lines. He also served as advisor to the secretary general of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, the USCRP’s global parent organization.
Dr. Kireopoulos has been closely associated with the Faith and Order Commission, where he represented the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and spent most of the last 20 years in ecumenical dialogue.
Previous to leading the USCRP, Dr. Kireopoulos was Special Assistant to the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, representing the Greek Orthodox Church at the United Nations and at the US State Department, and as the Assistant to the Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America.
Dr. Kireopoulos holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in theology from Fordham University; a Master of Divinity degree from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary; a Master of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management; and a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. He has almost 15 years of experience in non-profit management, including administration, board relations, budgeting, development, program direction and public relations. Among his affiliations, he is the past president of the United Nations NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Ruth Messinger
Ruth W. Messinger is president of American Jewish World Service, a faith-based international human rights organization that alleviates poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world. In addition to supporting over 400 grassroots projects around the world, AJWS promotes global citizenship and social justice through activism, volunteer service and education within the American Jewish community. Her role at AJWS follows 20 years in public service in New York City, where she served on the New York City Council for 12 years and as Manhattan borough president for 8 years. She was the first woman to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor in 1997.
A national leader in the movement to end genocide in Sudan, Ms. Messinger was among the leading anti-genocide, peace and human rights advocates called upon to advise President Obama and special envoy General J. Scott Gration in March 2009. In recognition of her leadership, she was recently appointed to the Obama administration’s Task Force on Global Poverty and Development.
Ms. Messinger has received honorary degrees and awards from The Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College, Hebrew College and Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and awards for service from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Women’s Funding Network, Union for Reform Judaism, and the American Jewish Committee. For seven consecutive years, she was among The Forward’s 50 most influential Jews of the year.
Ms. Messinger lectures widely on diverse social and global justice issues, and has served as a visiting professor at Hunter College and Hebrew Union College. She is an active member of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, and serves as a board member and past president of Surprise Lake Camp. She also sits on the boards of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women and Hazon.
Ms. Messinger graduated from Radcliffe College in 1962 and received a Master of Social Work from the University of Oklahoma in 1964. She began her professional public service career running a child-welfare agency in Oklahoma. Her husband, Andrew Lachman, directs an educational foundation in Connecticut, and she has three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Joan Platt
Ms. Platt is a philanthropist and community volunteer whose focal interests are human rights, education and international development.
She is the Founder and President of the Joan and Lewis Platt Foundation whose mission is to support organizations that advocate for the human rights of women and children; design and implement programs for women and children in war-torn and post-conflict regions; combat human trafficking and seek to expose and address root causes of all forms of trafficking; promote economic opportunity and civil society in developing nations.
She currently serves on the boards of Human Rights Watch, Genocide Intervention Network, the Global Fund for Children, World affairs Council of Northern California and the East Palo Alto YMCA.
Ms. Platt owns and manages the Platt Vineyard (Bodega, California). She is a member of the Board of Visitors and Fellows at UC Davis (advising and supporting the oenology department) and a member of the Advisory Board of Winery Exchange, Inc. (Novato, California).
Her early career included several years of management experience in computer systems analysis.
Bethany Robertson
Bethany Robertson is an experienced social entrepreneur with a track record of starting and running innovative nonprofit organizations. As the co-founder of the I Do Foundation, Bethany created the opportunity for hundreds of thousands of engaged couples to share some of their wedding spending with charity. Bethany's work with the I Do Foundation has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, the CBS Early Show, NPR and major bridal magazines.
In 2003, Bethany was part of a team that launched the Center for Progressive Leadership (CPL), a national political training institute that develops diverse leaders who can advance progressive political and policy change. Prior to her work with the I Do Foundation and CPL, Bethany was the Executive Director of College Bound and a consultant for the Community Technology Foundation of California and the Federal Head Start Program.
A teacher by training, Bethany earned a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan.
Gloria White-Hammond
Rev. Gloria E. White-Hammond, M.D. is the Co-Pastor of Bethel AME Church in Boston, MA, and Executive Director of My Sister’s Keeper. She is a retired pediatrician after 27 years at the South End Community Health Center.
In 1994, Dr. White-Hammond founded the church-based creative writing/mentoring ministry, “Do The Write Thing” for high-risk adolescent females. The project serves over 200 young women in Boston public schools, juvenile detention facilities and the Bethel AME Church.
Dr. White-Hammond has worked as a medical missionary in Botswana, Cote D’Ivoire and South Africa. Since 2001, she has made numerous trips into war-torn southern Sudan where she helped to obtain the freedom of 10,000 women and children enslaved during two decades of civil war. In 2002, she co-founded My Sister’s Keeper, a humanitarian women’s group that partners with Sudanese women to advance community reconciliation and reconstruction. Current and past projects include two grinding mills, a permanent campus for the Kunyuk School for Girls where 1000 are enrolled, the Women’s Peace School, a literacy project for 200, and the Sisterhood for Peace project, which supports a global network Sudanese women collaborating across traditional barriers for peace throughout all Sudan.
In February 2005, Dr. White-Hammond traveled into Darfur, Sudan to learn from female victims of genocide in Internally Displaced Persons camps. In 2006, she served as the National Chairperson of the Million Voices for Darfur campaign and became the Co-Founder of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur. In 2008-2009, she was the national Chairwoman of the Save Darfur Coalition. She currently serves on the boards of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Tufts University, and Darfur Peace and Development Organization. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Boston University, a Doctorate of Medicine from Tufts Medical School and a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School.
In 1973, Dr. White-Hammond married Rev. Ray A. Hammond, M.D., who is the founding pastor of Bethel AME Church, the Chairman of the Boston Ten Point Coalition and the Chairman of the Boston Foundation. They are devoted to their daughters, Mariama and Adiya, “son-in-love”, Turahn Dorsey, and granddaughter, “Ella Bella Boo.”
Bradley D. Wine
Brad Wine is a partner in the Government Law and Strategy Group of the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLP where he represents clients in highly regulated industries. Mr. Wine’s practice focuses on regulatory compliance counseling, litigation, homeland security and defense issues, government ethics, protecting and preserving intellectual property rights, internal and government investigations, and complex transactional and financing matters.
In 2006, President Bush appointed Mr. Wine to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the governing body of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mr. Wine is the co-chair of the USHMM’s National and Greater Washington Next Generation Boards and Washington Lawyers’ Committee and a member of the USHMM’s Development and Governance Committees. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
