Dr. Anne Klaeysen
Read Anne's Blog
Dr. Anne Klaeysen is currently the first Humanist Chaplain at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY; part-time Leader of the Ethical Humanist Society of Queens; and co-mentor of class 15 of the Humanist Institute. She served the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island as Leader from 2002 to 2008. Anne holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hebrew Union College and Master’s degrees in Business Administration from New York University and in German from the State University of New York at Albany. She is also a graduate of the Humanist Institute (class 10) and spent two years studying at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany.
In addition to her work as Society Leader and chaplain, Anne is a member of the Board of Governors of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, where she represents the American Ethical Union. She is also an active participant in Empire State Pride in the Pulpit; New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty; the Interfaith Peace Alliance; and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. This summer she gave presentations on forgiveness at the World Fellowship Center in Conway, New Hampshire and to the American Friends Service Committee. As a result she will serve as a consultant to the New York State Office for Mental Health and will help in developing a new Center for Healing and Transformative Justice. Anne also serves the American Ethical Union as Chair of the Training Committee, which is responsible for recruiting and training Ethical Culture Leaders and Celebrants; and is National Leaders Council liaison to the Religious Education Committee, YES (Youth in Ethical Societies for teens), and FES (Future Ethical Societies for college students).
As a member of the American Humanist Association and the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Anne gave a presentation at the recent joint conference on the need for humanist chaplaincies in health care, academia, the military and criminal justice system. She is working on developing guidelines and training for these positions and promoting them within the humanist movement.
Anne lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her husband Glenn Newman, President of both the New York City Tax Commission and Tax Appeals Tribunal. They were married at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, where they became members and served on the Board of Trustees (at different times). Their children Andrew and Emily graduated from the Children's Sunday Assembly program.
Curt Collier
Read Curt's Blog
Curt served as the Leader for the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture from 1999 to 2008. He founded a second service, restarted the Sunday School program, helped push through the founding of the Overnight Men’s Shelter, and worked on numerous projects and programs for the benefit of the Society. During this period he also served as President for the Riverdale Clergy Council. Curt has written extensively on Ethical Culture and, on behalf of American Ethical Union’s Growth and Development Team, is a frequent guest speaker to groups considering joining the Movement. Curt has traveled extensively promoting Ethical Culture and was credited for founding the Ethical Society of Austin, Texas. He is the founder of Just Matrimony, promoting marriage equality for Gays and Lesbians, and served as co-Mentor for the Humanist Institute and the Humanist in Leadership Training programs. He has served on AEU’s Assembly Committee and the Leadership Training Committee and he is on the faculty of the Lay Leadership Summer School, teaching philosophy for five of the past seven seasons.
Putting his environmental ethics into action, Curt left the Riverdale Society to work as the Deputy Director for Groundwork USA – an organization that works on projects for urban renewal and environmental protection. He is heading up their effort to form a local Green Team; youth involved in environmental action. He’s also served as Adjunct Faculty with the University Studies Department at Hofstra University.
Curt earned a B.A. in philosophy at Texas A&M University and minored in religious studies. After college, he studied Hebrew at a Kibbutz Ulpan in Israel. He returned to the United States and completed a post-Baccalaureate at Southwest Texas State University and an M.S. in Audiology at Texas Tech University. He then taught Audiology at Texas Tech University and founded the Audiology Department for the Texas Tech Health Science Center. In private practice in Corpus Christi, he taught Audiology at Texas A&M Kingsville before deciding to study for Ethical Culture Leadership. Curt is a graduate of the Humanist Institute and the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health. He is completing a Doctorate in Ministry from Hebrew Union College.
Curt’s plays have been produced on several stages in the New York area. He was a recipient of a grant from the Bronx Council of the Arts for his play Yeats: Mad as the Mist and Snow, and his play Displaced Moments. His play, Casting Call; Alien Invasion was performed Off-Off Broadway.
Dr. Joseph Chuman
Read Joe's Blog
Joe is Leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, NJ, and has been so since 1974. Before that he was Leader of the Essex Ethical Society, and Leader-in-Training at the Bergen and New York Societies. He served on the Leadership Committee of the AEU for over 20 years, and was president of the National Leaders Council for six years. Joe is a representative from the AEU to the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and was co-mentor of the sixth class of Humanist Institute – also serving on the Institute’s Board.
Joe has a Ph.D. in religion from Columbia University. He teaches seminars in human rights, and human rights and religion to graduate students at Columbia University, advises them in the development of their dissertations, and helps them advance their studies through internships in the international community. He also teaches human rights to undergraduates at the Honors College at Hunter College. Formerly, he taught at the United Nation University for Peace in Costa Rica and Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.
Joe is the former chairman of Amnesty International USA’s Committee Against the Death Penalty and was the chairperson of NJ’s Committee Against the Death Penalty. He recently served on the advisory board of New Jerseyans for a Death Penalty Alternative, which helped abolish capital punishment there last year. He is a member of the Teaneck Clergy Council, which he chaired for three years in the ’90s. He helped organize interracial dialogues after a civil disturbance in the city in 1990, and serves on the Ethics Committee at Holy Name Hospital.
Joe has testified before legislative committees in New Jersey on such issues as the death penalty, moment of silence legislation, and religious cults. He has been amicus curiae in Lewis v. Harris, supporting the legalization of gay marriage in New Jersey, and Alberto R. Gonzalez v. State of Oregon, upholding physician assisted dying in the State of Oregon, which was litigated before the US Supreme Court. In 1983, he was a defendant in a landmark case that established free speech rights in New Jersey shopping malls.
Recently, Joe founded and is president of the Bergen County Sanctuary Committee for Political Asylum Seekers. The Committee provides a range of services and advocacy for political asylum seekers. In addition to direct activism, Joe spreads the word on Ethical Culture and related themes through extensive writing and publishing in newspapers, journals of opinion and academic texts. He is a former freelance opinion writer for the Bergen Record. He is currently editing a series of Ethical Culture addresses that will be published as a text. Joe is married to Linda, has six children and eight grandchildren, and lives in Hackensack, New Jersey.
