RELIGIOUS FREEDOM INSTITUTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, National Center for Religious Freedom Education
- Deputy Director, National Center for Religious Freedom Education, and Research Fellow in Bioethics and Medical Conscience
Dr. Kubick holds a Ph.D. in Bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and an M.A. in Theology from Holy Apostles College & Seminary. Aside from his work at RFI, he serves as a Personal Consultations Ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and Adjunct Instructor of Bioethics at University of Mary. He has published in The Catholic Journal on Religious Freedom and Health Care, Dignitas, Ethics & Medics, National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Public Discourse, and St. John Paul II Journal of Bioethics. He has presented scholarly work at the annual conferences of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Catholic Medical Association, the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. Dr. Kubick has developed bioethics and religious freedom curricula for secondary, undergraduate, and graduate-level students as well as for adult learners.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Vice President of National Right
Anthony Lauinger is the Vice President of National Right to Life, a position he has held for 19 years. He is president of Oklahomans for Life and was a three-time delegate to the Republican National Convention. Mr. Lauinger is a graduate of Georgetown University.
Job Titles:
- Interim President
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
David Trimble has led the Religious Freedom Institute's (RFI) public policy and educational initiatives since he joined RFI in 2018. He brings a wealth of experience in international affairs, U.S. public policy, and higher education. After serving as RFI's Vice President for Public Policy and Education, Trimble was named Interim President in March 2024.
After serving as a principal and Of Counsel at the leading D.C. firm of Van Scoyoc Associates for many years, Mr. Trimble led the Religious Freedom Institute's nationwide and international initiatives in public policy and education since 2018. He was named RFI's Interim President in March 2024.
Mr.Trimble brings a wealth of experience to the academy and civil society in international affairs, foreign policy, higher education, and shaping domestic and international public policy. With a degree in law, expert knowledge from working with the executive and legislative branches of the federal government at the highest levels, plus years of teaching religion at the graduate level, Mr. Trimble understands the vitally important role of education to stable societies and the myriad threats that challenge both academic and religious freedom.
Throughout his career, Mr. Trimble has focused on the intersection between religion and policy. He is recognized in the United States and abroad for his international religious freedom advocacy on behalf of ethnic and religious minorities and for his acute knowledge of legislative process. Mr. Trimble's direction of RFI's educational initiatives is based on classroom expertise, launching seminal programs in education, and driving new policies and innovation. Under his leadership, the National Center for Religious Freedom Education, which houses RFI's main educational programs, is committed to supporting the free exercise of religion for all through education to inform tomorrow's young leaders and shape sound policies for a more civil America.
Mr. Trimble holds a Juris Doctorate from Texas A&M University School of Law, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts from Campbellsville University. In addition, Mr. Trimble has completed post-graduate studies at both Southwestern and Baylor University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raintree Resorts International
Douglas Bech is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raintree Resorts International, a company that owns and operates vacation ownership resorts throughout North America. Mr. Bech practiced securities and corporate finance law from 1970 until 1997. He received his B.A. from Baylor University and a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Senior Fellow
Byron Johnson, Ph.D. serves as Senior Fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute and a Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) as well as director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior.
Dr. Byron Johnson serves as Senior Fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute and a Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. He is the founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) as well as director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior. Professor Johnson is a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice. His most recent publications have examined the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry.
Before joining the faculty at Baylor University, Johnson directed research centers at Vanderbilt University and the University of Pennsylvania. He has directed grant projects from private foundations as well as the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the United States Institute for Peace. He is the author of more than 200 articles and a number of books including More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How it Could Matter More (2011), The Angola Prison Seminary: Effects of Faith-Based Ministry on Identity Transformation, Desistance, and Rehabilitation (2016), and The Quest for Purpose: The Collegiate Search for a Meaningful Life (2017). His Ph.D. is from Florida State University.
Governor Frank Keating served as President and CEO of the American Bankers Association until December 2015. From 1995 to 2003 he served as the twenty-fifth governor of Oklahoma. He received his B.A. from Georgetown University and a law degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Associate Director of the International Center for Law & Religion
Hannah Smith is Associate Director of the International Center for Law & Religion Studies at BYU Law School. She clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court justices, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. She served as senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty for a decade until 2017. Her work contributed to multiple religious liberty victories at the Supreme Court, including the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC and Zubik v. Burwell (the "Little Sisters of the Poor" case). Ms. Smith is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and Brigham Young University Law School, Order of the Coif.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team
- Director, Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team
Ismail Royer serves as Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute. Since converting to Islam in 1992, he has studied religious sciences with traditional Islamic scholars, and spent over a decade working at non-profit Islamic organizations. In June 2003, Royer was indicted for assisting the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) and pleaded guilty to weapons charges related to the violation of United States neutrality laws. Since his release he has worked with nonprofits to promote peace between faiths. His writing has appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, First Things, Journal of Religion and Society, Public Discourse, Detroit Free Press, Al Jumuah, Muslim Matters, The Catholic Thing, Religion Unplugged, and RealClearReligion. He co-authored an article on Islam in Religious Violence Today: Faith and Conflict in the Modern World (ABC-CLIO, 2020), and is the author of the monograph Pakistan's Blasphemy Law and Non-Muslims (Lamppost Education Initiative, 2018).
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director, Middle East Action Team
Jeremy P. Barker serves as Director of the Middle East Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute.
He has worked in rights-based relief, development, and advocacy across the Middle East. His work has focused on the convergence of religion and international affairs, with a particular focus on combatting drivers of religious persecution, engaging with religious inequality in humanitarian and development assistance, and pursuing the development of order, justice, and accountability in fragile and post-conflict contexts. He leads in the design and implementation of the programmatic objectives of the Middle East Action Team, including research and analysis, equipping and mobilizing, and strategic grassroots and political advocacy with a particular focus on the Middle East and the intersection of religion and foreign policy.
He holds a B.A. in History and M.A. degrees in Cross-Cultural Studies and International Relations. Barker is also a Ph.D. researcher at the Institute of Development Studies and the University of Sussex.
Job Titles:
- Director, National Center for Religious Freedom Education
Job Titles:
- Deputy Communications Director
Katie Davern serves as Deputy Communications Director for the Religious Freedom Institute.
Prior to joining RFI, she worked for several years on Capitol Hill, including as speechwriter for Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). Her other roles included correspondence coordinator for Sen. Lee, and staff assistant for former Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX). She also interned for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on his communications team and in the development office at the Heritage Foundation. Davern holds a B.A. in History from the University of Dallas, where she graduated cum laude and worked as a staff writer for The University News.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Senior Fellow for Eurasia, Middle East, and Islam
Kent Hill, a co-founder of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) and its first Executive Director, now serves as RFI's Senior Fellow for Eurasia, Middle East, and Islam. For the previous six years, he was Senior Vice President at World Vision, U.S., the founding and biggest national office within World Vision International -- one of the largest faith-based relief and development organizations in the world.
Previously Hill served for two years as Vice President of the John Templeton Foundation, eight years as Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he was responsible for U.S. foreign assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and, subsequently, Hill was in charge of all USAID health programs worldwide. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hill was President of Eastern Nazarene College (Quincy, MA) for nine years, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy for six years, and Associate Professor of History at Seattle Pacific University for six years. His Ph.D. is from the University of Washington and he has published a book on religion in the Soviet Union.
Mark Winter was the founding chairman of the Board of Directors of RFI (2017-2020) and is now board member emeritus. A member of the 1966 graduating class of Georgetown, Winter was the Executive Vice President of Public Policy for the Washington, D.C. office of Stewart Title, one of the world's largest real estate title companies. He was responsible for the development and coordination of both commercial and residential real estate business and for the procurement of international land titling projects funded by independent federal agencies. Winter represented Stewart before Congress, various regulatory agencies, and government-sponsored entities. Prior to joining Stewart, Winter was a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Jamaica and a member of the professional staff of U.S. Representatives Bill Bray (R-Ind.) and Frances Bolton (R-Ohio). In 2010, Winter was elected president of the 6,000 member American Land Title Association.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Vice - Chair of the Board of Directors
Mary Rice Hasson is Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of RFI. She is the Kate O'Beirne Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she also directs the Catholic Women's Forum, a network of Catholic professional women and scholars seeking to amplify the voice of women in support of Catholic teachings. An attorney and an expert on culture, faith, religious liberty, and gender ideology, Mrs. Hasson speaks at national conferences, diocesan events, and universities across the country. For the past three years, Mrs. Hasson has been a keynote speaker for the Holy See at the United Nations during the annual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
Michael Ortner is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI). He co-founded Capterra in 1999, a technology and online media company recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. He was CEO until he sold the company to Gartner in 2015. Mr. Ortner is a graduate of Georgetown University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Manager for Strategy & Campaigns, Middle East Action Team
Job Titles:
- Communications Director
- Research Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Senior Vice President of Morgan Stanley
Patrick Kearns is the Senior Vice President of Morgan Stanley. Mr. Kearns is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
Job Titles:
- Director, South and Southeast Asia Action Team
Job Titles:
- Assistant to the President
- Events Coordinator
- President
Reghan Buie serves as the Events Coordinator & Assistant to the President for the Religious Freedom Institute. In prior roles, she served as the Social Media Manager for the Journal of Politics and Religion and as an intern for Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH). She holds a B.A. in English and Political Science from the University of Cincinnati, where she graduated summa cum laude with honors from the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society and the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- President
Scott Hamberger is President and CEO, as well as co-founder, of Integrus Holdings, Inc. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Marymount University, as well as, the Board of Directors of both the Bank of Clarke County and Inova Loudoun Hospital. Hamberger holds a B.A. from Georgetown University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Senior Partner at Yates & Yates, LLP
Sealy Yates is senior partner at Yates & Yates, LLP, a law firm based in Orange County, California that represents some of the most well-known Christian authors in the United States. He has served on the boards of directors for a wide range of leading ministry organizations serving around the world, including Open Doors International, Insight for Living, Turning Point Ministries, and Wild at Heart Ministries among others. He has also served on the Pepperdine School of Law Board of Visitors.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- President Emeritus
- Founding Director of the Religious
- Senior Fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion
Thomas Farr, Ph.D. served as President of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) from its founding until January 2023. RFI is a non-profit that works to advance religious freedom for everyone, both as a source of individual human dignity and flourishing, and as a source of political stability, economic development, and international security.
Thomas Farr is President Emeritus of the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI), a non-profit that works to advance religious freedom for everyone, both as a source of individual human dignity and flourishing, and as a source of political stability, economic development, and international security. Dr. Farr served as RFI's President from its founding until January 2023.
A leading authority on international religious freedom, Dr. Farr served for 28 years in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Foreign Service. In 1999 he became the first director of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom. He subsequently directed the Witherspoon Institute's International Religious Freedom (IRF) Task Force, was a member of the Chicago World Affairs Council's Task Force on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy, taught at the National Defense University, and served on the Secretary of State's IRF working group.
From 2008 - 2018 Dr. Farr was Associate Professor of the Practice of Religion and World Affairs at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He also directed the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown's Berkley Center.
A PhD in History from the University of North Carolina, Farr is a senior fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He serves as a consultant to the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, and as a member of the advisory councils for the Human Rights Program at Catholic University, the international division of Alliance Defending Freedom, the Alexander Hamilton Society, and the National Museum of American Religion.
His many published works include World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security (Oxford University Press, 2008), a book that has shaped U.S. religious freedom legislation and foreign policy.
Thomas Farr is the founding Director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown's Berkley Center. In 1999, he became the first Director of the State Department's Office for International Religious Freedom. Farr holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina.