The Reverend Debra W. Haffner

The Reverend Debra W. Haffner is the director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. She is the endorsed community minister with the Unitarian Church in Westport, CT.

Rev. Haffner was the chief executive officer of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, from 1988 through May 2000. Under her leadership, SIECUS tripled in staff size, increased its annual budget revenues more than six fold, and opened professional offices in New York and Washington, DC. During Rev. Haffner's tenure at SIECUS, she created the Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing; the National Coalition to Support Sexuality Education; the Commission on Adolescent Sexual Health; and the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Kindergarten - Grade Twelve.

Prior to joining SIECUS, Rev. Haffner served as the Director of Education for the Center for Population Options; the Director of Community Services for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington; and a Special Assistant in the U.S. Public Health Service.

Rev. Haffner is the author of three guides for congregations on sexuality as well as two award winning books for parents. From Diapers to Dating: A Parent's Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children, which was called by Kirkus Review "the very best kind of guide for being a better parent," and Beyond the Big Talk: Every Parent's Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Teens, which the American Library Association's Booklist says, "offers solid advice and resources to parents, who will greatly appreciate her candor." Published in April 2008, her latest book is What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today's Challenges with Wisdom and Heart. She is also the co-author of a college sexuality textbook and "What I've Learned About Sex." Rev. Haffner has also published nine chapters in books and encyclopedias, more than 70 articles in professional journals, 14 monographs, and numerous pamphlets for the general public. She has conducted speeches and training workshops in Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, New Zealand, Uruguay, Guatemala, England, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Rev. Haffner's work has been honored by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the Association for the Advancement of Health Education, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine. She received the Connecticut Sexuality Educator of the Year Award in May 2002 and was inducted into her high school “Wall of Fame” in 2005.

Rev. Haffner appears regularly in the national media. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and has appeared on such programs as Nightline, PrimeTime Live, 20/20, Dateline, Crossfire, Good Morning America, Oprah, and the Today Show.

Rev. Haffner has a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, a Masters of Public Health from the Yale University School of Medicine and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. In 1996-97, she was a Research Fellow at the Yale Divinity School. She is also a Fellow of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. She is currently a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary and the Yale Divinity School. Rev. Haffner has been married for 25 years and is the proud mother of a 21 year old daughter and a 14 year old son.

Dr. Kate Ott

Dr. Kate Ott is Associate Director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing. She holds a doctorate in Christian Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York.

Dr. Ott was Director of Research for the Yale Women Faculty Forum, where she worked on issues of gender equity and professional ethics in Academia. Prior to her research position, Dr. Ott was the Director of Youth Ministries and Christian Education at Fairfield Grace for five years while finishing her doctorate. She has over 10 years of church-related experience in campus ministry, youth ministry and Christian education programs. She conducts workshops for local churches as well as national denominational committees.

Dr. Ott is at work on a book project titled, Saying No is Not Enough: Teens, Sexuality, and Faith based on her dissertation. In addition to a number of scholarly articles, Dr. Ott is co-author of the second edition of A Time to Speak: Faith Communities and Sexuality Education. She wrote and reviews the "Sexuality Education Curricula for Faith Communities: An Annotated Bibliography." For two years, she served as senior editor of the Union Seminary Quarterly Review.

Dr. Ott has received a Woodrow Wilson Humanities at Work grant for her integration of academic study and community outreach. Also, she received the William H. Fogg Scholarship and Sterling Quadrangle Social Justice Scholarship at Yale for her outstanding academic work and commitment to social justice. Dr. Ott has worked for six years with youth and health education in the Connecticut area. Through the Health and Wellness Center in the West end of Bridgeport, CT, she initiated programs for Problem Solving for Better Health™ and the 21st Century Lighthouse federal grants for community based health initiatives.

Dr. Ott has a Masters of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School and an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She teaches at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT and is an assistant instructor at Yale Divinity School. Dr. Ott has been married for eight years and is the proud mother of a 5 year old daughter and an 2 year old son.

Timothy Palmer

Timothy Palmer is Director of Research and Communications for the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing.  He is a third-year Master of Divinity student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and is pursuing ordination in the New York diocese of the Episcopal Church.  He is a co-leader of Union’s LGBT student caucus and a member of the ministerial and spiritual formation resource team.  He joined the Religious Institute as an Intern Minister in September 2006. 

Before entering the seminary, he was an executive speechwriter and director of communications for the IBM Corporation in Armonk, N.Y., for 10 years, most recently in the office of the chairman.  Prior to joining IBM, he was a freelance writer serving corporate clients in Texas.  His work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Texas Monthly and other major publications.  He was actively engaged in sexual justice issues in Texas, providing pro bono services to the Texas AIDS Network, the Human Rights Campaign’s National Coming Out Day project, the Dallas Gay and Lesbian Alliance, and GLAAD. 

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts and a Master of Arts in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.  He lives in New York City.

Yamuna Menon

Yamuna Menon is Special Assistant to the Director for the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing. She joined the Religious Institute in October of 2007. For the past year, Yamuna was the Field Coordinator at Love Makes a Family working on marriage equality for same sex couples in Connecticut. During this time, she organized volunteers during events like Election Day, Lobby Day, and has recently spoken at Hartford PRIDE 2007 and at the Annual True Colors Conference to support GLBT youth and families. She has also spoken to local gay-straight alliances in high schools about marriage equality and has mobilized and lobbied for legislative support during the 2007 Connecticut State Legislative Session.

Yamuna graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2005 with a major in English and a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She lives in Monroe, Connecticut.