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The Council of Wisdom is led by an active Board of Directors. Ten people have already joined the Board:
Rev. Eric Stetson is the founder and executive director of the Christian Universalist Association, an ecumenical Christian organization emphasizing God's all-inclusive love and universal reconciliation. He is the author of a book, Christian Universalism: God's Good News for All People. He is an ordained minister, and teaches Bible study classes and serves as a liturgist and occasional guest preacher at Universalist National Memorial Church in Washington D.C. He resides in Burke, Virginia.
Heba Albeity is a writer from Madinah, Saudi Arabia. She has worked as a columnist for major Arab newspapers and also writes poetry and fiction. She is a liberal Muslim who believes in the importance of interfaith dialogue and the power of the arts to bridge religious and cultural divides. She currently resides in the United States where she is working for the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission and pursuing a master's degree in integrated humanities at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.
Samira Sharif is the founder and director of Lotus Tribe, an alternative school, organic farm, and holistic learning center in the San Francisco Bay area. She lived most of her life in Iran and has worked as a teacher both there and in the United States. Coming from a multicultural Persian and Latin American heritage, with both a Muslim and Catholic religious background, she is passionate about seeking truth and goodness wherever it may be found and educating children in a broad-minded spirit.
Dr. Zahid Rana is the executive director of the National Foundation, an organization in Pakistan that trains journalists to report on social and humanitarian issues. He holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the University of the Punjab, Lahore. He has worked as a bureau chief of Radio Pakistan and as a columnist, feature writer, and award-winning correspondent. Dr. Zahid has also worked in the field of public health and been involved in interfaith projects for the eradication of HIV/AIDS.
Marianne Julian Rushaigo is the director of Green Acres School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She holds a Master of International Human Rights Law degree from Birmingham City University in England, and is planning to begin a Ph.D. program in international relations in the United States. She has interned with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in The Gambia. She comes from Tanzania and spent much of her life in Kenya.
Justin Pickering leads a company that is raising capital to build a sugarcane-based ethanol refinery in Louisiana. He is also the producer of a cable television drama series. He holds a master's degree in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin, has taught Spanish at both the high school and college level, and is fluent or proficient in five languages. He has worked as a medical interpreter for the very poor in Honduras. He practices Catholic Christianity and Buddhist meditation.
Tarek Nahabet is a master's degree student in International Affairs at George Washington University. He has been involved in founding two businesses, has worked in sales and marketing, and has been a counselor of young teens for the organization Seeds for Peace. He was a middle school and high school Mathematics and English teacher in Cairo, Egypt, for three years. He speaks French and Arabic. His passion and mission is to create peace, especially among the peoples of the Middle East and Africa.
Maki Linda Kiswar Turner is a registered nurse and is pursuing a master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine at the Canadian College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She is involved in promoting fair trade projects for native people in Peru. Her spirituality derives from several sources, including the Baha'i faith, Buddhism, Sufism, and Native American traditions. She resides in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Logan Geen is a master's degree student in healthcare administration at Cornell University. He writes a blog called The New Unitarian Universalist which discusses spiritual and social issues. He has a particular interest in mysticism and draws inspiration from a wide range of religious traditions, including classical Unitarianism and Universalism, liberal Christianity, and Eastern religions. He resides in Ithaca, New York.
Eliserena Kimolo is a licensed practical nurse and is pursuing a master's degree in health services administration. She has personally adopted and arranged for the education of orphans in Africa. She leads a new non-profit organization that is developing plans for a school to provide secondary education and career training with a positive spiritual outlook on life for impoverished young people in Tanzania. She lived most of her life in Tanzania but currently resides in the United States, in Jessup, Maryland.
Apply for a seat on our Board
The Board of Directors of the Council of Wisdom will ultimately consist of 19 people. Three more Directors will be appointed by the Board before September 30.
We encourage any member of the Council who is interested to contact us and apply! We would be especially pleased to receive applications from people in (or from) Latin America, East Asia, and Europe, because we hope to expand the geographical and ethnic diversity of our Board. But we will seriously consider anyone who is passionate about the Council of Wisdom and has qualities such as intelligence, open-mindedness, creativity, leadership ability, and helpful knowledge and experience.
Elections for Board seats
Six seats on our Board of Directors will be decided by elections to be held in January 2010. If you are interested in running for one of these seats, you must declare your candidacy by November 30 at the latest, and seek nominations from October through December in order to appear on the ballot. This is done in one of our forums.
These six seats are the first seats on the Board to be elected by the whole body of voting members of the Council in a regular three-year cycle. Every year, six Directors will be elected to serve for three-year terms. The 19th member of the Board is the Executive Director, who is appointed by the other 18 Directors.
The Council of Wisdom has 16 Standing Committees for specific fields and purposes, as follows:
Membership Committee — Considers membership applications, restoration of rights to members on probation, and impeachment bills. Also deals with moderating the forums.
Poverty & Disaster Relief Committee — Deals with bills about providing general relief and assistance to the impoverished, and helping people and communities recover from disasters, both natural and human-caused.
Economics, Commerce & Labor Committee — Deals with bills about economics, business, employment and unions, including ethical issues and concerns about products and services, business practices, and treatment of workers.
Education Committee — Deals with bills about education of all types and levels.
Health Committee — Deals with bills about physical and mental health care, medicine, epidemiology, family planning, etc.
Environment Committee — Deals with bills about the natural environment and interactions between humans and their surroundings, which may include agriculture, urban planning, etc.
Human Rights Committee — Deals with bills about freedom and justice for individuals and communities, including women's rights, rights of minorities, children, the mentally and physically disabled, criminals and the accused, etc.
Peace & Conflict Resolution Committee — Deals with bills about conflicts in the world, including war, terrorism, genocide, and disputes between nations and groups.
History, Anthropology & Sociology Committee — Deals with bills about history and the structure and development of human societies and cultures.
Philosophy, Spirituality & Religion Committee — Deals with bills about philosophical and spiritual/religious groups, beliefs, movements, thinkers and leaders, their statements and activities, and related programs and issues.
Science & Technology Committee — Deals with bills about scientific research and discoveries, technological development, and related issues.
Journalism Committee — Deals with bills about journalism, news media, film documentaries, much factual non-fiction writing, and other similar phenomena and products.
Literature Committee — Deals with bills about fiction and literary books, poetry, short stories, some essays and articles, and other forms of literature.
Music Committee — Deals with bills about all forms of music, and may also include mixed media productions that heavily involve music.
Visual Arts Committee — Deals with bills about visual arts, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, landscaping and various forms of design, and some film.
Performing Arts Committee — Deals with bills about performing arts, such as theater, dance, and most film.
Apply for a seat on our Committees
Each Committee will ultimately have 19 members. The Committees will be filled gradually by appointment of the Board as qualified people apply. Eventually, half of the seats on each Committee will come up for appointment each year, and Committee members will serve for two-year terms.
If you are a member of the Council of Wisdom and you have a strong interest or knowledge/expertise in a particular field and would like to serve on a Committee, we encourage you to contact us and apply!
Elections for Committee Chairs
Committee Chairs are elected by the whole body of voting members of the Council of Wisdom. Half of the Committee Chairs are elected each year, and they serve for two-year terms.
The Chairs of the following Committees will be elected in January 2010: History, Anthropology & Sociology; Philosophy, Spirituality & Religion; Science & Technology; Journalism; Literature; Music; Visual Arts; Performing Arts. If you are interested in running for Chair of one of these Committees, you must declare your candidacy by November 30 at the latest, and seek nominations from October through December in order to appear on the ballot. This is done in one of our forums.
The Council of Wisdom will have a Council of Advisors that will ultimately consist of 500 people. The Advisors will serve as consultants to the Board of Directors and Committee Chairs on issues about which they have knowledge and expertise, but will not have any specific duties or powers in the organization. Advisors should be people with significant wisdom, experience and/or accomplishments.
Members of the Council of Advisors are appointed by the Board of Directors and Committee Chairs as a joint body. Initially, we will fill the seats as qualified people express interest in serving. Eventually, 100 Advisors will be appointed each year according to a regular schedule, and they will serve for five-year terms.
If you are interested in becoming an Advisor to the Council of Wisdom and have the necessary qualifications to serve in this capacity, we encourage you to contact us and apply!
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