Guidance & Management
RNS’ work is guided by our Board of Managers, the Religion News Foundation Board of Directors, our Journalism Advisory Council and our staff. This team is made up of experts from all fields, from media and communications, to nonprofit fundraising, to government and policy making, and more. Our team is guided by the conviction that accurate research and reporting on religion is a powerful force for change in the world.

RNS Board of Managers

David Roberson
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David Roberson
David Roberson is a marketing and media executive with a focus on audience growth and monetization. Dave is currently the SVP, Subscriptions at Penske Media with responsibility for monetizing the audiences across consumer and business brands. Prior to joining Penske, he served in senior marketing roles at Meredith, Condé Nast and Rosalie.
In addition to RNF, Dave is on the board of trustees at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and is a past president of the Board of Trustees at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. He has an undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his MBA from Columbia University. Dave lives in New York City with his wife and two teenage boys.
In addition to RNF, Dave is on the board of trustees at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and is a past president of the Board of Trustees at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. He has an undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his MBA from Columbia University. Dave lives in New York City with his wife and two teenage boys.

Deborah Caldwell
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Deborah Caldwell
Deborah Caldwell is CEO of Religion News Foundation and Publisher of RNS. She serves as the main point of contact for the RNF and RNS Boards, as well as grantors, oversees all RNF and RNS operations, leads development efforts, and manages long-term strategic planning.
Caldwell joined RNF/RNS in 2020 and previously served as Vice President of Content Marketing at Bank of America. She also previously held executive positions at Time Inc. — including digital managing editor at FORTUNE and digital assistant managing editor at MONEY — as well as at CNBC and Reader’s Digest Association.
She is a frequent speaker on the intersection of religion and media, appearing at industry conferences and academic institutions. Caldwell has also contributed thought leadership pieces on digital journalism, nonprofit media, and religious reporting.
Earlier in her career, Caldwell spent 20 years as an award-winning religion and politics specialist. She was a founding team member and Vice President of Content at Beliefnet, a Web 1.0 startup ultimately sold to News Corp. At Beliefnet, she helped guide the staff to multiple Webby Awards, the Online News Association Award for General Excellence and the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. Before that, she was a senior writer at The Dallas Morning News, where she won a Templeton Award for national religion reporting. Deborah was also a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.
Caldwell joined RNF/RNS in 2020 and previously served as Vice President of Content Marketing at Bank of America. She also previously held executive positions at Time Inc. — including digital managing editor at FORTUNE and digital assistant managing editor at MONEY — as well as at CNBC and Reader’s Digest Association.
She is a frequent speaker on the intersection of religion and media, appearing at industry conferences and academic institutions. Caldwell has also contributed thought leadership pieces on digital journalism, nonprofit media, and religious reporting.
Earlier in her career, Caldwell spent 20 years as an award-winning religion and politics specialist. She was a founding team member and Vice President of Content at Beliefnet, a Web 1.0 startup ultimately sold to News Corp. At Beliefnet, she helped guide the staff to multiple Webby Awards, the Online News Association Award for General Excellence and the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. Before that, she was a senior writer at The Dallas Morning News, where she won a Templeton Award for national religion reporting. Deborah was also a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Won Kim
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Won Kim
Won Kim is a marketing and media executive with particular expertise in running creative teams on the cutting edge of strategy and marketing, running the gamut from startup ventures like Digg, Vault, and Relevant to enterprise corporate operations like Disney, Viacom, Alibaba. He has played a key role in the launch of highly engaging brand campaigns and activated digital strategies with notable brands. Won is the Co-Founder of Bored Room Ventures, an investment and consulting firm concentrating on web3, NFTs and metaverse strategy. He chronicles his day-to-day on Twitter @wonk1m, where his tweets cover a quartet of topic areas: family, work, internet culture, and random observations.
RNF Board of Directors

John Terrill, Ph.D.
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John Terrill, Ph.D.
John serves as the Executive Director of the Stephen & Laurel Brown
Foundation, which includes Upper House—a Christian study center located at the
heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison—and Dottie’s Ranch—a leadership
development and spiritual retreat house located near Oregon, Wisconsin. John
previously served as Director for the Center for Integrity in Business at
Seattle Pacific University; before that, he worked with InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship/USA as the National Director for Professional Schools Ministries,
as well as campus minister at Harvard Business School and National Director
for MBA Ministry. John is a graduate of Indiana University (Bloomington),
holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University),
master’s degrees in theology (MATH) and religion (MAR) from Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary, and a PhD from Seattle Pacific University in industrial
and organizational psychology. John and his wife, Vanja, lived in Middleton,
Wisconsin, with their daughter, Elena.

Deborah Caldwell
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Deborah Caldwell
Deborah Caldwell is CEO of Religion News Foundation and Publisher of RNS. She serves as the main point of contact for the RNF and RNS Boards, as well as grantors, oversees all RNF and RNS operations, leads development efforts, and manages long-term strategic planning.
Caldwell joined RNF/RNS in 2020 and previously served as Vice President of Content Marketing at Bank of America. She also previously held executive positions at Time Inc. — including digital managing editor at FORTUNE and digital assistant managing editor at MONEY — as well as at CNBC and Reader’s Digest Association.
She is a frequent speaker on the intersection of religion and media, appearing at industry conferences and academic institutions. Caldwell has also contributed thought leadership pieces on digital journalism, nonprofit media, and religious reporting.
Earlier in her career, Caldwell spent 20 years as an award-winning religion and politics specialist. She was a founding team member and Vice President of Content at Beliefnet, a Web 1.0 startup ultimately sold to News Corp. At Beliefnet, she helped guide the staff to multiple Webby Awards, the Online News Association Award for General Excellence and the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. Before that, she was a senior writer at The Dallas Morning News, where she won a Templeton Award for national religion reporting. Deborah was also a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.
Caldwell joined RNF/RNS in 2020 and previously served as Vice President of Content Marketing at Bank of America. She also previously held executive positions at Time Inc. — including digital managing editor at FORTUNE and digital assistant managing editor at MONEY — as well as at CNBC and Reader’s Digest Association.
She is a frequent speaker on the intersection of religion and media, appearing at industry conferences and academic institutions. Caldwell has also contributed thought leadership pieces on digital journalism, nonprofit media, and religious reporting.
Earlier in her career, Caldwell spent 20 years as an award-winning religion and politics specialist. She was a founding team member and Vice President of Content at Beliefnet, a Web 1.0 startup ultimately sold to News Corp. At Beliefnet, she helped guide the staff to multiple Webby Awards, the Online News Association Award for General Excellence and the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. Before that, she was a senior writer at The Dallas Morning News, where she won a Templeton Award for national religion reporting. Deborah was also a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Ken Chitwood,
Ph.D.
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Ken Chitwood,
Ph.D.
Ken Chitwood serves as ReligionLink Editor for Religion News Foundation. He is responsible for creating resource guides to support religion journalists in their work and improve the quality of religion reporting. He creates at least one new relevant source guide per month.
Ken is a religion scholar currently working as the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures & Societies at Freie Universität Berlin. He is also a journalist-fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s Spiritual Exemplars Project and a lecturer in Islamwissenschaft at Otto Friedrich Universität Bamberg and in theology at Concordia College New York’s Global Initiative program. He graduated with his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2019 where he worked with the Department of Religion and the Center for Global Islamic Studies. He is also an ordained Lutheran pastor.
He serves as Treasurer of the Religion News Association Board of Directors, as well as Vice Chair and Treasurer on the Religion News Foundation Board of Directors.
Ken is a religion scholar currently working as the Fritz Thyssen Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures & Societies at Freie Universität Berlin. He is also a journalist-fellow with the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s Spiritual Exemplars Project and a lecturer in Islamwissenschaft at Otto Friedrich Universität Bamberg and in theology at Concordia College New York’s Global Initiative program. He graduated with his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2019 where he worked with the Department of Religion and the Center for Global Islamic Studies. He is also an ordained Lutheran pastor.
He serves as Treasurer of the Religion News Association Board of Directors, as well as Vice Chair and Treasurer on the Religion News Foundation Board of Directors.

David
Roberson
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David
Roberson
David Roberson is a marketing and media executive with a focus on audience growth and monetization. Dave is currently the SVP, Subscriptions at Penske Media with responsibility for monetizing the audiences across consumer and business brands. Prior to joining Penske, he served in senior marketing roles at Meredith, Condé Nast and Rosalie.
In addition to RNF, Dave is on the board of trustees at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and is a past president of the Board of Trustees at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. He has an undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his MBA from Columbia University. Dave lives in New York City with his wife and two teenage boys.

Steven
Waldman
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Steven
Waldman
Steven Waldman is co-founder and president of Report for America, a national service program that places talented emerging journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered communities and issues. He was the co-founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Beliefnet. He also served as senior advisor to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and worked as a Washington correspondent for Newsweek. He’s the author of “Founding Faith,” a book about religion and America’s Founding Fathers.

Tom Levinson
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Tom Levinson
Tom Levinson is a respected member of the Religion News Foundation’s elected
volunteer Board of Directors. With his expertise in business and finance, he
plays a crucial role in guiding the organization’s financial decisions. Tom
has a successful track record as a business leader and has been involved in
various philanthropic activities. He is passionate about supporting
initiatives that promote interfaith dialogue and understanding. Tom resides in
[Location] and enjoys spending his leisure time exploring different cultures
and cuisines.

Won Kim
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Won Kim
Won Kim is a marketing and media executive with particular expertise in running creative teams on the cutting edge of strategy and marketing, running the gamut from startup ventures like Digg, Vault, and Relevant to enterprise corporate operations like Disney, Viacom, Alibaba. He has played a key role in the launch of highly engaging brand campaigns and activated digital strategies with notable brands. Won is the Co-Founder of Bored Room Ventures, an investment and consulting firm concentrating on web3, NFTs and metaverse strategy. He chronicles his day-to-day on Twitter @wonk1m, where his tweets cover a quartet of topic areas: family, work, internet culture, and random observations.

Betsy Shirley
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Betsy Shirley
Betsy is a writer and editor interested in stories about religion, faith, and
social justice. She is associate editor at Sojourners magazine and serves on
the board of the Religion News Association. Her freelance work—including
stories about virtual reality Bibles, eco-nuns, and karaoke church—has been
published in Religion Dispatches, Politics & Religion, and America Magazine.
She holds an M.Div. from Yale Divinity School. Betsy also is the Vice
President of the Religion News Association Board of Directors, and, as of
September 2020, is its president. She is based in Washington, D.C.

Shahed Amanullah
Managing Director of Frost Capital
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Shahed Amanullah
Managing Director of Frost Capital
Shahed Amanullah is the Managing Director of Frost Capital, a Palo Alto-based private equity fund manager and investment advisor. He is also known for co-founding Affinis Labs, an award-winning social innovation firm that was acquired by Frost Capital in 2019.
In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Shahed also co-founded Zakatify, a social impact fintech startup in partnership with the PayPal Giving Fund. His expertise extends to growth strategy consulting, as he served as Senior Vice President of Digital Products and interim Senior Vice President of Marketing at Frost & Sullivan from 2020 to 2023.
Shahed’s public service record is notable, having served in President Obama’s administration from 2010 to 2014 as the Senior Advisor for Technology at the US Department of State. During his tenure, he worked under Secretary Hillary Clinton on various entrepreneurship and technology initiatives.
In 1998, Shahed created Zabihah, the world’s first global Halal restaurant guide, which was later acquired in 2023. He also founded Altmuslim, an online magazine with 2.5 million annual unique users, and served as its editor-in-chief until its acquisition in 2011.
Beyond his professional pursuits, Shahed actively contributes to the community by serving on the boards of the Muslim Public Service Network and the Islamic Scholarship Fund. He also takes on the role of an Entrepreneurship Mentor at the Aspen Institute, providing valuable insights to Aspen Digital’s Digital Equity Accelerator program.

Robyn Tomlin
Chief News Officer for McClatchy
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Robyn Tomlin
Chief News Officer for McClatchy
Robyn Tomlin is the Chief News Officer for McClatchy, with responsibilities that encompass all news, opinion, and multimedia content produced across the network’s 30 local news sites and affiliated brands.
Before assuming her current role, Robyn served as the Vice President of Local News for McClatchy and held the esteemed position of President and Executive Editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, a newspaper under McClatchy’s umbrella.
Robyn’s career boasts an impressive trajectory, as she previously worked as the VP/Managing Editor for The Dallas Morning News. Her contributions extend to the digital realm, where she served as the Chief Digital Officer and VP of Communications at the Pew Research Center. Additionally, Robyn led Digital First Media’s Project Thunderdome and held executive editor positions at various local newspapers.
In her commitment to the journalism community, Robyn currently serves as a faculty member and coach in Poynter’s Media Transformation Challenge program. Her dedication to elevating media and news dissemination is evident through her extensive career in the field.

Sean Coughlin
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Sean Coughlin
Sean Coughlin is a husband, father, entrepreneur and two-time company CEO and cofounder. After a brief and unremarkable stint in “Big Law”, Sean cofounded FaithStreet, a leading discovery platform and payments software solution for places of worship. FaithStreet currently serves over 30,000 congregations, and Sean continues his work as board chair. At FaithStreet, Sean led the acquisition of the religion media property OnFaith from The Washington Post and, as Publisher, reimagined it as a home for thoughtful yet pithy, short and medium form, spirituality content. FaithStreet spun out OnFaith and sold it in 2017. Since stepping down as CEO of FaithStreet in 2023, Sean has served as President of a coaching-tech startup, leading it to a 20x year-over-year revenue growth. Sean serves as board chair of the Campus Communion at the College of Charleston, and is on the board of The Lowcountry Literacy Project. He previously served as the Senior Warden of The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul, and co-chaired the Cathedral’s recent, successful $3 million capital campaign. Sean and his wife, Rachel, welcomed their fourth child (first daughter!) in early 2025. Sean is a dedicated surfer and bicycle commuter.
RNS Journalism Advisory Council

Dilshad D. Ali
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Dilshad D. Ali
Dilshad D. Ali is the Blog/Content Editor at Haute Hijab, coordinating
coverage of Muslim women in America. Prior to that she was the Editor-in-Chief
at Altmuslim and Managing Editor for the Muslim portal at Patheos.com. She has
spent the past two decades covering and coordinating coverage of American
Muslim communities and freelancing for a variety of media outlets, including
Beliefnet, Islam Online, The Atlantic and the New York Times, and was a 2015
White House Champion of Change honoree for her autism reporting/writing and
advocacy work.

Ruby Bailey
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Ruby Bailey
Ruby Bailey is the executive editor of the ColumbiaMissourian and holds the
Missouri School of Journalism’s Missouri Community Newspaper Management chair,
working with community newspapers across the state to help improve their
coverage and operations. She previously served as news editor at the
Sacramento Bee and assistant metro editor at the Detroit Free Press.

Patton Dodd
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Patton Dodd
Patton Dodd is the executive director of media and communications at the H. E.
Butt Foundation. He previously served as editor-in-chief of OnFaith and
executive editor for Patheos.

Samuel
Freedman
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Samuel
Freedman
Samuel Freedman is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism, where he runs a rigorous book-writing seminar. He is the author of
eight nonfiction books, including Jew vs. Jew, and wrote the “On Religion”
column for The New York Times from 2006 to 2016.

Ari Goldman
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Ari Goldman
Ari L. Goldman is the director of the Columbia University Graduate School of
Journalism’s Scripps Howard Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual
Life. He is the author of four books, including The Search for God at Harvard,
and previously covered religion for The New York Times.

Caitlin Hendel
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Caitlin Hendel
Caitlin Hendel recently served as CEO and publisher of National Catholic
Reporter. Previously, she worked as an editor at CQ Roll Call in Washington,
D.C., and directed coverage of the U.S. economy for Bloomberg News.

David Kurpius
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David Kurpius
David
Kurpius is the dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He
previously served as a professor and administrator at Louisiana State
University for almost 20 years, where he also served as director of the Office
of Student Media.

Ju-Don Marshall
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Ju-Don Marshall
Ju-Don Marshall is the chief content officer of WFAE 90.7, the NPR station in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Previously, she was executive editor and senior
vice president at News Corporation, overseeing Beliefnet, and spent 17 years
at The Washington Post.

Bob Mong
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Bob Mong
Bob
Mong is the president of the University of North Texas at Dallas. Previously,
he served as managing editor and editor-in-chief of The Dallas Morning News.
He is a former chair of the Religion Newswriters Foundation.

Paul Raushenbush
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Paul Raushenbush
The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush is the senior vice president and editor of
Voices on Auburn Seminary. He previously served as executive editor of global
spirituality and religion for The Huffington Post Religion section and as an
editor at Beliefnet.

Robert Rosenthal
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Robert Rosenthal
Robert J. Rosenthal’s career started at The New York Times, where he was an
editorial assistant and part of the secret team that published The Pentagon
Papers in June 1971. Later he joined The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he
ultimately rose to become editor-in-chief in 1998. He joined The San Francisco
Chronicle as managing editor in 2002, then became Executive Director of the
nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting in 2008. Today he sits on the CIR
board and several other nonprofit boards and is active in espousing the role
of journalism in democracy and his belief that the nonprofit model can and
does work.

Amy Sullivan
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Amy Sullivan
Amy
Sullivan has covered the intersection of religion, politics and culture as an
editor for TIME, Yahoo, and The Washington Monthly. She co-hosts the “Impolite
Company” religion and politics podcast, and contributes opinion and news
analysis to NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the author
of The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap.

Diane Winston
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Diane Winston
Diane Winston is an associate professor and Knight Center Chair in Media &
Religion at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for
Communication and Journalism. She is the author of four books, including The
Oxford Handbook on Religion and the American News Media.

Michael Wolfe
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Michael Wolfe
Michael Wolef is president and co-executive producer of Unity Productions
Foundation, the makers of numerous PBS documentaries on Muslim themes. A
convert to Islam, Wolfe has written two books for Grove Press on the
pilgrimage to Mecca and translated a collection of ancient Greek epitaphs for
Johns Hopkins University Press. His journalism has been awarded by the Society
for American Travel Writers and won the Wilbur Prize for Best Book on a
Religious Theme.

G. Jeffrey MacDonald
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G. Jeffrey MacDonald
G. Jeffrey MacDonald is an award-winning journalist and an ordained minister
in the United Church of Christ. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, he covers
religion, ethics and social responsibility, along with other subjects, for
national news outlets. His stories have appeared in TIME magazine, The
Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, Religion News Service and
more.

Phil Haslanger
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Phil Haslanger
Phil
Haslanger straddles careers in journalism and ministry. He worked for The
Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin for three decades, ending his career there
as managing editor. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ
and has been a pastor in several Madison area congregations over the past 15
years. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (1973) and a master’s degree in theology from Lakeland
University in Wisconsin (2007). He was on the board for RNS from 2011 to 2017.
He serves as chair of the advisory board for the Center for Journalism Ethics
at UW-Madison.