Secular Student Alliance Virtual Conference

Everyone is invited to participate in our virtual conference on May 15-16, 2021, featuring excellent speakers, grassroots organizing workshops, and leadership training. Please register for free today and please invite a friend to join you.

Schedule of Speakers

The annual SSA conference has traditionally been the largest gathering of secular students in the country. While we are disappointed we will not be able to host an in-person conference this year, we are excited to host a multi-day virtual conference with live-streaming and on-demand video for our students and the larger secular community.

Become a Student Member

Student membership is always free. Become a member of the largest and fastest-growing secular student organization in the country.

Become an SSA Alumni Member

As an SSA alumnus, you are always part of the SSA family. Your alumni membership helps provide free student memberships to continue to grow the SSA family.

Become a Non-Student Member

Through your membership, you are making an investment in thousands of secular students across the country. Membership support is critically important to fulfilling our mission.

Speakers and Presenters

Sasha Sagan

Biography

Sasha Sagan is a writer and speaker. Her essays and interviews on death, history, and nature, from a secular viewpoint have appeared in The Cut, O, the Oprah Magazine, Lit Hub, Atmos, 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”.

Jeff Hawkins

Biography

Jeff Hawkins is a scientist and co-founder at Numenta, a research company focused on neocortical theory. His research focuses on how the cortex learns a predictive model of the world through sensation and movement. In 2002, he founded the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, where he served as Director for three years. The institute is currently located at U.C. Berkeley. Previously, he co-founded two companies, Palm and Handspring, where he designed products such as the PalmPilot and Treo smartphone. In 2004, he wrote “On Intelligence”, a book about cortical theory.

Rep. Hank Johnson

Biography

Rep. Mark Pocan

Biography

Clara Fang

Biography

Clara Fang is the Student Engagement Director for Citizens' Climate Lobby. In her role, she works with students on climate action, oversees CCL campus chapters, and helps members conduct outreach to higher education. Clara has over 15 years of experience in sustainability in higher education. She holds a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University and is a PhD Candidate at Antioch University New England. To learn more about Citizens' Climate Higher Education, visit www.citizensclimatehighered.org.

Rep. Donald Beyer

Biography

Rebecca Markert

Biography

Rebecca S. Markert is the Legal Director for FFRF. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison and received her B.A. in political science, international relations, and German in 1998. Rebecca attended Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island, and received her Juris Doctor in 2008. She joined the Foundation staff in October 2008 as the first in-house staff attorney. Prior to joining FFRF, she worked for former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold both in his legislative office in Washington, D.C., and in his 2004 campaign office.

She handles a First Amendment caseload that includes matters involving religion in the public schools, religious symbols on public property, and electioneering by churches. She has served as co-counsel in federal lawsuits across the country and routinely assists FFRF’s cooperating attorneys in litigation. She’s drafted amicus briefs filed in many federal appellate courts including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rebecca is admitted to practice in Wisconsin, and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Wisconsin, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Rebecca is also a member of the Western District of Wisconsin Bar Association, Dane County Bar Association and the James E. Doyle American Inn of Court. She also serves as the President of the Legal Association for Women in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jocelyn Williamson

Biography

Jocelyn Williamson, a 3rd generation atheist and Humanist, is the President of the Florida Humanist Association and co-founder of the Central Florida Freethought Community (CFFC). The CFFC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of freethinkers, Humanists, atheists, and secularists working and playing together with reason and compassion as guiding principles. She is an ordained Humanist Celebrant through the Humanist Society. Jocelyn serves as a Florida Representative for the Freedom From Religion Foundation and as a representative of Humanism on the Interfaith Council of Central Florida. She is the State Director in Florida for American Atheists and serves on the Board of Directors for the Humanist Society.

She founded the Science League for Kids, a local scouting group for boys and girls age 6 to 12. Jocelyn, along with other members of the organization’s board discuss atheism, Humanism, and the value of secular government in events hosted by the Interfaith Council of Central Florida, Valencia College’s Peace and Justice Institute, the University of Central Florida’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and the Rollins College Office of Religious Life

Jon Steingard

Biography

Greg Epstein

Biography

Greg Epstein is a prominent leader in the national movement to build positive, inclusive and inspiring humanist communities Described as a “godfather to the [humanist] movement” by The New York Times Magazine in recognition of his efforts, Epstein was also named “one of the top faith and moral leaders in the United States” by Faithful Internet, a project coordinated by the United Church of Christ with assistance from the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.

Since 2005, Greg has served as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University. He has also served, since 2018, as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Office of Religious Life as Humanist Chaplain at MIT and Convener for Ethical Life.

Anjan Chakravartty

Biography

Anjan Chakravartty became the Appignani Foundation Chair and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami in 2018.

After an MA in Philosophy in Toronto and a subsequent year working (mostly in the Physics Department) in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia, I did an MPhil and a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. During my PhD I took up a one-year Teaching Fellowship at the University of Leeds, and returned to Cambridge to take up a Junior Research Fellowship at King’s College, completing the doctorate in 2001. I cut the Fellowship short, however, to join the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto the following year, joining the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology a year later, where I received tenure in 2007 and soon became Director. In 2011, I took up a new position as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, with a special interest in the History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Program, and became Director of the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values in 2014.

Debbie Goddard

Biography

Debbie Goddard has over two decades of experience as an organizer and activist. She became involved with the secular movement as a college student in 2000 and attended atheist, freethinker, humanist, and skeptic group meetings in Philadelphia, New York City, New Jersey, and central Pennsylvania. Her involvement increased over time: she served on local advisory boards, started a student group, edited a monthly campus freethought email newsletter, and held a work-study position at the Center for Inquiry’s office in Rockefeller Center. In 2002, she was recognized in a Beliefnet “Godless Who’s Who” list as “The Student Activist” and in the Washington Blade as an “out” nonbeliever.

Since 2006, she has worked in the Department of Campus & Community Programs at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, NY. After serving as a field organizer and as campus outreach coordinator, she became Outreach Director in 2012 and managed CFI’s U.S. branches and the international student outreach program. She also directed African Americans for Humanism. In 2012, she led a notable billboard and ad campaign featuring black atheists, and in 2009, she coordinated an international campaign highlighting blasphemy laws and free expression. Additionally, she was also the lead organizer for the Women in Secularism 4 conference and the annual CFI Leadership Conference.

Debbie is also engaged in LGBTQ activism, civil rights work, and training new organizers in her community. She facilitates workshops and gives presentations on campaign-building, evidence-based activism, diversity and outreach, group organizing, humanism and politics, and other topics for community groups, campus groups, and national conferences across North America.

Alison Gill

Biography

Alison Gill manages American Atheists’ federal and state advocacy for religious equality and litigation activities to protect the separation of religion and government. Alison is a nationally recognized expert on civil rights law and state advocacy.

Prior to her work with American Atheists, Alison worked as a consultant to nonprofits focusing on advocacy strategy and systemic change and as Senior Legislative Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, where she managed state-level advocacy on issues such as conversion therapy, bullying prevention, education discrimination, health and wellness, youth homelessness, and data collection.

Andy Norman

Biography

Andy Norman is a public philosopher and award-winning author. He’s currently developing the conceptual foundations of cognitive immunology—the emerging science of mental immune health. He thinks this fledgling science explains how ideologies short-circuit minds and corrupt moral understanding. He also thinks its applications can inoculate us against infectious forms of irrationality. His book Mental Immunity is available now for pre-order.

Elizabeth Cavell

Biography

Elizabeth Cavell, Associate Counsel for FFRF, received her B.A. in English from the University of Florida in 2005. After college, Elizabeth spent a year as a full-time volunteer in AmeriCorps*NCCC. She attended Tulane University Law School and received her Juris Doctor in 2009. After law school, she worked as a deputy public defender in southern Colorado. She joined the Foundation as a staff attorney in January 2013, after working for the Foundation part-time since September 2012.

Phil Zuckerman

Biography

Phil Zuckerman is the author of several books, including What It Means to be Moral (Counterpoint, 2019) The Nonreligious (Oxford, 2016), Living the Secular Life (Penguin, 2014), Faith No More (Oxford, 2012), and Society Without God (NYU, 2008), and the editor of several volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Secularism (2016) and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois (2004). He is Associate Dean as well as Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, and the founding chair of the nation’s first Secular Studies Program. He blogs for Psychology Today. He lives in Claremont, California, with his wife and three children.

Michelle Ciurria

Biography

Casey Brinck

Biography

Casey Brinck serves as the Director of Policy & Government Affairs for the Secular Coalition for America in Washington, D.C. where he leads efforts to ensure the separation of church and state, and other First Amendment issues.

In 2003 Casey enrolled at Towson University where he would graduate with a BS in Communications. As a lover of music, following graduation he spent his evenings working as a Deejay for 103.1 WRNR FM radio out of Annapolis, MD.

In 2006, Casey started his work on Capitol Hill, and over the next ten plus years would serve three different Members of Congress, including two full committee Chairs (Transportation & Veterans Affairs), and as the Legislative & Communications Director for a Delegate from a U.S. territory, where he was responsible for a record increase in received votes for any territory wide election in the history of the territory.

In 2017 Casey was recruited to serve as the Press Secretary for the United States Small Business Administration (SBA), where he would serve under Cabinet Member Linda McMahon, and was part of the hurricane recovery efforts in both Florida and Texas.

Following his service as Press Secretary, Casey went to work as a Senior Associate for his longtime mentor and friend John Dudinsky at his firm on Capitol Hill, Dudinsky & Associates. There, Casey led federal efforts for clients that included foreign dignitaries, local municipalities, and nationally recognized companies and organizations such as the NFL.

Mark Dann

Biography

Mark Dann joined Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) in May 2020, as their first full-time director of governmental affairs. Dann previously worked as the director of governmental affairs for the Secular Coalition for America (SCA). He has also served as the federal affairs director at Compassion & Choices, an end-of-life advocacy group, and as a democracy development consultant with the National Democratic Institute in Moldova and Iraq. And he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Crimea before it was invaded by Russia.

Mark lives in Washington, DC with his husband Sultan Shakir. They have a Chihuahua/Jack Russell Terrier who as a finalist in this year’s Running of the Chihuahua's in DC.

Chrissy Stroop

Biography

An ex-evangelical writer, speaker, and advocate, Chrissy Stroop is (with Lauren O’Neal) coeditor of the essay anthology Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church and a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches. Chrissy's work has also appeared in DAME Magazine, Foreign Policy, The Boston Globe, Playboy, Political Research Associates, and other outlets, including peer-reviewed academic journals, and she is a Senior Research Associate with the University of Innsbruck's Postsecular Conflicts project. Having attended right-wing evangelical schools in Indianapolis and Colorado Springs, Chrissy went on to earn a BA in history and German from Ball State University and a PhD in modern Russian history from Stanford, and to become an atheist and vocal critic of the Christian Right. In 2019, Chrissy came out as a transgender woman and began her journey of medical transition.

Tahil Sharma

Biography

Tahil Sharma is an interfaith activist based in Los Angeles who was born to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. Following the Oak Creek, WI shooting of a Sikh temple in 2012, Tahil became involved in efforts for interfaith literacy and social justice and has been doing this work professionally for the past seven years. Tahil serves as one of three Interfaith Ministers in Residence for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and as the Los Angeles Coordinator for Sadhana: A Coalition of Progressive Hindus. Tahil also serves various organizations in different capacities to educate, engage, and serve various communities that promote interfaith cooperation and ethical pluralism and social and productive norms in society including the Interfaith Youth Core, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, The Guibord Center, and The Interreligious Council of Southern California. Tahil previously worked as the Faith Outreach Manager for Brave New Films, a social justice documentary organization based in Los Angeles that empowers communities and teaches civic participation through new media, facilitation, and strategies for action. He is also a contributing author to books including Co-Human Harmony: Using Our Shared Humanity To Bridge Divides, Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care: Chaplaincy in Theory and Practice, and Acting on Faith: Stories of Courage, Activism, and Hope Across Religions.

Margie Delao

Biography

Margie Delao is the Social Justice and Policy Assistant at the American Humanist Association. Her advocacy areas primarily are on the separation of church and state, immigrant rights, and healthcare access. Prior to working at AHA, she worked in the translation industry. During her time in the translation industry, she leveraged her love of languages, passion for community development, and Spanish proficiency to coordinate translation resources for nonprofits, schools, government departments, and organizations across the country.

She attended Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland where pursued a degree in Political Science and Hispanic Studies with a focus on transitional democracies and human rights. She is passionate about social justice and civil rights advocacy for marginalized communities.

Christian Hayden

Biography

Isabelle Oldfield

Biography

Highlighting Students and SSA Alumni

Helena "Lena" Robertson

Biography

Lena (they/them/theirs) is a graduating senior Psychology and Philosophy double major at Vanderbilt University. They are finishing up their third year as president of the Vanderbilt chapter of Secular Student Alliance, their second year on the executive board for Vanderbilt Interfaith Council, and their their second year as Vice President and Activism Committee Co-Chair of the Vanderbilt Lambda Association, the undergraduate gender and sexuality alliance. Lena has been accepted into the PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Florida State University and will matriculate there in the fall. Lena's personal and political interests involve LGBTQ+ liberation, women's liberation, racial justice and black liberation (including police and prison abolition), and leftism. Lena's primary research interests include minority stress, intersectionality, transgender and non-binary mental health, systemic racism in healthcare, and care for justice-involved populations.

Michael Surgeon

Biography

Michael is a student at Southern Oregon University and is also the Vice President of SOU’s Student Government. Michael is an English major hoping to teach and inspire future high school students to build community and embrace social justice. Michael was a secular humanist but has recently discovered and identifies with sentientism which better fits with his own ethics and values. He volunteers for American Atheists as an assistant state director for Oregon. He has also served on the Board of Directors and National Leadership Council for the Secular Student Alliance. Michael believes that empathy, commitment, and equity are what make secular leaders like himself stand out and accomplish more for their communities.

Sean Omar Rivera

Biography

Sean is a ten-year secular activist and organizer. Introduced to a high school SSA leadership role at 14 years old, Sean went on to become the President of the SSA at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a multi-time speaker at secular conferences around the nation (and one conference at-sea), and a founding member of the SSA National Leadership Council. His work with the SSA branched into intersectional activism, campaign organizing, and eventually a role as the Field Director of a progressive youth voter registration non-profit, where he supervised the registration of almost 60,000 young voters across seven major cities during his tenure. He now works as a City Council Aide and spends his free time in San Antonio with his partner, his two-year-old, Calina Sagan Rivera, and a mound of Star Trek memorabilia.

Ryan Mealiffe

Biography

Ryan Mealiffe (he/him/his) is a junior majoring in history and anthropology at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he founded the Secular Student Alliance, UW Chapter in 2019.

As an atheist and a historian, Ryan puts his effort toward destigmatizing the history of demonized and misrepresented groups. His current research details the ecological ramifications of early modern English witch trials, a project that combines his interdisciplinary education in history, anthropology, philosophy, Latin, and ecology.

As the president of SSA UW, Ryan works to foster the only community for non-religious and questioning students at the UW. Ryan teaches martial arts and develops his graphic design skills in his free time, two activities that have helped him in his role and president and in building SSA UW’s social media presence.

Ranen Miao

Biography

Ranen Miao (he/him) is a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis studying political science and sociology. He is passionate about promoting social and economic equity, extending equal protections for all people. Currently, he is an organizing fellow with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, where he is working to pass the Do No Harm Act. Last year, he was also the national winner of AU's High School Essay Contest, writing about the importance of separation of church and state. On campus, Ranen also serves as his university's student body president and the Missouri statewide LGBTQ+ Caucus Chairperson for the College Democrats.

Mary Zhang

Biography

Mary Zhang is a rising senior at McGill University in Canada, pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Strategic Management, concentration in International Business, and minor in Sociology. Growing up as an atheist woman of color in the American Deep South, secular identity and activism are deeply personal and important to her.

Mary has been involved with the SSA since 2016, when she first attempted to start an SSA chapter at her high school in Florida. Throughout the years since, Mary has been involved with multiple SSA national efforts and local chapters alike. Currently, Mary serves on the SSA National Leadership Council and leads her own chapter as co-founder and president.

Outside of secularism, Mary is passionately involved in political activism, sustainable/social impact business, anti-racism & anti-oppression work, and LGBTQ2IA+ advocacy. Mary is also an active member of the McGill Greek community and a proud sister of Kappa Alpha Theta. Upon graduation, Mary is excited to enter the field of consulting, where she will continue to challenge the preconceptions of how business professionals are expected to contribute to the world.

Kevin Chisolm

Biography

Kevin Chisolm is an alum of Howard University who is currently a Youth Organizing Fellow with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. As a fellow, Kevin has been learning about the history of church-state separation and skills that can help organize around this issue. Outside of the fellowship, Kevin is an organizer with the nonprofit organization Civic Nation, which builds movements around multiple social justice initiatives and works to change the culture around voting and civic engagement.

Sohan Dsouza

Biography

Sohan Dsouza is a recent Masters graduate of the Media Arts and Sciences program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, doing research in computational social science and artificial intelligence ethics. He has long led the Secular Society of MIT, has been active in Boston-area atheist/secular organization, and takes particular interest in counterapologetics. A citizen of India, and a former Catholic, he experienced his childhood and much of his adult life in the United Arab Emirates, where he was active in theatre and comedy. He is looking to apply his research skills and experience towards better understanding human behavior online, especially with regard to disinformation and political polarization, as well as continuing his work in developing atheist thought and secular activism.

Jodi Ruchkall

Biography

Jodi Ruchkall attends the University of Manitoba, already completing thesis work in neurophysiology, and is due to graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology. She is proud to be a nerdy bookworm. Jodi started a new SSA chapter at the UofM called “Literate Independent Thinkers” (LIT). Jodi has been an enthusiastic Teaching Assistant for the past two years. Jodi thoroughly enjoys discussing science and philosophy and aspires to be a surgeon one day. She is hoping to start medical school in 2022.

Harley Whisenhunt

Biography

Isaac Gilles

Biography

Isaac Gilles graduated from the University of Southern California, where he co-led the Secular Student Fellowship. After graduating with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, & Law and completing an Atlantic Media Fellowship, he now works as a Partnerships Associate at Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit. He is passionate about humanist community-building and evidence-based models for promoting well-being and human flourishing. In his free time, he is an advisor to Novus Think Tank—a nonprofit student organization—and to Plot Twisters, an education technology studio.

Alexander Kaloyanides

Biography

Alexander J Kaloyanides, a freshman mechanical engineer at Loyola Marymount University, was involved in the Science and Engineering Fair all four years in high school, receiving 2nd and 3rd place finishes at the regional level, and now currently part of the Loyolian CubeSat Satellite Team. Additionally, he is a member of the political club COMN Ground and running for student government as Vice Presidential Candidate for Sustainability and Operations.

Throughout the pandemic, Alex has been writing to both state and federal representatives about the key issues regarding the pandemic, the Supreme Court, USPS, Scientific Integrity and Protection, and other key issues, in which I’ve received responses, resulting in their support for secular and scientific legislative acts. He has been an active Atheist in promoting freedom of religion and speech, pushing for the idea of teaching religion and other ideologies at the high school level for students to learn about these ideologies, alongside defend students and educating them on their first amendment rights.

Matt Enloe

Biography

Matt Enloe is a practicing commercial litigation attorney in Chicago. In his free time, he develops content for his public Minecraft server, cooks food to pair with cocktails and local craft beer, and writes a weekly newsletter. Matt earned his B.A. from Oregon State University in 2015 and his J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School in 2018. In college, he was the President of Oregon State's SSA group and also re-founded its Philosophy Club. In law school, Matt was a board member of UChicago's chapter of the American Constitution Society and founded the Law School's Native American Law Students Association. He remains involved as an alumnus by volunteering for events and advising and mentoring current students.

Christopher Hood

Biography

Martha Taylor

Biography

Emily Willis

Biography

Kyle Byrnes

Biography

Jane Casto

Biography