Advisory Board

Sasha Sagan

Member since 2022

Massachusetts

Biography

Sasha Sagan is a writer and speaker. Her essays and interviews on mortality, motherhood, and history, from a secular viewpoint have appeared in The Cut, O the Oprah Magazine, Parents, and beyond. She’s the author of the critically acclaimed book For Small Creatures Such As We, an exploration of celebrations and rituals through a scientific lens. Inverse named Sasha one of their Future 50, “a group of 50 people who will be forces of good in the 2020s”.

Rev. Barry Lynn

Member since 2022

Washington, DC

Biography

Barry W. Lynn is both an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a member of the Supreme Court bar. He worked on fighting censorship during years with the Washington Office of the ACLU and began advocacy there for a strong separation of church and state. He continued this work for 25 years as Executive Director of Americans United For Separation of Church and State, retiring in 2019. Since retirement, he has been working on a memoir called "Paid To Piss People Off" and is a regular commentator on the "David Feldman Show" on YouTube and John Fuegelsang's Sirius/XM radio broadcast "Tell Me Everything"

Lynn is the author of three previous books and has appeared on virtually every major radio and television show in the United States. He is a graduate of Dickinson College, the Boston University School of Theology and Georgetown University Law Center.

Anjan Chakravartty

Member since 2022

Florida

Biography

Anjan Chakravartty is the Appignani Foundation Chair for the Study of Atheism, Humanism, and Secular Ethics at the University of Miami. He holds a BSc in Biophysics and an MA in Philosophy, as well as an MPhil and PhD in the history and philosophy of science. Anjan is a Guggenheim Fellow, authoring books and articles in the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and epistemology. He taught previously at the Universities of Cambridge and Toronto, where he was Director of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and at Notre Dame, where he was Director of the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values. Between degrees, he worked on various projects in international development, a cause he feels strongly about to this day.

Elizabeth Reiner Platt

Member since 2022

New York

Biography

Elizabeth Platt is the Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School. Before joining Columbia, she was a Staff Attorney at MFY Legal Services Mental Health Law Project. After graduating from New York University School of Law, she was a Carr Center for Reproductive Justice Fellow at A Better Balance. During law school, Liz worked with the Urban Justice Sex Workers Project, New York Civil Liberties Union, and Brennan Center for Justice. In 2013, she published Gangsters to Greyhounds: The Past, Present and Future of Offender Registration, 37 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 727 (2013).

Andrew Seidel

Member since 2023

Wisconsin

Victoria Anderson

Member since 2025

New York

Biography

Victoria Anderson is a third-year law student with a passionate interest in human and civil rights activism. She believes that effective and sustainable change should start with building strong communities.

While pursuing an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Victoria helped start an SSA chapter at her university, in the heart of the Bible Belt. She has since started a second chapter at her law school to bring together future attorneys with a passion for church-state separation and promoting equal rights for everyone, regardless of their background.

In her free time, Victoria enjoys spending time with her family and cats, playing video games, and starting arguments with her university’s chapter of the Federalist Society.

Kristina Lee

Board Member since 2025

South Dakota

Biography

Kristina M. Lee is currently completing her Ph.D. in Communication Studies at Colorado State University and will be starting as an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota in the fall of 2022. Her research focuses on the intersections of religious and political rhetoric with a particular focus on secular rhetorical criticism, Christian nationalism, and the marginalization of atheists. Her award-winning work on “theistnormativity” focuses on and challenges how political discourses, rituals, and symbols normalize a connection between good citizenship and belief in God in the United States. She is passionate about promoting productive interfaith dialogues and civic engagement.

Stephanie Hlywak

Board Member since 2025

Chicago

Biography

Stephanie Hlywak is a communications strategist and law-abiding rule breaker for purpose-driven organizations. She tells stories that drive impact, change hearts and minds, and make bold social change. She honed her policy chops in one of the nation's top public affairs shops, led PR and public awareness functions for the most influential library association in the world, and served in leadership roles in many non-profits, associations, and agencies.

The throughline in her career has been to work on behalf of organizations and businesses that transform our world for the better. She began her career in publishing and is a voracious reader and proud library card holder.

Stephanie earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in journalism from Medill at Northwestern University. Her hobbies include swimming, traveling, going to concerts, and volunteering to support women and families navigating hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. She lives in Chicago with her family and a menagerie of pets.

Get Involved!

Interested in becoming a Board Member or part of the National Leadership Council?

Email us at ssa@secularstudents.org for information regarding upcoming board vacancies.