Board of Directors
David Bassett, M.D., Honorary Chair
As one of the originators of the U.S. Peace Tax Fund Bill and a founding member of the Campaign, David is our Honorary
Chair. He is an active Quaker, war tax resister, and physician (now retired). David has spent his professional career
in cardiology, working toward the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Statement
of conscience.
Robert Macfarlane
Robert is the Board representative from Episcopal Peace Fellowship. A transplant from Iowa, he and Maria reside
in Fairfax, Virginia. As a pastor who studied and prepared teachings on the biblical text, he early realized the
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus reveals a God who does not give us permission to do violence to each other.
Frank Massey
Frank Massey was born into, and raised in, a Quaker family in North Carolina. After several years of education and
work among Friends in Indiana and Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends, Frank and his wife returned to North Carolina
to be nearer to family. Frank serves as pastoral minister of Jamestown Friends Meeting (NCYM-FUM) and in campus ministry
(Gifts Discernment Coordinator) at Guilford College.
Kimberly McDowell, Secretary
Kim is the pastor of the University Park Church of the Brethren. She and her husband Hooker (a health sciences librarian
at Howard University) are the parents of two daughters. They live in Hyattsville, MD.
Harold A. Penner, Treasurer
Harold A. ("H.A.") Penner, the Mennonite Church USA representative, grew up on a dairy farm in Nebraska. He combined a Bachelor's Degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska with a Master of Divinity Degree from the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary that resulted in a career as a church administrator. Professional activities have included serving two and a half years in Guatemala as the Central America Regional Representative for Church World Service, being the U.S. Program Director for Mennonite Central Committee, serving as the Business Manager/Treasurer of the Lancaster (Penn.) Theological Seminary, and being the first Chief Executive Officer of the Nazareth Project, Inc., an interdenominational organization doing medical mission work in the Middle East.
H.A. is married, the father of two grown children, and a grandfather of a five-year-old granddaughter. His interests
and hobbies include traveling, reading, current events, photography, film production, tennis, bicycling and spectator
sports.Statement of conscience.
Maria Santelli
Maria relocated to Washington, D.C., from the high desert of north-central New Mexico in the summer of 2011 to become Director of the Center on Conscience and War (new window). In recent years, Maria has been called to work in support of our service members—particularly those who have chosen to follow their conscience and leave the military—as part of her contribution toward building a more peaceful and just world.
In 2008, Maria founded the New Mexico node of the GI Rights
Hotline (new window) to provide direct services and resources to callers and to be a leading voice statewide
on issues affecting service members and veterans, including conscientious objection, military sexual violence,
post-traumatic stress disorder, and truth in recruitment. Maria has developed local and statewide policy on military
recruiting in schools and jail diversion programs for veterans, favoring treatment as an alternative to incarceration.
Andrew Stevenson, Vice Chair
Richard N. Woodard, Chair
Back in 1968, I began to have doubts about the Vietnam War and actively protested the United States involvement
in that war. I also began to realize that I wanted God to be the center of my life, and I accepted God into it. I
decided that even if I was drafted, I would rather go to jail than participate in that war. Fortunately, my draft
number was high, and I was spared a life in prison. As my faith grew, my opposition to all war also grew. I became
a conscientious objector. Also, as my faith grew, I realized that opposition to war was biblical, and not paying
for war was also biblical. I began donating and campaigning for the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund. After
fifteen years, I was asked to be a Board member, and, beginning in January 2009, I was asked to chair the board.
We are now recruiting people in congressional districts across the United States who would be willing to encourage
their congressperson to support our efforts. If you would like to be one of these volunteers, please contact me at Richard.N.Woodard@gmail.com. Statement
of conscience.