BOARD  of  DIRECTORS

Osagie O. Imasogie

An attorney and business executive with over 20 years professional experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, business development, corporate finance, corporate law, intellectual property, international business and consulting, Mr. Imasogie, Esq., is currently Vice President and Director, Genetics and Discovery Venture in Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline.    In his distinguished career, he has been Vice President and Director of Product Strategy, and Senior Counsel at SmithKline Beecham; Senior Vice President and General Counsel & Secretary, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Vice President, International Division, The DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company; and President and CEO of Genesiscorp, Ltd., a Financial and Management Consulting firm he founded.

Mr. Imasogie was appointed Financial and Management Consultant to the Nigeria Stock Exchange, and was responsible for the computerization of one of the State Governments in Nigeria, for which he secured funding from the World Bank.

He brings nobility and ethical leadership to the precarious intersections of law, commerce, and healthcare.  Long accustomed to directing business and product strategies, multinational mergers, and business negotiations on a global playing field, Mr. Imasogie is as much a visionary in things theological as he is in international commerce and law.  He is a native of Nigeria, the son of a distinguished Baptist pastor, professor, author, and social and political leader, Osadolor Imasogie, Ph. D, D.D., President Emeritus of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary.  

Mr. Imasogie holds an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, where he completed his doctoral course work on Transfer of Technology.   He also holds an LLM from the University of London School of Economics, specializing in International Economic Law, Business Taxation and Intellectual Property.  He earned his B.L. with Honors from Nigeria Law School, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria, and is Barrister & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.   He also holds an LLB with Honors from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Mr Imasogie is also the Chair of the Board of Trustees of International House Philadelphia.  He is a Member, New York Bar;  US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit;  US Court of appeals for the Federal Circuit;   American Bar Association;  Nigerian Bar Association;  and the International Bar Association. 

Robin Collins

Before Dr. Collins earned the PhD in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame with highest honors, he earned both a BA in Mathematics and a BS in Physics from Washington State University in 1984, with a third major in Philosophy. He had continued his studies in Physics at the University of Texas before his doctoral work in philosophy. In 1994, after a postdoctoral fellowship in the History and Philosophy of Science at Northwestern University, he joined the faculty of Messiah College, where he is Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Dr. Collins’ many awards and distinctions include a Templeton Foundation Science and Religion Course award in 2000, a Pew Foundation Fellowship for the academic year 1999-2000 for his forthcoming book, The Well Tempered Universe: God, the Fine Tuning, and the Laws of Nature. He has received numerous scholarship and fellowship awards throughout his student and professional years.

The lengthy list of his publications and conference presentations includes such interesting works as: "The Teleological Argument," In The Rationality of Theism, edited by Paul Copan and Paul Moser, Routledge, Forthcoming.   "God, Design, and Fine-Tuning," in God Matters: Readings in the Philosophy of Religion, Raymond Martin and Christopher Bernard (eds), New York: Longman Press, 2002."The Evidence for Fine-Tuning," in God and Design, edited by Neil Manson, Routledge, forthcoming.   "Evolution and Original Sin," in Perspectives on an Evolving Creation, edited by Keith Miller, Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Forthcoming.   "Girard and Atonement: An Incarnational Theory of Mimetic Participation." In Violence Renounced, Willard Swartley editor, Herald/Pandora Press, June 2000.   "An Epistemological Critique of Bohmian Mechanics."   In Bohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal, James Cushing, Arthur Fine, and Shelly Goldstien, eds., the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996.

Dr. Collins maintains a vigorous schedule of presentations at significant academic conferences and symposia on subjects ranging from Intelligent Design theory to the theology of the atonement. Among them are "The Case for Design from Physics and Cosmology," Yale University 2000; "An Inflationary/Superstring Many-Universe hypothesis as an Explanation of the Fine-tuning?" The Nature of Nature Conference, Baylor University, 2000; "Understanding Atonement: Historical and Contemporary Contexts for the Development of a New and Orthodox Theory." American Academy of Religion, 1995, and many more.   More information is available at his faculty homepage, http://www.messiah.edu/hpages/facstaff/rcollins/home.htm

Dr. Collins is a member of American Philosophical Association, the Philosophy of Science Association and the Society of Christian Philosophers.

Robert Emmet McLaughlin

A graduate of Yale, Professor McLaughlin earned his M.A. in History at Syracuse University and returned to Yale University where he completed his Ph.D. in History in 1980. He was Associate Professor in History and Religious Studies at Yale before coming to the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University. Professor McLaughlin is now on the faculty of the History Department at Villanova, continuing his teaching and research in Reformation and Renaissance studies.

Professor McLaughlin is President of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, which he has also served as Vice-President and Conference Organizer. He is a member of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Early Modernists, the Medieval Academy of America, Delaware Valley Medieval Association, the America Historical Association, Society for Reformation Research, Renaissance Society of America, Society of Biblical Literature, American Academy of Religion, and the American Society of Church History.

A few highlights from the long list of his publications are Caspar Schwenckfeld, Reluctant Radical: His Life to 1540 (Yale University Press, 1986); "Universities, Scholasticism, and the Origins of the German Reformation," History of Universities (Oxford University Press1990); "The Word Eclipsed? Preaching in the Early Middle Ages," Traditio 48 (1991); Martin Bucer and the Schwenckfelders" in Martin Bucer and Sixteenth Century Europe. Actes du colloque de Strasbourg 1991 (Leiden 1993); The Freedom of the Spirit, Social Privilege, and Religious Dissent: Caspar Schwenckfeld and the Schwenckfelders (Bibliotheca Dissidentium, Scripta et Studia 6 (Baden-Baden 1996); the forthcoming "Reformation Spiritualism: Typology, Sources and Significance" in Dissent in the Sixteenth Century/Dissent um 16. Jahrhundert, collected papers of the joint colloquium of the Society for Reformation Research and the Verein fur Reformationsgeschichte, Wittenberg, August 1999. He is also the author of legions of book reviews and encyclopedia articles.

Frank Schaefer

The Reverend Schaefer, a native of Wuppertal, Germany, came to the United States in 1990 in pursuit of his calling to the pastoral ministry. Already certified as a translator and as an electronics technician, he turned to theological studies. After completing his B.S. summa cum laude at Valley Forge Christian College, he distinguished himself at Princeton Theological Seminary where earned the Master of Divinity degree. He was awarded the prestigious Senior Fellowship in Theology and the Jim Neidhardt Prize in Theology and Science for his Master’s thesis, "Homo Religiosus in the Age of Bits and Bytes."

The Reverend Schaefer is an ordained Elder (clergy) in the Eastern Pennsylvania conference of the United Methodist Church. He has served three churches and is now senior pastor of the Zion United Methodist Church in Avon, Pennsylvania. He founded and operates the "Desperate Preacher’s Site"  and JavaCasa Christian Resources on the World Wide Web. His lectionary resource site is now widely used by hundreds of pastors around the globe. The Reverend Schaefer is also the designer and Webmaster of the World Wide Web site of The Alethia Foundation.

Pastor Schaefer is active in community social work, prison and mental health ministries, Scouting programs, and is often in demand as a translator. His considerable talents in music and theatre arts frequently find their way into his work.

Carol Baker Tharp

Dr. Tharp's extensive background in the fine arts and in public affairs is highly valued by The Alethia Foundation.   She holds an interfield Ph.D. in political science and religion, with a focus on public policy and ethics, from the Claremont Graduate University.  

For eleven years she was Executive Director of Coro Southern California.  Coro is a national, not-for-profit leadership education organization offering post-graduate training and community service in public affairs. 

Dr. Tharp's is experienced in strategic planning, business development, marketing, fund raising, financial management, and board and staff development.  Her management experience includes the Los Angeles Theatre Center, the Seven-Eleven Olympic Velodrome, the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, each a multi-million dollar organization made more successful by Dr. Tharp's  marketing and financial management. She has also served as Community Relations Director of Linn-Benton Community College, and for the City of Eugene, Oregon, and is the author of numerous journal articles.  Dr.Tharp serves on the Board of Directors of several activist and cultural organizations, including Mobilization for the Human Family, Leadership Southern California, and The Andrus Center for Gerontology.

In addition to her professional background in public affairs and management, she has a life-long love of the performing arts, with extensive training and experience in the dramatic arts and in broadcasting. She holds a B.A. cum laude in Speech, Communication and Theatre Arts from Wake Forest University, and has won a national production award in radio broadcasting.

Dr. Tharp is a Member of the Session of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church, where she also Chairs the Multicultural and Community Ministries Committee and serves on the Strategic Planning Taskforce.  Continuing her commitment to the Coro organization, she is Seminar Leader, "Ethics and Public Policy" for the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, and is also the Co-Chair of the Endowment Committee for Coro Southern California Leadership Center.  Dr. Tharp is a member of the Advisory Board of Progressive Christians Uniting (formerly Mobilization for the Human Family, a movement in Southern California to present public policy position papers from a progressive Christian perspective.  It would be impossible for her to neglect her passion for the fine arts, particularly theatre arts, and she presently serves on the Program Committee of the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival.

Dr. Tharp is an ordained Elder in the Presbyterian Church, USA.

Daniel Ellis-Killian

has a thirty-year history of respected nonprofit administrative and financial management as a pastor in the United Methodist Church. The Rev. Dr. Ellis-Killian has pastored eight churches since his ordination in 1972. He has a B.A. from Edinboro University, a Master of Divinity from Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry from Vanderbilt University. While a student at Colgate Rochester, he was the teaching assistant of Winthrop Hudson. He found in James A. Sanders and Charlie Nielsen his academic bedrock for ministry. It was assumed by his teachers that Dan would join the faculty ranks. His calling, however, was to the pastoral ministry. His scholarship is maintained in his areas of his specialization in the history of theology and in New Testament studies. He holds the office of Secretary-Treasurer of The Alethia Foundation

Pastor Ellis-Killian also brings to The Alethia Foundation Board of Directors a lengthy pedigree in issues of church unity, agism and feminism. He has served on councils, clergy associations, commissions of Christian unity and inter-religious concerns, and on the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He has served as well on the Board of Directors of community agencies serving children and seniors. He is a certified training consultant in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.  He is the Senior Pastor of the Willow Grove United Methodist Church, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

Sandra Ellis-Killian 

is the founding Director of The Alethia Foundation, where her combination of experience in both Academy and Church serves well.  Ordained American Baptist clergy, she has served several churches in the Northeast.  She served for four years as Protestant Religious Advisor at Swarthmore College, sponsored by Partners in Ministry and was on the faculty of Villanova University's Department of Theology and Religious Studies for fourteen years before turning full-time to The Alethia Foundation. The Rev. Dr. Ellis-Killian has served on various denominational and ecumenical councils and committees as well as on the National Organization for Women Committee on Women and Religion, and has memberships in several professional and academic organizations.   She is the President and Chair of the Board of Directors of The Alethia Foundation

An American Baptist, Dr. Ellis-Killian holds a B.A. cum laude in philosophy, with Honors in Philosophy, from Wake Forest University, an M.A. in theology and literature from Vanderbilt University with a Master’s thesis on William Blake, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton Theological Seminary.   She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Philosophical Association, the Society of Christian Philosophers, and the American Scientific Affiliation.

The Alethia Foundation Administrative Staff

The Alethia Foundation is capably served by a dedicated, all-volunteer administrative staff.  All have noteworthy records of service to church and community, and training in nonprofit management. 

Ellen Barber Fonda   Office Facilitator

Nancy S. Gross, Certified Nonprofit Manager,  Administrative Facilitator, Database Manager

Meredith Harris   Assistant in Development 

Thomas Williams, Officer of the Corporation,   Assistant Treasurer, Risk Manager

John M. Work, Officer of the Corporation,   Assistant Treasurer, Manager of Special Receipts

Alethia Staff Motto:       "If we ain't havin' fun, we ain't doin' it right."