Our Board

Ron White

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Ron White is a Senior Advisor at the Humboldt Area Foundation.  He is responsible for the development of the skills, knowledge and practice of civic and grassroots leadership. Currently, this work encompasses the Equity Alliance of the North Coast, which spreads the message of racial equity using Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance (LEDA) and Government Alliance for Racial Equity (GARE) as models and coaches. He also staffs HAF’s first donor circle and is board chair of True North Organizing network, a PICO affiliate in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties and adjacent tribal lands. PICO (now Faith in Action National Network) puts race, the power of people, and faith, at the center of its community organizing model.

Ron has over four decades of experience in social change philanthropy where he’s held positions at every level in the field of philanthropy from volunteer, to program officer to foundation executive director and trustee. Ron brings a strong knowledge of community organizing and community based economic development to every aspect of his professional work.  He’s served on several boards of social justice oriented community and family foundations and staffs social justice donor circles. 

Ron was the founder of the successful business, Building Utopia Consulting, LLC where he acted as principal consultant with his wife, Monica White, as Office Manager. For a decade Ron consulted nationally with foundations and nonprofits, interested in fostering social change with a racial justice awareness. His consultancy consistently utilized his background in adult education as well as theories of organizational development from graduate studies in Administrative Leadership from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Having participated in his first racial justice demonstration for fair hiring in Columbus, Georgia at age 12, Ron’s commitment to racial justice has been an integral part of his professional and personal aspirations and has led to service on the boards of the Applied Research Center (now Race Forward); PICO Organizing Network (now Faith in Action National Network), where he serves as board chair; and on  the boards of Southern Partners Fund and Peppercorn Foundation both of which use a racial equity lens as part of their grant making  to promote progressive policy change.

Ron holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Dominican College of Racine, WI and an M.A. in the History and Philosophy of Religions from Miami University in Oxford, OH.  Ron has two adult children; and a wife, who has supported, challenged, and helps him grow spiritually and professionally, for over 50 years.

Dr. Rosalind Osgood

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Dr. Rosalind Osgood, a Broward County native. She has earned both a Master’s and Doctoral Degree in Public Administration from Nova Southeastern University. In 2001, Dr. Osgood had the unique honor of being the first woman in the history of the New Mount Olive Baptist Church to be licensed, ordained, and positioned in the pulpit as a preacher, by the late preacher extraordinaire, Reverend Dr. Mack King Carter. In December of 2007, she earned a Master’s of Divinity Degree from New Orleans Southern Baptist Theological ATS accredited Seminary. She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Mount Olive Development Corporation, Former Chair of the Broward County School Board, Lead the School Board National Mask Mandate battle against the Governor of Florida in 2020, Faith In Florida Organizer, Florida Senator for District 32 and Associate Minister at New Mount Olive Baptist Church. She is a highly sought after itinerate Preacher.

She is a Former Adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University Huizenga School of Business. She is the author of two books titled, “The Story Behind the Story” and “Influential Woman Leader”. She is a member of numerous professional organizations. She is a member of the Zeta Rho Omega Chapter and South Atlantic Leader in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is a member of the Fort Lauderdale (FL) Chapter and Southern Area Leader in the Links Incorporated. She is a graduate of Leadership Florida.

Dr. Osgood has been recognized by her peers as a true community leader. She is a Life Member of the Fort Lauderdale Broward Branch of the NAACP. In 2013, Dr. Osgood became the First Female Chaplain for the City of Fort Lauderdale Police Department. She has served on numerous Boards and Committees. She currently serves on the Broward Behavioral Health Coalition Board, the Nova Southeastern University Huizenga School of Business Advisory Board and the Faith In Action National Board

Rich Wood

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Richard L. Wood has served on the governing board of Faith in Action since 2016, has written about faith-based organizing for 25 years, and originally emerged as a leader through his church within the Faith in Action federation in Oakland, California. 

At the University of New Mexico, Wood serves as Professor of Sociology and director of the Southwest Institute on Religion, Culture, and Society. His research and writing focus on the cultural and institutional underpinnings of democratic life, especially those linked to religion. He is the author of A Shared Future: Faith-Based Organizing for Racial Equity and Ethical Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2015; co-authored with Brad Fulton; named best book of 2016 by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action) and Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (University of Chicago Press, named best book of 2002 in the sociology of religion by the American Sociological Association). He has published a variety of scholarly articles and public intellectual work on faith-based community organizing, religion and democracy, diversity and racial equity in political organizations, and Catholic reform efforts. Wood also serves as co-editor of the book series Social Theory, Religion, and Politics at Cambridge University Press; on the national board of Faith in Action (formerly the PICO National Network), a racial equity and economic justice organization and the most prominent of the faith-based community organizing networks in the U.S.; and formerly as pro-bono advisor to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (the major community organizing arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). Wood teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on community organizing, the sociology of religion, social theory, political culture & democracy, Catholicism in Latin America, and ethnographic research methods. He previously served as president of the faculty senate, senior vice provost, and interim provost at UNM—all drawing on skills learned from professional community organizers as well as scholars. 

Wood worships in Spanish at his local Catholic parish; collaborates in a variety of interfaith and anti-racist initiatives; has done civil disobedience for immigrant rights with the Faith in Action affiliate in Las Cruces; NM; and serves on the Social Concerns Commission for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling

Secretary

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Rabbi Mordechai Liebling is the Senior Advisor at POWER Interfaith, the largest faith-based community organizing group in Pennsylvania and an affiliate of the Faith in Action. He came to POWER from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he founded and directed the Social Justice Organizing Program for 10 years for the purpose of training the next generation of social justice rabbis.

Prior to that he was the Executive Vice-President of Jewish Funds for Justice (now Bend the Arc) he oversaw the program for Jewish seminaries to teach organizing and the very successful drive to get synagogues involved in faith-based community organizing. His earlier position was the Torah of Money Director at The Shefa Fund where he created the first socially responsible shareholder voting initiative in the Jewish community.

Earlier he was the Executive Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, under his leadership it experienced its greatest growth spurt, launched new programs and policies.  Before attending rabbinical school, he was a community organizer in Boston.

He is a co-founder of T’ruah: A Rabbinic Call for Human Rights He was the founding Board chair of Shomrei Adamah the first U.S. Jewish environmental organization. He, also, serves on the boards of the Faith and Politics Institute and The Shalom Center.  He has served on the boards of numerous national and international NGO’s. He helped create and was part of the leadership team of Green Justice Philadelphia that successfully stopped the development of a new Southport Oil Terminal in 2016. 

Rabbi Liebling co-leads workshops on Racism, Antisemitism and Christian Hegemony all around the country.  He and Lynne Iser, his wife, lead workshops and retreats on The Work That Reconnects developed by Buddhist scholar, deep ecologist and activist Joanna Macy.

He has published chapters in several books and written articles for many publications.

He received a B.A. in Political Science from Cornell University, an M.A. from Brandeis University in History of American Civilization, and an M.H.L from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College from which he was ordained.  He has an Honorary Doctorate from RRC. He is certified as a Jewish Mindfulness Meditation teacher.

He is married to Lynne Iser, they have five children; their family was the subject of the international award-winning documentary Praying with Lior.

Chuck Mingo

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Chuck is the founder of Courageous Love, an organization built to unite and ignite people for racial justice through programming that takes participants through life-changing moments of racial healing. Through his passion for justice and racial reconciliation, Chuck has transformed a congregational training into a national movement with hub cities emerging throughout the country. Chuck’s leadership through Courageous Love has inspired and mobilized thousands from diverse backgrounds around the nation and even the world. In addition to leading Courageous Love, Chuck teaches and consults for churches and organizations around the country on a variety of topics related to race relations and racial justice. For 13 years, Chuck has served as a teaching pastor at one of the largest churches in America, Crossroads Church. Prior to being a pastor, Chuck spent nine years in the corporate world at Procter & Gamble. He earned his Bachelors in Business Administration at Duquesne University. Chuck is married with three children and calls Cincinnati, Ohio home.

John Rutsindintwarane

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Starting as a Lutheran pastor in Tanzania, my own experience as a refugee and   as a witness to the aftermath of Rwanda’s genocide of 1994 led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Peace Studies at Eastern Mennonite University and then a second Master’s at Wartburg Seminary in Theology, Development and Evangelism. For the past 17 years, I’ve been leading and developing community organizing in both rural and urban Rwanda with PICO / Faith in Action. In the past three years, we’ve started to share our model and training with other communities in several nations in Eastern, Western and Southern Africa. I currently serve on the FIA BOARD. 

Jennifer Jones

Board Chair

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Rev. Jennifer Jones is an ordained Baptist Minister. She currently serves as Executive Director of Shiloh’s Charitable Foundation and Social Justice Minister at the Shiloh Baptist Church under the leadership of Rev. Fred Jeff Smith, Pastor. She is a graduate of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. For more than 30 years she has served as, preacher, teacher, faith-based community organizer, trainer, executive, mentor and consultant.

Rev. Jones is Vice-Chair of the Board at Faith in Action the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States. She believes organizing is the best way to address the spiritual and material crises facing our society. She is a visionary for justice and equality for all people. She is a strong prophetic voice and presence who inspires others and engenders confidence. She Believes that our love for Jesus should never be separated from our passion for justice.

Through her work, she empowers others to build movements, create partnerships and collaborative efforts for the work of justice. Building bridges between churches and communities, connecting the disconnected, and assuring that the voices of the disenfranchised are heard, is a challenge that Rev. Jones accepts graciously.

Her favorite Text: Micah 6:8 He has shown thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

Rev. Jane Soyster Gould

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The Rev. Jane Soyster Gould has been Rector of St. Luke’s/ San Lucas Episcopal Church since 2017. As the congregation seeks to build beloved community, she has opportunities to use the skills she has developed in 36 years of church and community leadership. In January 2023, she was named to Mayor Rex Richardson’s Citywide Inauguration Honorary Host Committee. And she serves on the Board of the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, Co-Chairs the Compensation Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, and is a clergy leader with LA Voice and PICO California. Prior to coming to St. Luke’s/ San Lucas, Rev. Gould led two Massachusetts Mill City parishes and coordinated the Technology & Culture Forum at MIT as well as serving MIT as Episcopal Chaplain. She represented the Diocese of Massachusetts six times as a Deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Community engagement is central to Rev. Gould’s ministry with more than 30 years involvement in faith-based organizing including serving on local, state, and national boards in the Faith in Action Network. She has also been Board President for a 128-unit elder housing building and an $80,000,000 community health center. Rev. Gould is a graduate of Stanford University, and a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellow. She and her husband John are parents of Gardner and Sam, and grandparents of 18 month old Wilder.

Frank Lopez

Treasurer

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FRANK RENÉ LÓPEZ is an experienced facilitator, coach and consultant and owner of Lopez Reflective Leadership & Consulting. He has over 25 years working with nonprofit and community organizations. He developed an extensive capacity building practice working with hundreds of executive directors and community leaders, primarily in California, Texas and New Mexico. The current focus of his work is centered on reflective leadership. His expertise includes collective impact, social enterprise, strategic planning, nonprofit governance and taxation, leadership, board development, racial equity and fund development. Prior to launching his solo practice, he worked at the WK Kellogg Foundation, where he served as the Director of New Mexico Programs and coach for the foundation’s fellowship program. Prior to that he served as the Executive Director of Ngage New Mexico with a focus on collective impact in education in Doña Ana County. He is a teacher at heart and has taught at several universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico State University and Texas Tech University School of Law.  He has delivered presentations all over the country. His experience in business, philanthropy and nonprofit organizations provides him with a unique understanding of leadership success and impact. Lopez has published articles in the areas of Corporate Social Responsibility and Teaching Race and Law. He is currently working on a book titled: Reflections for Soul Workers & Community Leaders. He has a BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and a JD from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in Texas and California. He loves music, art, and hiking.

Father Bob Fambrini

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Bob is a native San Franciscan who entered the Society of Jesus in 1967 and was ordained a priest in 1979.  In the summer of 1976 just as he was beginning his final phase of formation, he participated in a community organizing internship offered by Jerry Helfrich, SJ, and John Bauman, SJ.  During several weeks Bob took on his first “parish” assignment, knocking on doors of a four-square block area in the Fruitvale area of the Oakland Hills, asking residents of their cares and concerns for the neighborhood.  During the next three years, as a theology student, he remained organizing in that area around the issues of stop signs, abandoned houses and absentee landlords.  He was present at the founding convention of OCO and remembers well the rousing keynote from Rep. Ron Dellums. Bob has spent the majority of his time as a priest in parish work and in each of his five pastorates (Hollywood, San Jose, Phoenix and San Diego twice) organizing has been a staple of his parish’s outreach ministry.  Sandwiched in the middle was a ten-year stint as Novice Director (seminary) in Culver City, CA. Currently he is in his fourth year as pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church in Phoenix working with the nascent FIA affiliate Corazon. 

Father John Baumann

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In 1972 Fr. John Baumann, S.J. co-founded Faith in Action, formerly known as PICO National Network, and led the organization as the Executive Director for 36 years until his transition in 2009 to the position of Director of Special Projects. Faith in Action is an international community organizing network that gives people the tools they need to fight for justice and work towards a more equitable society.  It has steadily grown to become the largest grassroots, faith-based organizing network in the United States.  The nonpartisan organization works with 1,000 religious congregations in more than 200 cities and towns through its 46 local and state federations. Fr. John has been instrumental in expanding Faith in Action organizing into international locations in Central America, Africa, and Haiti and provides ongoing support and consultation to insure their success.  

Prior to the creation of Faith in Action, Fr. John was co-founder of a multi-ethnic and multi-racial community organization which successfully addressed a wide variety of issues on Chicago’s Near West Side.  He received his professional training as a community organizer at Chicago’s Urban Training Center for Christian Mission and the Organization for a Better Austin (OBA). 

Fr. John was born in San Jose, California to a family of eight children.  After high school he joined the religious order, the Society of Jesus known as the Jesuits.  During his Jesuit formation years he was a high school teacher in Sociology and Latin and a football & swimming coach at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose.  He was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1969.  

Edwin Fuller

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Edwin Fuller is a Community Organizer with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and Building
Freedom Ohio. Raised in San Diego, Dayton has been his home since 1998. His professional
background originated in the information technology industry, and expanded to include
grassroots entrepreneurship, support engineering, real estate management, and charity
fundraising.

Edwin started organizing in 2015, working with faith communities. That work was reflected in the
growth, training, and development of local justice ministries. Those ministries focus on outreach
and service to traditionally marginalized members of our communities. Fruit borne of that work
includes the Miami Valley Immigration Coalition, dedicated to work with undocumented
immigrants and their needs.

As that work has taken root, Edwin’s span of leadership has reached into engagement with
criminal justice interests. Most notably, the growth of Building Freedom Ohio, both locally and
statewide as a vehicle for the justice impacted – formerly incarcerated, families, and others – to
regain and actualize their dignity and self-agency. He continues to support and advocate for
many social justice issues, especially those concerning criminal justice reform and mass
incarceration.

Edwin is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History
from San Diego State University. He currently serves on the boards of: Faith in Action, Unitarian
Universalist Justice Ohio, and Leaders for Equality & Action in Dayton
Residing in Dayton, he runs marathons, and lives in a home filled with the mischievous
pitter-patter of two dogs – Jasper and Max.

Ana Garcia

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Ana Garcia is a member of the board of directors for Faith In Action. She brings her experiences as an immigrant, woman, DACA recipient, and mother. Ana lives to empower those in vulnerable situations by advocating for immigration justice and language access.

Ana is a leader with Missouri Faith Voices where she is directly involved with the Immigration Justice and Sanctuary. She advocates for in-state tuition in Missouri and helps first-generation college students navigate the complex route to higher education. She has been involved with sheriff accountability work, most recently in the summer of 2022, when faith leaders took action to hold the National Sheriff Association accountable for oppressive practices against immigrant communities. Through the years, she has worked with other state organizations to empower immigrants through Know Your Rights workshops and coordinated the aid for those in deportation proceedings. More recently she started a women’s Spanish support group at her local health department, focused to help the growth of immigrant women through open dialogue, community, and resource information.

She is the owner of an interpreting/translation services company where she works with schools, hospitals, and other public and private sectors. Her company pushes to educate individuals and organizations of the Civil Right to language access.

She is the blessed mother of two boys.