Project Staff /Committee Structure as of April 2006

The Faith and Organizations Project staff structure consists of an advisory committee, a overall PI team, and site coordinators for various locations. While staff positions are evolving, some individuals have committed to particular roles. Additional people will define appropriate activities at a later date.

Advisory Committee

Ram Cnaan (co-chair)

Gretchen Castle (co-chair)

Reverend Jeffrey L. Brown

Stanley Carlson-Thies

Michael Foley

David Gamse

Peter Dobkin Hall

Maurine Pyle

William C Rickle, SJ

Rhys Williams

James Zabora

Core PI Team (provides continuity to overall project. Social service, Health/Senior Services and Community Organizations PI s provide guidance to local researchers focusing on those topics)

Overall PI: Jo Anne Schneider

Survey PI: Wolfgang Bielefeld

Social Service Agencies PI: Jo Anne Schneider

Health/Senior Services: Kelly Devers

Community Organizating: Richard Wood

Site Coordinators: (most sites will be determined through a combined negotiation among interested researchers and a selective RFP process. We have decided to definitely have one site in Philadelphia to date)

Philadelphia Site Coordinator: Katie Day

Interested Participants, Faith and Organizations Project as of April 2005

Alan Benjamin is Research Associate with the Population Research Institute and the Department of Anthropology and Affiliate Professor of Jewish Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. Benjamin received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1997) and recently published Jews of the Dutch Caribbean: Exploring ethnic identity on Curaçao (2002, Routledge).

Reverend Jeffrey L. Brown is the Pastor of Union Baptist Church, Cambridge, MA. He has held the position since 1988. Brown is a co-founder of the Boston’s Ten Point Coalition, a nationally known group of clergy and lay leaders that in the 90s played a key part in the drastic reduction of homicides in the inner city. Brown also started Ten Point International, consulting with cities around the world and eventually developing a training conference for the World Council of Church’s Peace to the City Campaign. Brown is also the creator of the Positive Edge street outreach program in Cambridge, the project historian for the Cambridge Black History Trail, and on the founding coalition of the city’s Benjamin Banneker Charter School. Reverend Brown is a Master of Divinity graduate of the Andover Newton Theological School, and holds an appointment as Denominational Counselor and lecturer of Baptist History and Polity at the Harvard Divinity School. With three children, the Browns live in Dorchester, MA

Wolfgang Bielefeld is Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Adjunct Professor at the Center on Philanthropy, and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at Indiana University - Purdue University, Indianapolis. He coauthored, with Joseph Galaskiewicz, Nonprofit Organizations in an Age of Uncertainty: A Study of Organizational Change (Aldine de Gruyter, 1998). His is co-editor of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Stanley Carlson-Thies is Director of Social Policy Studies at the Center for Public Justice, a Washington, DC-area nonpartisan Christian think tank. His focus is consulting, research, and advocacy in the area of government policy concerning faith-based organizations. He previously served as Director of the Civitas Program in Faith and Public Affairs, a Pew Charitable Trusts-funded program for Ph.D. students. Carlson-Thies served with the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives from its inception in February, 2001, until mid-May, 2002. He has published widely on faith based service issues, including assisting with writing “Unlevel Playing Field: Barriers to Participation by Faith-Based and Community Organizations in Federal Social Service Programs,” a report released by the White House in August, 2002, and co-editing Welfare in America: Christian Perspectives on a Policy in Crisis (1996).

Gretchen Castle: Director of Leadership Development and Training for Friends Services for the Aging, Gretchen works with both boards and staff for the 28 member organizations. Castle served as Director of the Friends Board Training and Support Project and did non-profit organization consulting and training for nineteen years. She also serves as Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

Eric Clay, M.Div. (Union Theological Seminary), Ph.D.(City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, 2002) is a practitioner and scholar, who works as a mentor to leaders involved in personal and organizational change and a consultant to congregations and communities in crisis or transition through Shared Journeys, Inc. which he co-founded. His dissertation examines leading practitioners of holistic community and economic development in the United States: That All People May Flourish: The Practice of Faith and Local Economic Development Planning. He received the Hitchcock Prize in Church History for work on politics of congregational life in 1986.

Ram Cnaan is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. Dr. Cnaan has published numerous articles in scientific journals on a variety of social work issues. He is the author of: The Newer Deal: Social Work and Religion in Partnership (Columbia University Press, 1999) and: The Invisible Caring Hand: American Congregations and the Provision of Welfare (New York University Press, 2002).

Katie Day is Professor of Church & Society, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. She is a sociologist with research interests in urban issues, race, religion. She is currently finishing a 4 year study funded by Lilly: "Church Rebuilding Research Project." Prelude to Struggle (University Press, 2001) and Difficult Conversations (Alban, 2001).

Kelly Devers holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor, Departments of Health Administration and Family Medicine and in the School of Medicine, Department of Family Practice at Virginia Commonwealth University. She conducts research on a wide range of health care organization, delivery, and policy issues. Her recent research has focused on hospitals and medical groups response to changing market and policy forces and their impact on cost, quality, and access. She also is an expert in qualitative and mixed research methods. Currently, she is a co-investigator on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RJWF) funded project. She also conducts research for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She has served as a temporary member of the Health Services Organization and Delivery (HSOD) study section, National Institute of Health (NIH) and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), special emphasis panels. Dr. Devers has published widely in major health services research and policy journals and is currently coauthoring a textbook on mixed methods research.

Linda Plitt Donaldson is an Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of America National Catholic School of Social Service. Prior to teaching at NCSSS, Dr. Donaldson worked for ten years in a community-based homeless services agency in Washington, D.C, providing direct service, directing programs in advocacy, social justice, family services, and developing affordable housing.

Michael Foley (Ph.D. California-Davis, 1986) is Associate Professor of Politics, Catholic University of America. He is the author of many articles on agrarian politics and the "new peasant movement" in Mexico, civil society and the peace process in El Salavador, and "social capital". He is currently co-director of the Religion and the New Immigrants project, a Pew sponsored Gateway Cities project examining the role of faith communities for new immigrants. Recent publications include articles on civil society and social capital in the Journal of Democracy and in the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, and Social Capital, Religious Institutions and Poor Communities with John D. McCarthy and Mark Chaves.. With Bob Edwards, he co-edited two special issues of American Behavioral Scientist and a book Beyond DeToquville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective

(University Press of New England Press, 2001) on social capital, civil society and contemporary democracy. His research has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the United States Institute of Peace, the Pew Charitable Trust, the Aspen Institute, the Lily Endowment, and other institutions.

of the Religious Society of Friends.

David N. Gamse, a gerontologist with undergraduate degrees in psychology and sociology, is the Executive Director of the Jewish Council for the Aging (JCA) and, concurrently, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Productive Aging, a JCA affiliate. Prior to joining JCA’s staff in 1990, he was a senior manager at AARP, responsible in different positions for the development of new AARP educational and service programs and for AARP programs related to the aging work force. He is a frequent speaker on aging and nonprofit association management and is a member of the Executive Council of Jewish Agencies in the Greater Washington, D.C. region.

Diana R. Garland, Ph.D, M.S.S.W., is inaugural Dean of the School of Social Work, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. She previously served as Professor of Social Work at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky and was Dean of the Carver School of Church Social Work. Prior to teaching, she was employed as administrative director of a pastoral counseling center. She has also been employed as a clinical social worker in a rural community mental health center and in a Baptist children's home. Dr. Garland is author, co-author, or editor of seventeen books. The most recent is Sacred Stories of Ordinary Families: Living the Faith Everyday (Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2003). Her book Family Ministry: A Comprehensive Guide (InterVarsity Press) was winner of the 2000 Book of the Year Award of the Academy of Parish Clergy.

Peter Dobkin Hall is Hauser Lecturer on Nonprofit Organizations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and Visiting Research Fellow at the Yale Divinity School. Hall's published work includes, Inventing the Nonprofit Sector: Essays on Philanthropy, Voluntarism, and Nonprofit Organizations (1992). He co-edited Sacred Companies: Organizational Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organizations (1998) and the chapter on voluntary, nonprofit, and religious entities and activities for the forthcoming Millennial Edition of Historical Statistics of the United States.

Simon J. Craddock Lee, MPH is a doctoral candidate in the UC San Francisco/Berkeley Joint Program in Medical Anthropology. Prior to graduate school, he managed the programs of a national association of foundation and corporate-giving program executives working in HIV/AIDS philanthropy. A Yale graduate, he received his masters in public health policy and administration (ethics) from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation fieldwork in the ethics and social values of Catholic healthcare was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, with analysis and writing made possible through a health services research dissertation grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. Related work on the transformation of hospital chaplaincy and the evolution of spiritual care services is reported in a forthcoming issue (2003) of Health Care Analysis.

William H. Lockhart is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Baylor University. His Ph.D. in Sociology was earned at the University of Virginia in 2001. His dissertation, entitled Getting Saved From Poverty: Religion in Poverty-to-work Programs, was supported by dissertation research grants from HUD, the Louisville Institute, and two smaller research centers. Prior to his studies at the University of Virginia, Bill directed a mainline Presbyterian urban ministry in Wheeling, West Virginia for ten years, working with community organizations, low-income families, homeless persons, and at-risk children and youth.

John G. Messer is a scholar -practitioner who has studied and published research on faith-based organizations as well as designing, implementing and evaluating such organizations which address poverty, domestic violence, homelessness, substance abuse and AIDS, for several decades.

Carl Milofsky is Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University, a former editor of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and a founding member of Yale's Program on Nonprofit Organizations with a specialty in community organizations.

Maurine Pyle: Serving as Field Secretary of Illinois Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and as a member of the Traveling Ministries Program for Friends General Conference (Quakers). She has served as presiding clerk for Illinois Yearly Meeting. Her areas of professional specialization are: leadership development, change management, adult education/training, conflict resolution and community development.

Edward Queen, Ph.D., J.D. is Provost of Indianapolis College--International Division and Senior Researcher, Charitable Choice Implementation Project.

Rev. William C. Rickle, S.J., Ph.D. is the Latino Migration and Ministry Consultant for the Maryland Province Jesuits in Baltimore. He studied in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Spain. Since the mid 70s he has done research, pastoral and advocacy projects as well as parochial, archdiocesan and national level administration in Hispanic and multicultural ministry capacities. His dissertation work (Temple University, 1994) focused on relations between English speaking and Spanish speaking parishioners in Philadelphia. Current work includes active participation in the international Jesuit network to address pastoral, research, educational and advocacy issues emerging from international migration.

Jo Anne Schneider is an urban anthropologist focusing on the role of government, non-profits, churches and communities in social welfare policy, opportunity structures for marginalized populations, and inter-group relations. She is currently a Research Associate at the National Catholic School of Social Services, Catholic University of America and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Science and Technology Policy fellow at NIH. Recent publications include lead editor, American Anthropologist special issue forum on welfare reform (2001), The Kenosha Social Capital Study (2001), and her forthcoming book Social Capital and Welfare Reform: Government, Non-profits, Churches and Community in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (Columbia University Press).

Jill Witmer Sinha, M.Div.Phd., recently completed her PhD in the Social Welfare program at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Welfare. She is currently in a post-doctoral position at Princeton. Jill conducted ethnographic case studies of two congregations in North Philadelphia for the Communities, Congregations, and Leadership Development Project during 1999-2000. Her publications include: Cookman United Methodist Church and Transitional Journey: A Case Study in Charitable Choice (2000), and “Churches and public funds: risks or rewards?” Prism, 6(3), 11-13 (2001) with co-author Heidi Rolland Unruh.

Jon Van Til is professor of urban studies at Rutgers University in Camden. An active scholar and writer in the field of voluntary action, his most recent book is Growing Civil Society (Indiana University Press, 2000).

Joyce Keyes Williams is the Senior Research Associate for the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, part of the Urban and Metropolitan Studies Division at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Her research investigates issues around nonprofit management and public policy in general, and in particular the interorganizational collaboration between faith-based organizations and state and local government agencies in human service delivery. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs in the Public Administration and Policy department at the State University of New York at Albany.

Rhys H. Williams is Professor and Department Head of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. He is co-author of A Bridging of Faiths: Religion and Politics in an American City (Princeton 1992) and co-editor of Sacred Companies: Organizational Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organizations (Oxford, 1998). He is editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Warren Witte serves as Executive Director of Friends Services for the Aging

(FSA), an association of 25 Quaker-governed senior service organizations. Prior to coming to FSA, he served in a variety of program and management roles in the American Friends Service Committee for 30 years, including, from 1984 - 1992, the role of Associate Executive Director for Information and Interpretation in the organization's national office in Philadelphia.

Richard Wood has studied and written on community organizing for twelve years, most recently in Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (2000, University of Chicago Press). His current research focuses on the impact of political engagement on congregations, in collaboration with the Ford Foundation and Interfaith Funders. He is an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico.

James Zabora is Dean of the National Catholic School of Social Service and Associate Professor of Social Work, Catholic University of America. Dr. Zabora is editor of the Journal of Psychosocial Oncology and author of numerous papers and book chapters on cancer prevention, psychosocial screening, quality of life and problem-solving education.

Interested Organizations

Friends Society for the Aging

Dissemination Partners

Alban Institute

Center for Public Justice