Dale Anderson – Dale Anderson is a retired physician executive and healthcare consultant who served as the President of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota (Florida) from 2019 to 2022. He was instrumental in instituting a Racial Justice Reading Program for the UU Church of Sarasota 2018 and created the church Racial Justice Coordinating Team. The team assisted the congregation in endorsing the UU 8th Principle and has presented a set of racial justice initiatives annually for board approval. 

He is one of the UU representatives to the Manasota Antiracism Coalition and the Sarasota Remembrance Project. Since 2017, Dale has been presenting on “multiple democracy” to various organizations and launched a website, choosedemocracynow.org.  

Dale graduated from Northwestern University Medical School, interned at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine in Norfolk, Virginia. He then practiced in Zululand, South Africa, and Ames, Iowa. After transitioning out of practice, he served as a senior executive in Albuquerque, Columbus, and Miami. He lives with his wife, Mary Montgomery, in Sarasota. He has three grown children and grandchildren.

Rev. Peggy Clarke – Rev. Peggy Clarke is Senior Minister at The Community Church of New York, Unitarian Universalist. Peggy has a BA in Liberation Theology, an MA in Historical Theology (Medieval), and 26 credits in American Religious History. She was a Crisis Work Supervisor working with homeless and runaway kids in NYC and became a Campus Minister and Adjunct Professor for a decade. Peggy was ordained and worked as a DRE, solo minister, and then as Senior Minister at UU churches in the NY area.

As a UU, Peggy was on the team that wrote Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice Statement of Conscience and went on to chair the UU Food Justice Committee. She was also part of the Environmental Justice Collaboratory, the Climate March held in NYC, and was an Observer Delegate at the Paris Climate Summit. In addition, She has witnessed at Standing Rock, the Mexican border, and organized UU involvement in the national Climate Strike in 2019.

Peggy is currently a founding board member for the new NY State Advocacy Network. Peggy lives in NY with her husband, son, and two dogs.

Rev. Latifah Griffin – Rev. Latifah Griffin was raised in Chester, PA, and works as a therapist and minister.  She is a graduate of Lancaster Theological Seminary with a Master’s Degree in Divinity, adding to her Master’s Degree from Neumann University in Pastoral Care and Counseling. Her personal mission is to enlighten others about our interconnectedness as humans. 

Latifah was baptized in the Baptist tradition as a teenager. After a long discernment process, she found a new spiritual community in the Unitarian Universalist tradition in 2018 as a member of the First Unitarian Church of Wilmington.  She was the Intern Minister at the Unitarian Society of Germantown for the 2020-22 church years and then served as Interim Director of Spiritual Development for 2022-23.  She enjoys relaxing, spending time with her family, reading, learning new things, and trying new foods. Rev. Latifah will serve the First Unitarian Universalist Congregations of the Palm Beaches, Florida from 2023-2024.

Vonna Heaton is a passionate and lifelong student and practitioner of Unitarian Universalist principles. She became a Unitarian Universalist, joined River Road UU Congregation in 2013, and put her energy and passion to use by serving with several groups, including the Racial Justice Task Force, Action in Montgomery core team, Welcome Team, and Social Justice Review and Ministry Teams. She has also been nurtured by many small group fellowships, including Beloved Conversations, Spirit Journey, Inquirers, and Women’s Groups. Vonna implemented the inaugural Actions for Justice Racial Justice Pathway to enhance and positively impact national voter outreach.

Vonna recently served on the RRUUC Board of Trustees, including a term as co-chair. She was a member of the newly formed Social Justice Ministry Team, which “reimagined” social justice engagement at the congregation. She is currently participating on the Board visioning and strategic planning team, which seeks to lay a vision and implementation strategy for the Board and congregation in the next five years. Vonna also serves on the Board of a non-profit that is reshaping the local food system by reducing barriers to accessing nutrient-dense fresh produce for those experiencing food insecurity in our communities, promoting improved health outcomes through Food Is Medicine programs for low-income residents at risk of chronic diet-related diseases, and supporting local small-scale produce farmers through fair-price purchase programs.

Before joining the ranks of the joyfully retired persons, Vonna’s first career was as a math teacher and then 34 years as a federal employee. She earned many distinctions, including the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal and the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award. She is most proud of her Agency-level employee nominated Mentor of the Year and Supervisor of the Year Awards. Vonna and her husband Ed live just west of Rockville, MD. Her life has been graced by the love of family, including her identical twin sister Valri, and is the proud aunt to nieces and nephews in whose lives she engages on a regular and symbiotically supportive basis. She and Ed are also parents to Ed’s daughter Sarah and son Tony and Tony’s daughter, Autumn Moon. She enjoys hiking and exploring new plant-based recipes.

Meleah Houseknecht (she/her/hers) is the founder and owner of Emergence Consulting, which provides added capacity to nonprofit clients through organizational development, project strategy and management, meeting and event design, facilitation, and coaching on inclusive stakeholder engagement to advance more just, and resilient environmental policy, planning, and decision-making. Most recently, she served as the director of policy and systems change for Environmental Initiative, where for nine years, she lead the organization’s work to engage diverse stakeholder perspectives on behalf of state and local government and to build capacity in the environmental field to collaboratively address systemic and complex environmental problems through the lens of racial, cultural, and social equity.

Meleah holds a master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of the Environmental and has nearly 20 years of experience engaging stakeholders in environmental policy development and implementation. In 2021 she also began the journey of following her call to Unitarian Universalist ministry and is currently a student at United Theological Seminary in Unitarian Universalist studies and social transformation. She originally hails from West Virginia but has happily settled in South Minneapolis. She enjoys walking and biking to local restaurants, coffee shops, and extraordinary parks, sometimes with her spouse and two young children and sometimes blissfully alone. When not consulting, reading radical theology, or parenting, Meleah looks for ways to support neighbors and members of her congregation in expressing their values through social justice action as co-chair of the Faithful Action Council at First Universalist Church of Minneapolis.

Chloe Emily Ockey serves as Communications and Media Coordinator for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno, California. Her passion is bringing awareness to social justice issues through creative means such as videos, photography, music, and graphic design. Chloe Emily has also participated in multiple national UU programs and training from the UU College of Social Justice, the UUA, and more.

Chloe Emily helped lead her home congregation in the shift from in-person to virtual ministry and has spent this year with the UUA General Assembly and Conference Services Office as their Community Engagement Intern. She has event management and planning experience with the Center for Advanced Research and Technology, as well as Central California Adoption Services and the UUA Office in the United Nations. Chloe Emily earned her Associate in Communications Studies in the Spring of 2018 and has since been immersed in the work of adoption advocacy, climate justice, and Young Adult program development.

Jean Pierce – Jean Pierce has been active in Social Justice in various capacities. In 2008 she retired after 34 years as a professor of educational psychology. As an educator, she knew she was making a difference in the lives of teachers and their students; this passion has continued. As Social Justice chair of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva, Illinois, over the span of 15 years, she helped coordinate a series of programs focused on Education, Direct Action, and Monetary Support for local, national, and international causes.  

For ten years, Jean served as chair of the League of Women Voters of Illinois Issues and Advocacy Committee, responsible for identifying and tracking legislation, educating the public, and recommending advocacy for members and the public to shape public policy. She has also served on Boards of the Midwest Educational Research Association, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, and the Jane Adeny Memorial Secondary School for girls in rural Kenya. 

Jean recently moved to Portland, Oregon, where she anticipates making new connections with fellow UUs and League members. 

Rev. Kristin Schmidt grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and attended Cedar Lane UU Church. SheI earned her Bachelor of Arts in music from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, in 2004, after which she spent six months working in England, where she heard the call to ministry. She served Cedar Lane as Membership Coordinator while earning a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary, graduating in 2010. Kristin met her husband while interning at the Bay Area UU Church in Houston, Texas. Since marrying, she has served congregations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, and now the UU Church of Silver Spring in Maryland. She lives with her husband, four boys, a dog, and a cat in Olney, Maryland. In addition to ministry, She enjoys baking, singing, reading, hiking, and all things Star Trek.

Dan Schneider – Dan grew up on a small farm in west central Ohio and was the first person in his family to attend college. He graduated from Wittenberg University and received a Master of Science in Teaching from Drake University, a Master of Arts from Ohio State University, and a graduate certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) from the University of Cincinnati. Dan served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and taught American history as a teaching associate at

Ohio State University. He worked for fifteen years for Jobs for Cincinnati Graduates, a school-to-work program for high school seniors. For sixteen years, he was an Academic Director of TRIO programs at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College.

Dan and his wife attend the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati. Dan served as Co-Chair of the Social Justice Committee for four years and as Board Secretary and President. He served as Board Co-Chair of Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio, and he has served many years on the board of the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center. Dan volunteered for ten years as an ESL teacher at Santa Maria Community Services.

Dan serves as President of the Unitarian Universalist Council of Greater Cincinnati. During his presidency, the UU Council has established anti-racism circles, recognized and encouraged the creation of a BLUU (Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism) Haven group in Greater Cincinnati, and participated in a Walk to Defeat ALS in memory of DOTA (Documented Official Tuskegee Airmen) Leslie Edwards, Jr., a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. Dan lives in Cincinnati with his wife Janet and their cats. They have two sons, a daughter-in-law, and a grandson. Dan enjoys attending the Reds and Bengals games.

Mariano J. Vera is a Manatee Unitarian Universalist Fellowship member in Bradenton, Florida, where he chairs the Social Justice Committee. Mariano is a journalist and speaks Argentinian Sign Language (first language), Spanish, and English. He is currently producing a Latino radio show with specific themes (women singers and songwriters, gay, international Day of Peace, etc.) broadcast locally on WSLR 96.5 Sarasota and syndicated to 21 radio stations through the Pacifica Network.

Mariano has belonged to Argentine social justice communities and worked with disadvantaged people in the US. He still works with progressive causes in his community. He grew up with Jesuit priests who addressed the Theory of Liberation and emphasized social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed people.

Mariano has worked at Jefferson Center Apartments in Sarasota, Florida, at UU housing for low-income elderly people, and as an educator for AIDS Research in Washington, D.C., in the 1990s. He has also worked at Gallaudet University in the International Center on Deafness. Mariano worked with the AIDS afflicted during the late ’80s and ’90s pandemic in Washington D.C. and with the LGBTQ community in the ’90s and 2000s. He actively worked with issues like homelessness, hunger, and Women’s rights. Mariano is now volunteering as a notary public, a Spanish-to-English translator, and an immigration forms specialist.

Mariano considers himself an incredibly lucky man. He says: “My parents were empathetic, and at the same time, due to their disability (they were both born deaf), they required others to be caring towards them as well.” Mariano also says: “I was fortunate when I met Tom, my current spouse. Tom is a bonanza of social justice battles and commitments and a spirited fighter for social and racial equality.” Mariano says: “The key to success in the volunteer universe is in the search for opportunities during whatever social situation develops.”

Sandra Wilmore – Sandra Mitchell Wilmore grew up in the segregated South. Those years inform her sense of justice, the need for change, and her commitment to constant evolution toward a better society. Her youth also informed her deep respect for the power of the law–Sandra’s profession. Sandra lives in Springfield, Virginia.

For ten years, Sandra was an attorney with the civil rights firm of Relman & Colfax, PLLC, Washington, DC, advising creditors and other businesses of their compliance obligations under fair lending, consumer credit, and privacy laws; and litigation against lenders alleged to have violated laws against credit and housing discrimination. Before that, she was an attorney in the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission for thirty-two years, enforcing the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Truth in Lending Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and Federal Trade Commission Act (prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices) as to lenders and others subject to the jurisdiction of the FTC.