FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 9, 2013
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National Religious Campaign Against Torture Announces Next Executive Director
Rev. Ron Stief, ordained UCC minister, faith-based organizer, to take helm in January
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s board of directors announced today that it has named the Rev. Ron Stief as its next executive director. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ with a background in faith-based organizing at the community and national levels, Stief comes to NRCAT with significant local and Washington advocacy experience. He will become executive director on January 1, 2014. Stief succeeds the Rev. Richard Killmer, who has served as NRCAT’s first executive director since being named to the role in May 2007. Killmer will retire on December 31.
“The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is blessed to have found someone in Rev. Ron Stief with extensive experience in and knowledge of the interfaith world, human rights, fundraising, development and advocacy,” said Linda Gustitus, president of NRCAT’s board of directors. “He is a man of faith, a man of conviction, and a man with a deep sense of justice. We look forward with confidence and enthusiasm to building on the great work of our organization under Rev. Richard Killmer.”
Added Rev. Ron Stief, incoming executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, “The voice of the faith community has loudly proclaimed its opposition on moral grounds to both U.S.-sponsored torture and long-term solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. I plan to take this message of basic human dignity from the halls of our congregations to the corridors of political power. I'm honored to have the opportunity to lead the National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s moral witness and advocacy as we lead the faith community in bringing about critical policy change.”
Most recently, Stief has been based in St. Augustine, Fla., developing a faith outreach program for NextGen Climate Action, as well as assisting Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice California, a federation of grassroots, faith-based organizations, in launching a faith-rooted economics training series for congregational leaders.
From 2009 to 2012, Stief served as an associate director at PolicyLink, where he instituted the national Demand Equity Now grassroots network, promoting local strategies for economic empowerment. Leading up to the 2008 presidential election, he was director of organizing at Faith in Public Life, managing faith outreach during the campaign season.
Prior to that, Stief served as director of the Washington D.C. office of the United Church of Christ. He led advocacy for its 5,500 congregations and 1.2 million members across the country on a broad range of domestic and international issues, through both the UCC’s Washington and United Nations offices. Stief also served on the Washington Interreligious Staff Council and the Justice and Advocacy Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
While on staff at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, he founded the Center for Ethics and Economic Policy and served as its executive director. The Center engaged the national faith community in values-based economic policy advocacy. While there, Stief taught as an adjunct faculty member of the Pacific School of Religion and the Starr King School for the Ministry, both in Berkeley, and the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, and served as a member of Theological Educators for Presbyterian Social Witness. Stief earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy at the University of Montana and holds a master’s in social ethics and a Master of Divinity degree from the Pacific School of Religion.
He and his wife, the Rev. Sandee Yarlott, have one son and two grandchildren. His full bio and photo are available at NRCAT’s website. His photo can be sent upon request.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 325 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations. More information is available at www.nrcat.org.
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