Candidate nominated by the Nominating Committee UUA Board of Trustees Position 5
Professional futurist, internationally experienced lay leader, and committed Unitarian Universalist for more than three decades, Terry is known for her collaborative spirit, her integrity, and her ability to bring out the best in others. She encourages people to think bigger, plan cooperatively, and move forward together with purpose and care. Her life and service reflect thoughtful leadership, steady values, and enduring devotion to meeting this moment for the future of our faith.
Vote at UUA General Assembly 2026
From the candidate
I am honored to be recommended by the Nominating Committee to serve as a Trustee on the UUA Board of Directors.
Growing up in diverse communities across multiple countries, I experienced firsthand the deep interconnectedness of life and the many ways people live and believe. Those early experiences shaped my enduring commitment to the dignity and worth of every person and led me to Unitarian Universalism, where I found a true spiritual home.
For thirty-four years as a member of Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, I have served in a wide range of leadership roles, including President, Vice President, and Treasurer of the Board, and chair of numerous committees and teams. I remain actively engaged as a Worship Associate, choir member, mentor, and participant in ministries and social justice efforts.
My professional path reflects a lifelong focus on understanding change and helping organizations navigate it. With academic grounding in computer science, future studies, and organizational psychology, I spent thirty years at IBM in strategic, management, and technical roles. I later taught Foresight at the University of Houston and founded a consulting practice serving associations and organizations. I have also served on the Board of the Association of Professional Futurists and chaired the development of its Code of Ethics.
Across all of my work, I have been committed to creating inclusive environments where diverse voices are heard and valued, because both organizations and communities are stronger when everyone can participate fully.
I believe our faith calls us to imagine the future boldly, care deeply for one another, and act courageously for justice. I am inspired by the opportunity to help the UUA meet this moment, bringing my deep love for our faith, my ability to connect across difference, and my training and experience helping people come together to envision and build a better future.
— Terry Grim
In Terry's words
My professional background in engineering, systems thinking, futures, and organizational psychology has shaped how I approach leadership and institutional change. I believe futures thinking is not about predicting what will happen, but about helping organizations ask better questions, recognize emerging challenges, and prepare thoughtfully for a changing world while staying grounded in our values.
Having lived in Texas since 1983, I understand both the opportunities and challenges of building UU community in regions where Unitarian Universalism is not culturally dominant. Congregations in the South often learn resilience, adaptability, hospitality, and relationship-building in unique ways. I believe these experiences have something important to contribute to the broader UU movement.
Over many years, I have served in a wide range of leadership and volunteer roles within my congregation and beyond. I value collaborative leadership, practical problem-solving, and the steady work of supporting healthy institutions. I believe leadership is not only about vision, but also about showing up consistently, listening carefully, and helping communities navigate complexity together.
My commitment to Unitarian Universalism is rooted not in ideology, but in lived practice: community, compassion, reflection, service, and respect for human dignity. I believe our values call us both to care for one another and to engage courageously with the challenges of our time.
Background
Click any slice to see what it holds.
A career focused on technology, strategy, leadership, and helping organizations think about the future.
Futures is fundamentally about asking better questions and expanding what we can see before we decide what to do.
There is a well-known idea often attributed to Albert Einstein: that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he would spend most of that time understanding the right question. Whether or not he said it exactly that way, the insight is powerful. Better questions lead to better understanding, and better understanding leads to better decisions.
That is the heart of futures thinking.
Futures work explores what is possible, what is probable, and what is preferable. Unitarian Universalism is especially strong in the last of these — we are grounded in values that help us imagine what we want the world to become.
But in practice, we can often move too quickly to preference without fully exploring possibility and probability. We arrive at answers before we have fully seen the landscape around them. Futures asks us to look wider, deeper, and longer.
Looking wider means stepping outside our immediate environment and paying attention to change happening in other places and systems. Those shifts will shape us whether we notice them or not.
Looking deeper means questioning assumptions. If we already believe we know the answer, we risk repeating patterns instead of learning from them. But when we allow ourselves to look at where we are surprised, we begin to see where our assumptions were incomplete or no longer valid.
Looking longer means thinking beyond immediate outcomes — not just what works today, but what builds resilience, coherence, and consequence over time. The future is never simply “more of the same.” It is shaped by how interactions and consequences unfold.
Futures thinking is not only a way of seeing. It is also a way of working.
One of the gaps in many institutions is that we often encourage people to “think outside the box,” but we do not always give them the tools to do it in a disciplined or shared way.
A futures toolkit provides those methods. It helps groups surface assumptions, notice weak signals of change, explore multiple possible futures, and test decisions against more than a single expected outcome.
At its best, it creates a shared language for uncertainty so that complexity becomes something we can work with, rather than something we rush to simplify.
In a governance setting like the UUA Board, this is especially important. Board members are constantly making decisions that sit at the intersection of values, institutions, and an evolving external world. Futures tools do not replace wisdom or experience — they strengthen them by making sure decisions are informed by a broader field of possibility and consequence.
They help ensure we are not only responding to what is already visible, but also preparing for what is emerging.
Futures is not about predicting what will happen. It is about understanding multiple possible futures and working to influence them in the direction we care about.
Good futures work is not judged by whether it is “right.” It is judged by whether it helps us make better decisions in the present. Sometimes we want a forecast to be wrong — we are trying to influence the outcome to not happen (like most of our climate forecasts).
This is why we say futures, not future. It is always plural. There is never just one path ahead, only a set of possibilities we are constantly moving through and shaping together.
Right now, that matters. Unitarian Universalism is navigating complexity, change, and uncertainty. In moments like this, it is easy to narrow our focus and move quickly to familiar answers. Futures thinking offers something different: the discipline to slow down just enough to see more clearly, and then move forward with greater intention.
It is not a replacement for our values. It is a way of engaging them more fully by making sure we are asking the right questions before we decide what comes next.
Endorsements
Community leaders and colleagues alike point to Terry’s rare ability to build trust, encourage participation, and include diverse voices…
I was amazed when the minister of our church in Sacramento asked if I knew Terry Grim. We came to Sacramento from Houston. She’s a futurist; I’m a futurist. In fact, I was lucky enough to be her teacher when she received her Master’s degree in Studies of the Future there.
He found out that she was running for the UUA Board. Know her? Only one of my longtime best friends and one of the finest people I know — a great futurist, a gifted teacher, a successful manager.
But I have one connection with Terry that few others have. She is the reason (indirectly) that my wife and I are Unitarian Universalists and delighted to be so.
We were spending a weekend in Santa Rosa, CA. We were going for a walk on Sunday morning, but it was raining. I said, “Why don’t we go to church?” Neither of us had been part of a church in 50 years. I looked up the UU church there because Terry had invited me to give a short talk on the future at her church in Houston many years ago. We found it, attended the service, and joined the church in Sacramento the next weekend.
You will be lucky and immensely grateful to have Terry contributing her skill and her spirit to this marvelous community.
I am delighted to endorse Terry Grim for the UUA Board of Trustees, and not only because I am her minister. Every group project has a person who shows up with most of the hard parts already done – that’s Terry. She then offers that work as an invitation to collaboration, prompting others to do the deep thinking needed to bring out their best ideas and contributions.
Her work as a futurist has taught her how to ask the right questions, well before trying to come up with answers. She brings flexible and adaptive thinking to all that she does. Moreover, she is funny and kind, so working with her is truly joyful. When I find myself wondering how best to approach problems in congregational life, Terry is often my first phone call. She not only brings her own expertise and perspectives to the Board of Trustees—she will empower and inspire the entire Board.
I first met Terry in 2009 when I began my ministerial internship at the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, her home congregation in Houston. Since then, I have appreciated the gifts Terry has brought not only to her home congregation and our faith, but the wider world as well. Terry is a deeply faithful Unitarian Universalist who cherishes our values and has served in nearly every leadership role in her congregation. She is a strategic thinker with a proven record of leading organizations through times of challenge and onto paths of new flourishing. Her election would also bring much-needed geographical diversity and lay perspective to the UUA Board.
Given all of the challenge and opportunity that lies ahead, the UUA Nominating Committee felt Terry was the best choice for position #5 on the 2026 slate. I couldn’t agree more.
I am grateful to have had the honor and pleasure of serving as Terry’s minister for nine years. Her commitment and leadership within the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston is extraordinary. Terry brings a unique ability to see the broader vision while focussing on the work at hand. During the congregation’s 50th anniversary in 2017, her knowledge and experience with Futurist studies played an important role.
She was instrumental in framing a process that allowed the entire church community to create a forward-thinking, inclusive and engaging path for the coming years. I believe Terry is an ideal candidate to serve on the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Board and I enthusiastically endorse her for this position.
Terry was one of the first people I met at Bay Area UU. She welcomed me immediately and eased my anxiety in my first-time role as a Worship Associate with this new congregation. That first impression was cemented by every encounter I have had with Terry since. She is a vibrant member of our congregation: a member of the choir, the Women’s Spirituality Group, a Worship Associate on Sundays, a technical advisor for services, and a leader in our Service and Justice projects.
Terry is an accomplished professional and leader in world-wide conferences of Futurists, and our congregation is lucky to have her as an on-site visionary. She led a visioning workshop for our entire congregation a couple of years ago. The results of that workshop were instrumental in our planning when the church was gifted with an unbelievably generous gift by a member. Terry has assisted our minister and other lay leaders of our church in addressing immediate problems and in their planning for the future. She is an invaluable member of our church and would be a gift to the UUA Board.
Terry Grim helped create a comprehensive foresight program to equip association and nonprofit executives to prepare their organizations for the future. Thanks to her expertise and vision, hundreds of board members and staff now have the insight and processes to make future-informed decisions. Her wisdom and teaching inspired leaders to do great work in their areas of impact.
Terry will make an excellent Board member. Her futurist visioning considers all elements of community. I grew up with her at the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church. Even when I was little, she always listened to what I had to say with the same attention she would an adult. She has always been caring, considerate, and dedicated to the work of this faith. She brings big-picture thinking of where we are going and how we will get there. She has served on countless committees and our Board, and she is ready to serve our larger faith.
It is my great pleasure to endorse Terry Grim for the national Unitarian Universalist Board. I have known Terry since we were classmates in the Foresight program in the 1980s. She has always demonstrated an insatiable curiosity about the future but balanced that with a practical orientation that gets things done. Many years later, I was thrilled to have Terry join our foresight consultancy, Social Technologies, where her expertise in strategy development from IBM was a huge boost for our company.
We crossed paths once again at the University of Houston where Terry taught the Introduction to Foresight course for more than a decade. Her caring approach to the students and teaching led us to refer to her as the “mother” of our program. She also brought methodological rigor, including the development of an award-winning evaluation tool, the Foresight Maturity Model, that we still use in the program today. Terry has that rare combination of deep compassion and caring mixed with a keen eye on how to make things happen. She will be a tremendous asset to your Board!
As a third-generation UU with family members who have served on the national UUA board, I can wholeheartedly endorse Terry Grim as a necessary and brilliant addition to the UUA’s leadership team.
As our nation endures a season of deep change, the demands on religious institutions are changing, too. The UUA’s future will require us to elect leaders who can accurately assess the church’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities in this moment — and lead it forward while staying firmly grounded in our historic principles.
Terry enjoyed a long and successful career as a professional futurist providing strategic foresight to major corporations across the country, relying on sound methodology and rigorous professional best practices to guide them through times of challenge and change. Hers is a rare skill set that will add steady foresight to the board during this turbulent era. She is exactly what the Unitarian community needs right now to ensure that we will continue to show up everywhere we need to be, even as the world changes around us.
Terry’s work as a member of the BAUUC nominating committee has been very valuable, as she has consistently filtered every decision through Unitarian Universalist values while graciously but firmly insisting on diversity and inclusion as we developed our candidate slate. Her service on the nominating committee again demonstrates her commitment to equity and representation which is how she always shows up in her many leadership roles in our church. She walks the talk, and has for many, many miles, and no doubt will for the future of the UUA.
I’ve known Terry Grim for probably 20 years. As a professional futurist myself since the early 1980s working nationally and internationally on government, corporate, and association foresight projects from Washington, DC, with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., and as a founder member of our professional association (Association of Professional Futurists) I’ve had the opportunity to work with and get to know Terry on many occasions, currently as the leader of our APF Ethics Committee.
It is my honor, and my delight, to endorse Terry Grim for UUA Board of Directors. It has been my fortunate experience to work with Terry as the leader of our Ethics committee of our professional foresight association (Association of Professional Futurists) and to engage with her in the process of designing and setting up an ethics structure suited to the modern age. Terry is also a friend I value for her honesty, her strong abilities as a foresight practitioner, her breadth of knowledge, and her ability to bring together both people and ideas, working sincerely with both.
Good Lord, if you don’t by now have a futurist on board you surely need one, and Terry’s the one you need!
Having futurist Terry Grim on our national Board is a no-brainer! Her visioning workshops have moved and inspired innumerable congregations and corporations as they strategized and implemented mission and growth plans. I know her as a generous leader and teacher and as a listener and consensus builder. She lives and breathes Unitarian Universalist values and justice-seeking. Her passion and expertise are unparalleled and her willingness to serve should be accepted without reservation.
Terry Grim was a critical component in the success of the ASAE ForesightWorks research project. Her deep experience in foresight, combined with a genuine willingness to understand the unique dynamics of the association community, strengthened the quality and relevance of the work. Terry’s collaborative approach made her an exceptional partner throughout the project. Her contributions were instrumental in delivering meaningful and forward-thinking insights.
Want to add your voice? Send an endorsement.
I grew up all over the world and did not really live in the United States until college. My childhood was shaped as much by places as by people, by witnessing beauty, hardship, contradiction, and resilience at an early age.
My father worked for the U.S. government, and while we traveled widely, he earned a government salary that did not go far supporting a family of six moving around the world. We were a long way from wealthy. We lived in government housing and didn’t have the ability to really own anything. Still, even as a child, I understood that we carried a level of safety and privilege that many around us did not. I did not have the language for it then, but I could see it clearly.
Some of my earliest memories are from Laos during the Vietnam War. I remember prisoners being paraded through town in bamboo cages and people begging for food. I was young enough to be mostly invisible, but old enough to absorb what I was seeing. I remember visiting the home of a young woman who worked for our family and seeing how differently she lived from us. But I also remember the gentleness of the Buddhist culture around us, the reverence for living things, even insects, and the sense that compassion was not weakness but discipline.
In Brazil, I saw another kind of inequality. We drove through favelas where poverty and desperation created real danger and fear. I remember standing in line outside a movie theater, where vendors walked through the crowd selling candy before the movie. Children clustered around people asking for the candy, not because they wanted sweets, but because they were hungry. Those experiences stayed with me. They made suffering personal and impossible to ignore.
When I came to the United States for college, I encountered something new to me: open racism and sexism. I had grown up in many cultures, but I had not yet seen discrimination woven so deeply into systems and expectations.
At the same time, my own family was facing financial realities. I was the oldest, and I had a brother close to me in age. It was suggested that I attend junior college because, as people said at the time, I would “just get married anyway,” and the family’s financial help should go to my brother.
I rebelled. But it meant putting myself through college with loans and student jobs.
I enrolled at the University of Florida intending to become an engineer. Despite years of math and science preparation, I was told engineering was not realistic for me and that perhaps I should become a math teacher instead. Eventually, I found my way into computer science within the engineering program, where I was one of only three women in the early 1970s. Since then, I have fought for women’s rights in both education and in the very male-dominated fields where I spent my early career.
All of these experiences shaped my spiritual lens. They taught me that systems of oppression are real, that inequality is often normalized by those who benefit from it, and that human dignity is too often treated as conditional. They also taught me that compassion matters, that courage matters, and that seeing clearly creates responsibility.
I do not claim to fully understand the pain of every marginalized community, and I would never pretend to. But I do know what it feels like to be underestimated, excluded, or told where you belong. I know how systems quietly limit human potential. And because of what I witnessed growing up, across cultures, across economic divides, and within my own life, I have spent much of my life trying to dismantle those systems wherever I can.
In many ways, Unitarian Universalism felt like coming home to values I had been carrying for years. My spirituality is grounded less in certainty than in awareness: awareness of our interconnectedness, awareness of suffering, and awareness that we are called to widen the circle of dignity and justice. For me, faith is not abstract. It is lived in how we treat one another, whose humanity we defend, and whether we are willing to challenge systems that diminish people’s lives.
One of the things I love most about my UU community is that it has allowed me to serve alongside friends, doing meaningful work while having fun and building connection at the same time. I am an active member of my congregation, helping in ways both large and small — from running PowerPoint during services and participating in garden clean-up days to serving as a Worship Associate on Sundays and participating in our ministerial search team several years ago. I also realize that sometimes just showing up can be impactful. For this reason, my husband and I show up at Pride parades (I think we are at 16), events in support of our neighboring mosque, gun control efforts, and more.
My husband and I have both been trained as Court Observers and have attended immigration / deportation court. We have learned that we can use our privilege, age, and race to help court processes proceed with dignity and respect. It is actually amazing to experience what showing up with a badge and a clipboard can do. The information we capture also helps Hispanic organizations offer guidance and support to others.
I grew up in a family where service was simply expected. We were taught to leave every community, organization, and place a little better for our having been there. When I look at the lives lived by my three siblings, I know those values stayed with us and our families.
I chaired the development of the Code of Ethics for the Association of Professional Futurists (APF). Because the APF includes members from more than sixty countries, the process required thoughtful collaboration across cultures and perspectives. We are now developing ethics around the use of AI in our work. I stay engaged in the field by judging student awards and recognizing important futures work.
I am very active in local politics, including conducting candidate interviews and making recommendations during primary elections. I am passionate about environmental issues, and I was honored to be trained through Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.
Today, much of my energy is focused on civic engagement and democracy work. I am active in the local No Kings / Indivisible movement, where a small group of us organized three No Kings rallies and a Good Trouble event — no small feat in a Texas suburb. Those efforts helped build the Justice Coalition of Greater Clear Lake, bringing together organizations including the League of Women Voters, Democratic groups, Hispanic community organizations, and a few area churches working together to strengthen our local community.
My husband and I transferred to Houston in 1983. We had both worked on the launch systems for the Space Shuttle in Florida and transferred with IBM to support the Space Station program. We were not native Texans, but over four decades later, the community outside Houston and the Johnson Space Center has become home.
Texas is a state of contradictions everywhere you look, and increasingly it is on the front lines of many of the defining struggles shaping our nation’s future.
Houston is often ranked as one of the most diverse cities in America. More than 145 languages are spoken across the region, and the University of Houston’s student body includes students from more than 137 nations. Houston also elected one of the nation’s first openly gay mayors of a major city, Annise Parker. At the same time, Texas has become a national leader in restrictive legislation around transgender rights, voting access, and reproductive healthcare.
We are home to the oil and gas industry and one of the energy capitals of the world. Yet we are also living with some of the most visible impacts of climate change: stronger hurricanes, extreme heat, flooding, rising insurance costs, and growing concerns about coastal resilience.
Texas is experiencing rapid demographic growth and increasing diversity while also wrestling with polarization over immigration, public education, LGBTQ+ rights, religion in public life, and the meaning of democracy itself.
Texas, or parts of Texas, were once part of Mexico, and today the Hispanic community is deeply woven into our culture, economy, and identity. Yet ICE visibly patrols some neighborhoods, and detention centers are rapidly being built.
Our politics are often difficult to understand from the outside. Governor Greg Abbott represents one of the most conservative administrations in the country. Yet at the same time, leaders like State Representative James Talarico, whose language and vision often resonate deeply with UU values, have inspired many Texans searching for a different kind of public life.
In many ways, Texas has become a testing ground for the future of the United States. The forces reshaping America — demographic change, political polarization, immigration, climate pressures, religious change, and debates over rights and identity — are all playing out here in highly visible ways.
What does this mean for us as Unitarian Universalists? It means our faith cannot remain abstract. In Texas, our values are tested in real and immediate ways. We are called to live them publicly, courageously, and in community with one another.
At Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, we have seen our congregation grow as people search for a spiritual home aligned with their deepest values. Under the wonderful leadership of Rev. Katie McQuage-Loukas, our church has become a respected voice in the broader community. We are using our building, our resources, and our collective voice not only to care for one another, but to stand with vulnerable communities and put our faith into action.
We are still learning how to build diverse, loving, and resilient communities within this new reality of contradictions. This is the moment we are called to respond to, and what we are learning in Texas may have much to offer the larger UU community.
What stories will future generations tell about this era? Will they say that Unitarian Universalists showed up with courage, generosity, imagination, and moral clarity? Will they say we helped communities stay connected in a time when people were divided by design? Will they say we defended human dignity not only in words, but in action?
What does it look like if we start writing our history books of the future, now?
If we begin by imagining the history we hope others will someday write about us, then the vision becomes clearer. We can ask ourselves what kind of movement, what kind of leadership, and what kind of beloved community would have been necessary to create that future history. What vision inspires our minds and our hearts to do this work?
Throughout our history, Unitarian Universalists have often played a role far larger than our numbers would suggest. Our congregations and leaders stood alongside movements for abolition and civil rights, women’s equality, LGBTQ rights, religious freedom, immigrant justice, and democracy itself. While we have not always lived fully into our ideals, we have continually tried to bend toward justice and human dignity.
What mattered was not simply what we believed, but what we chose to do when the moment demanded courage.
We are living through another such moment now. Across the country, many of the values we hold most deeply are being challenged: pluralism, bodily autonomy, public education, democratic norms, the rights of LGBTQ people, racial justice, and compassion for migrants and vulnerable communities. Fear and division are too often becoming normalized in ways that should concern all people of faith.
I do not have a singular vision for what our Unitarian Universalist faith should become, except that it must remain grounded in our values and in the enduring belief in the worth and dignity of every person. Because instead of starting with an answer, we must start with the right questions. It is time to imagine the future boldly, care deeply for one another, and act courageously for justice.
And then we can begin building it together.
Support & Connection
Plan to vote at General Assembly 2026 — Terry Grim for Board of Trustees, Position 5.
Share this site with the credentialed delegates from your congregation. A short personal note carries real weight.
Mention Terry’s candidacy in board meetings, newsletters, or adult forum conversations about the upcoming election.
Please send questions, comments, or words of endorsement to terry@uuterrygrim.com.
From the Candidates’ Forum
Terry’s approved answers from the 2026 UUA Candidates’ Forum. Choose a section below to read her response.
Hello everyone, and thank you for being here tonight. My name is Terry Grim, and my pronouns are she/her. I am a 70-ish white woman with long red hair, wearing a green shirt. I’m deeply honored to have been nominated by the UUA Nominating Committee for this role.
I’m a proud member of Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, just outside Houston, Texas. We are a midsize congregation with a strong commitment to social justice in our region, and unlike most congregations, we are growing. Texas has its challenges, but it also offers important opportunities to live our values where they are most needed.
I have been an active UU for 34 years. My life has also been deeply multicultural, having grown up in many different countries, and those experiences formed my strong belief in the dignity and worth of every person and the gift that each person brings.
Professionally, I am a futurist with experience in governance, organizational leadership, ethics, and technology. My work focuses on helping organizations navigate change and think more intentionally about the future. I have served on professional association boards, and I am currently chairing our association’s Code of Ethics development.
We are living through extraordinarily complex times, and I believe we need leaders who can build trust across differences, create settings that bring about our best strategic thinking, and imagine hopeful possibilities.
That’s why I’m running. I believe I have skills that can help the UUA imagine the future boldly, care deeply for one another, and act courageously for justice.
I’m grateful to be part of this conversation tonight.
I’m at a point in my life where I want this next chapter to be about giving back and focusing my energy on things that truly matter. Serving on the UUA Board feels like a meaningful opportunity to bring together two important parts of my life.
My heart comes from Unitarian Universalism. It is where I learned the values of love, dignity, justice, and community. It is where I have seen people show up for one another and for the wider world. It is where I have experienced the power of belonging and the importance of helping people know they are not alone.
My mind comes from futures work. For decades, I have helped organizations think about change, possibility, and the future they hope to create. I have seen how futures thinking can help people become more curious, think more critically and creatively, and make better decisions in the face of uncertainty. I have honestly been thinking this way for so long, it has become my default way of thinking.
In the futures field, my specialty is methodology, helping organizations think about change and possibility in structured and useful ways. One of the models I developed around the maturity of foresight practices received recognition in the field, and I hope to bring that experience and approach to the opportunities and challenges ahead.
What excites me most, however, is not bringing answers. It is helping people ask better questions, learn from one another, and discover possibilities they may not have seen before.
My happy place is working with strong, creative teams. The programs and initiatives coming out of the UUA are wonderful. There are clearly thoughtful and deeply committed people doing this work, and honestly, part of the appeal for me is the opportunity to work alongside them and continue learning and growing myself, being a part of what they’re already doing.
I am running because this feels like a meaningful way to serve a faith that has shaped my life. It is an opportunity to bring together the values I hold most deeply and the skills I have spent a lifetime developing in service to something larger than myself.
My candidacy began when a member of the nominating committee who was familiar with my professional work in futures and other service within Unitarian Universalism, encouraged me to submit a candidate package. She felt strongly that a futurist belonged on the Board, especially one with global multi-cultural experience in governance, and collaborative, progressive work.
I thought about it for quite a while. What would I need to set aside? What would be required of me? I concluded that it would be an honor, and a meaningful opportunity to use my skills more broadly. So, I said yes.
I found the process thoughtful and thorough. At times it reminded me of those blue-book exams from college. The questions were serious because the responsibility is serious. In my interview, I asked them if I was a fit.
Nominating committees have two important roles in our movement. Their responsibility is not only to identify good individuals, but also to help build an effective board team. We rely on their recommendations because they have considered the context beyond each candidate.
Part of that work is practical: Does the candidate meet the requirements? Are there conflicts or concerns? Are they prepared for the work? Are they willing and able to serve?
But there is another responsibility as well: building a board with a broad range of experiences, perspectives, skills, and representation. A healthy board is not simply a collection of talented individuals. It is a team.
To use a lighthearted metaphor: I felt like a zebra walking into a zoo. I expected them to say, “You are a lovely zebra, but at this moment we already have three zebras and what the team most needs is a giraffe.” That does not diminish the zebra. It reflects the responsibility to build the strongest and most balanced team possible for the work ahead.
Nominating Committee members are elected because we trust them with discernment on behalf of the association. They are elected with the same seriousness as Board members. I have deep respect for that process, for the people who serve in it, and for the trust they place in those they nominate. I am grateful for the trust they placed in me. That trust is what brought me here tonight.
Ironically, asking a futurist for a vision statement is deeply challenging. A true vision is more than a list of priorities or programs. It must capture hearts and minds. It must express not only our values, but also the unique role we are called to play in the world.
A strong vision helps people see themselves in a shared future. It guides strategy and decision-making. It helps us determine not only what we should do, but also what we should say no to.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech remains one of the most powerful visions I know because it was both aspirational and concrete. He didn’t just describe his values, he painted a future people could see themselves helping to create. I still listen to it at least every year.
Like Alice asking the Cheshire Cat which way to go, we first have to know where we hope to end up before we can choose the path that will take us there.
I believe meaningful vision does not come from wishful thinking, but emerges through open dialogue and shared stories. It builds on the strengths we already have, moments when we are most proud of who we are. The best of who we are today becomes the foundation for tomorrow.
I am most proud of who we are when we are driven by our values with love at the center. We show up. We show up in support at Pride parades, NAMI walks, and Black Lives Matter events. We show up to help clean up after hurricanes, and to food drives. We keep showing up to advocate for democracy and justice. We stand publicly for love, dignity, and belonging.
We show up based on where we are. Our church is down the street from an Islamic mosque and community center. After the shootings in San Diego last month, members stood with signs expressing our love and support for our Muslim neighbors. We make sure they know they are not alone.
I recently attended a workshop on building resiliency centers, and connected with Community Church UU in New Orleans. They have about sixty members and managed to create a resiliency center that serves as a model for other communities. This is happening all over the country, and it is not an isolated example. It is who we are and who we are becoming.
My vision for the UUA is that we continue being a courageous, forward-looking faith movement, grounded in our values and confident in who we already are at our core.
Unitarian Universalism has something important to offer a fragmented and uncertain world. We begin with the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We practice respect across difference. We know that communities are stronger when people are heard, trusted, and valued.
I believe the UUA can help our congregations do more than survive change. We can help them lead through it. Not by pretending these times are easy, but by remembering what we know how to do. We know how to gather. We know how to listen. We know how to cooperate, collaborate, and create vision together. We know how to keep showing up.
These are difficult times, but they are also times of possibility. When old systems fracture, people begin searching for new ways to belong, to relate, and to build community. That is where Unitarian Universalism can offer something real: connection rooted in dignity, courage grounded in respect, and a way forward shaped by shared purpose.
In my professional work, I have often helped organizations create what we call future histories, stories told from the perspective of a future we hope to build. These stories make vision tangible. They help people see themselves as part of something larger than the present moment, and understand the role they can play in bringing that future into being.
Again and again, the stories of our faith show us who we are when we are at our best. UUs show up. We help people know they matter. We help people know they are not alone. We build communities where dignity is honored, differences can coexist, trust can grow, and people work together for the common good.
My hope is that the UUA becomes even better at connecting these stories, learning from them, and sharing what we have learned. Like OWL, we have practices and values that reach beyond our congregations because the world needs them.
We do not need to begin with all the answers. We need to begin with trust in one another, confidence in our values, and the courage to imagine the future together.
And then, together, we can build it.
What I bring to the UUA Board is a combination of strategic foresight, collaborative leadership, practical experience helping organizations navigate complexity and change.
The work of a futurist is not about predicting the future. We don’t even use the word as a singular “future”. We use the plural “futures”. It’s about helping people make better decisions.
As an experienced professional futurist and organizational consultant, I have spent decades giving communities the tools to ask better questions, think systemically, and prepare thoughtfully for an uncertain future. Throughout my career advising organizations, corporations, government officials, and a broad range of nonprofits, I have endeavored to help people recognize emerging challenges, explore possibilities, and make values-based decisions in times of rapid change.
I bring extensive leadership and governance experience. Within my congregation, I have served in a wide range of leadership roles over more than three decades, including President, Vice President, Treasurer, Director, Worship Associate, Social Justice Chair, mentor, and whatever else needs doing, including pressing buttons for the Power Point presentation during Sunday Service. I understand the practical as well as strategic reality of sustaining healthy institutions.
My specialty is creating a constructive, inclusive environment where diverse voices are heard. I believe creativity, wisdom, and stronger solutions emerge when people build plans together around shared goals.
I believe leadership is not about having all the answers. Leadership is about helping people discover the answers together. I can do the research, but the best ideas emerge from the group. It is about helping communities think clearly, build trust, and move forward with purpose and compassion. Leadership must listen and include, to inspire collective, meaningful action.
People must feel valued if groups are to work through complex challenges together. We maintain respect at all times. We listen to all stakeholders in purposeful engagement, and only then do we create a plan of action together that moves us toward collective goals.
I also bring a perspective from Texas and The Southern U.S. that is sometimes underrepresented in national UU leadership. Living in Texas, demonstrating and organizing to defend our principles, has taught me resilience, adaptability, coalition-building, and the importance of living our values visibly, publicly, and unapologetically. It’s not for the faint of heart. Sometimes the setting is challenging or even hostile, but fighting alongside each other bridges our differences and strengthens our bonds.
Most importantly, I bring a deep love for Unitarian Universalist values and a belief that our faith has an important role to play in this moment in history. I believe the UUA needs leaders who can help us remain grounded in our values while also preparing thoughtfully for the future that is emerging around us.
That is the work I feel called to do, and where I believe I can make the greatest contribution.
I didn’t take the traditional route to this nomination, and I don’t have the same background as many who have served on the board before. But I do bring more than thirty years of helping organizations imagine what comes next and navigate change. And a deep belief that our faith offers something the world needs right now. I bring a skill set that complements the strengths already on the board.
This seems like a good time to tell you my UU story. Thirty-four years ago, I came to Bay Area UU Church because I was asked to facilitate a visioning exercise. I had never heard of Unitarian Universalism before then, and I was unchurched. But the members shared their hopes for the future, and created a vision that I wanted to be part of. I didn’t just admire it — I could see myself in it and I wanted help. So I joined them in building it. And I am still here.
This is not an easy moment for our faith or for our world. But difficult moments are when vision matters, when compassion matters, and when courageous leadership matters most. This moment calls for us to imagine the future boldly, not with fear, but with hope and purpose. This moment calls us to care deeply for one another, especially when it is difficult. And we must act courageously for justice, showing up over and over.
Service has always been my prayer. Helping people create a better future has been the work of my life. I would be honored to bring that commitment to the UUA Board, and help build that future together.