Staff

August E. Brunsman IV, Executive Director
[august AT secularstudents DOT org]

August Brunsman is the executive director of the Secular Student Alliance.  He has served in that position since 2001, and started getting paid for it in 2004. He also worked as a programmer for the Institute for Humanist Studies from 2001 to 2004. In 1997 he co-founded Students for Freethought at the Ohio State University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2001 majoring in psychology and minoring in mathematics and cognitive science.

He is the Secretary of the Board of the Humanist Community of Central Ohio. He has volunteered in a number of roles for Camp Quest since 1999.  August served as the Secretary of the Board of the Secular Coalition for America from 2006 through 2012.   He is a member of the Humanist Society and performs nontheistic weddings, naming ceremonies, and memorial services as a humanist celebrant.  His hobbies include cycling, painting, drawing, gardening, cooking, and programming.

Jesse Galef, Communications Director
[jesse AT secularstudents DOT org]

Jesse Galef is the Communications Director for the Secular Student Alliance.  Before being hired in 2010, he worked for the Secular Coalition for America and the American Humanist Association. 

Jesse graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Political Science.  He was president of the nonreligious student group on campus as well as an active member of various religious organizations, including the Orthodox Christian Fellowship and Christian Apologetics of Carolina. In his spare time, he likes to read, breakdance, and play board games.

Neil Wehneman, Development Director
[neil AT secularstudents DOT org]

Neil Wehneman has served as the Development Director of the Secular Student Alliance since early 2013.

Prior to joining the Secular Student Alliance, Neil litigated commercial disputes, conducted intellectual property transactions, and drafted scientific expert witness testimony.  A member of the Indiana Bar and the United States Patent Bar, Neil holds degrees in Information Systems (cum laude from Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business) and law (summa cum laude from Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law).

Raised fundamentalist Christian, Neil was active in Campus Crusade for Christ at Ohio State.  Following law school, Neil solicited book recommendations from his atheist and fundamentalist friends so he could critically re-examine the faith of his childhood.  After considering the best arguments the leading sides had to offer, he abandoned Christianity as not only unproven but affirmatively contrary to the evidence.

An avid board gamer, Neil previously served as the Assistant Director of the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund, a leading gaming charity.

Jessica Kirsner, Development Associate
[jessica DOT kirsner AT secularstudents DOT org]

Jessica grew up in a religious suburb of Houston, Texas, one of a handfull of students that was not of the Christian faith. She was raised in a reform Jewish household in which questioning and reason were valued, and her interest in science blossomed. While making the transition from high school to college, she began to avidly read books on secularism and atheism, and embraced a Secular Humanist world view.

Jessica graduated from the University of Miami in 2012 with a BA in biology and a minor in political science. This is her first job in the secular movement, but was active with UM’s SSA affiliate, SHAARKS.

Simon Keegans, Administrative Assistant
[simon AT secularstudents DOT org]

Simon Keegans was raised with the values of compassion, curiosity, and rational inquiry, and is grateful to be part of a family of proud non-believers. She has enjoyed a lifelong interest in human and animal rights activism, and is honored to be able to help keep the movement tidy and organized behind the scenes. Simon spends her free time cooking vegan food and snuggling with her two bunnies, Albert and Lucy, and three cats, Julius, Ethel, and Eugene.

Campus Organizing Team

Lyz Liddell, Director of Campus Organizing
[lyz AT secularstudents DOT org]

Lyz Liddell is the Director of Campus Organizing for the Secular Student Alliance, coordinating the campus organizing team to deliver the SSA's services and resources to affiliate groups and individual students. She leads development of new resources and helps build relationships with other organizations to promote acceptance of secular students.

Lyz was the volunteer editor-in-chief of the SSA's eMpirical from 2006-2009, joining the SSA staff full-time in 2008. She volunteers with her local off-campus organization, the Humanist Community of Central Ohio, and is a member of the Challenge the Gap advisory board for Foundation Beyond Belief.

Lyz holds a BA in music and English summa cum laude from Bradley University, and a Master of Music from the Ohio State University: she performs in local ensembles specializing in classical bassoon and medieval/renaissance woodwinds.

Sarah Moglia, Campus Organizing Communication Specialist
Sarah AT secularstudents DOT org

Sarah Moglia is the Campus Organizing Communication Specialist at the Secular Student Alliance. Originally raised as a Catholic in Milwaukee, WI, Sarah began questioning religion in high school, and eventually became an atheist in college. Living in a small religious community, Sarah wanted to reach out to other atheists. She founded the SSA at Central College in Pella, Iowa in 2010 after returning from a semester abroad in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

She has volunteered with many organizations before, including the Timber Wolf Preservation Society, the American Cancer Society, and the Boys and Girls Club. Sarah spends her free time eating lots of vegan food, playing video games, reading, and cuddling her "babies" (two cats, Penelope and Gandalf, and a dog, Katniss).

Sarah graduated from Central College with a degree in Psychology and Communication Studies in 2011.

Nick Stancato, Affiliate Specialist
[nick AT secularstudents DOT org]

Nick Stancato is Coordinator of Resources and Services at the Secular Student Alliance. He was raised Catholic and went through 12 years of Catholic schooling which in part helped set him onto the path to atheism in high school. Nick ran the SSA at Ohio State for 2 years before stepping down. He recently graduated from The Ohio State University with a major in History as well as minors in Classics and Religious Studies.

Andy Cheadle-Ford is a campus organizer and the high school specialist for the Secular Student Alliance. Although he dabbled in religion throughout his youth, he always felt there was something wrong with faith. He has finished coursework in psychology at Wright State University, where he lead Freethought WSU for two years, and plans to work for the secular student movement before eventually moving on to graduate school. He enjoys the works of H.P. Lovecraft, reading about the theory of mind and philosophy, is an avid video and board gamer, and even has a couple atheist-inspired tattoos.

Sam Jackson, Group Starting Specialist
[Sam AT secularstudents DOT org]

Samuel Jackson is an Assistant Campus Organizer at the SSA. He is also a gratuate of the Ohio State University with a BA in Philosophy. Samuel was raised in a fairly religious Christian household before deciding to pursue a more secular spirituality. Ironically, in an effort to know god, he ultimately discovered the word is essentially nonsensical. He plans to someday go to graduate school while keeping close ties with the flourishing secular movement.

Kevin Butler, Regional Campus Organizer
[kevin DOT butler AT secularstudents DOT org]

Kevin is the Regional Campus Organizer overseeing Texas.  A native Texan, he has been in the Dallas area his whole life (save for a few semesters at Texas Tech).  He founded Secular Students at Collin College in 2010, was elected an officer of Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2011, and was the Lead Organizer of the North Texas Secular Convention in 2012 and 2013. 

Kevin is currently studying Management Information Systems at the University of Texas at Dallas and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma.

Gordon Maples, Regional Campus Organizer
[Gordon DOT Maples AT secularstudents DOT org]

Gordon Maples is the SSA’s Regional Campus Organizer for the Southeastern United States. He is a former President of the University of Alabama student group Alabama Atheists and Agnostics and is the founder/director of the Southeastern Collegiate Atheist Alliance. Gordon previoiusly volunteered as a Regional Network Coordinator for the SSA.

Gordon is passionately dedicated to improving the situation and standing for atheists and nontheists in the American South. Additionally, he is known for his somewhat bizarre fondness for hats.