Speakers

Richard Berg
Richard is the current President of the Board of the Humanists of Colorado in Denver. He has spent time building a community of Humanists in Denver, and in all of Colorado. Richard's definition of Humanism is based on its name. Humanists consider the most important things in the world to be humans, not gods or spirits or nations or money or pets or whatever. And, the most important things about humans are those attributes that are distinctively human. These include reason, universal morality, culture, and social movements such as education, democracy, science, environmentalism, and, well, Humanism. When not socializing with fellow Humanists, Atheists, Skeptics, and Progressives, Richard works in software, plays in the great outdoors, reads, or travels.

Jesse Bond
Jesse is the Executive Director of Humanists Doing Good in Grand Junction, Colorado. Humanists Doing Good focuses on volunteering to do good deeds, providing a sense of fellowship and community for the nonreligious, and upon providing secular education and activism. They have been having success in their community through a nonconfrontational approach and through their efforts to work with other nonprofit organizations. Despite being a young Chapter of the American Humanist Association, they have managed to draw a good deal of media interest in their community and have also recently been featured in The Free Mind publication. Humanists Doing Good has also developed an innovative way to assist community members with needs and often works with other nonprofit organizations.
  Kelly Damerow
Kelly is the Secular Coalition for America’s Research and Advocacy Manager. Prior to joining the Secular Coalition, Kelly was a Legal Fellow in the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center. She is a fierce defender of the separation of church and state using a unique combination of legal precedents, high quality research, and common sense. She is heading up the Secular Coalition for America’s ambitious plan to form a chapter in every state to lobby state legislatures on secular issues.
Kathleen Hynes
Dr. Kathleen Hynes is a speaker with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. She will speak about the Patriot Act and its impact on our civil rights and liberties. After receiving a PhD in Sociology from the University of Denver, she held a faculty appointment at the University of Colorado School of Medicine teaching medical ethics and researching health care delivery systems. She left the University and began her own research business, which she pursued for over two decades. She works with the ACLU because there is no better way to ensure social justice than by working to protect, defend and extend the civil rights and civil liberties of all people.

Michael Werner
He has been devoted to Humanism for over thirty years while raising a family and being successful in business.  Fighting for civil rights at an early age and later working in most all the Humanist organizations, much of his life has revolved around promoting our lifestance. He has been President of the American Humanist Association, head of the Chicagoland Humanists; on the board of the Unitarian Universalist Humanist group, HUUmanists; member of the North American Committee for Humanism; President of the Unitarian Church of Charlotte, Vice president of the Humanist Endowment, an adjunct faculty member of the Humanist Institute. He has taught widely at major universities in the cause of Humanism and humanistic issues.  He was one of the founders of SMART Recovery a Self Management and Recovery Training recovery program for addictions. With graduate background in chemistry he ran a successful business while enjoying the love of his partner and three children and now lives in Wilmington, NC where he has recently helped start a new chapter.

 

 

Facilitator

Joe Alaimo
Joseph F. Alaimo DVM is a veterinarian and President of the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers. Doctor Joe graduated minimus cum laude from Cornell University and after a brief time working for the Navajo Nation, set up practice in Ridgway. However, his two current passions are his distillery, Trail Town Still, in Ridgway and Melissa Wright. Joe owns a V-strom and a cat named skip.