About Us
In a country where liberty is a cornerstone value, what happens when the liberty of insular religious groups impedes the rights of individuals raised to abide by religious doctrines and do not have the freedom to live life according to their own values and needs?
There is often a pervasive lack of support when individuals leave isolated communities—support they desperately need and deserve. What duty does the public have to intervene, and how should that duty be exercised?
The Rights and Religions Forum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded to create spaces and conversations around these often-ignored and complex questions. Through our network of organizations, we give a voice to the issues that affect those raised in IRGs.
Our Board of Directors
Malkie Schwartz
Founder / board chair
Malkie Schwartz is an attorney who works at the Hunter College Foundation and the Director of the Eva Kastan Grove Fellowship Program at Hunter College. In her role as Director, she works with policymakers, politicians, and advocates to engage students in projects that advance the public good.
In 2000, Malkie chose to leave her community of origin, and three years later founded Footsteps, the first organization in North America to assist people who wish to leave the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and live in mainstream society.
To date, Footsteps has served over 1300 individuals and has an annual budget of over $2 million. Malkie has also worked for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life as their first Director of Community Engagement, and is a co-founder and board member of the Rights and Religions Forum.
Pamela Whissel
Board member
Pamela Whissel is a lifelong activist with extensive experience in fighting to protect church/state separation in the U.S. She is the Managing Director of the Campaign to End Religious Abuse of Children and was the Editor-in-Chief of American Atheist magazine for nine years.
Prior to that, she worked in the law office of the late Edwin F. Kagin when he was the National Legal Director at American Atheists. She was the Weekend News Anchor for NPR’s affiliate WNKU-FM in Kentucky, a news writer for the CBS affiliate in Cincinnati, and a volunteer pledge-drive spokesperson for the PBS affiliate in Cincinnati. She was also a volunteer interviewer for the Shoah Foundation, which was founded by Steven Spielberg to film the in-depth eyewitness testimonies of all Holocaust survivors willing to participate.
Jena Renae
board member
Jena is a grassroots organizer and political strategist born and raised across the western United States. She grew up Mormon and left during college, now identifying primarily as a humanist. Jena has a background in issue advocacy work at the state and federal level, including work with peace advocacy nonprofit and as the policy director for the campaign of the youngest candidate for the Utah State House of Representatives.
In her work with Secular Strategies, she was particularly focused on political communications and digital advocacy engagement. Jena has worked for two different state legislatures and has a deep passion for accessible political participation at every level.
Our Staff
Sarah Levin
project director
Sarah Levin is the founder and principal of Secular Strategies, a consulting firm specialized in advancing secularism in public policy and activating nonreligious voters. She served in various roles at the Secular Coalition for America from 2013-2019.
Sarah worked for the Secular Coalition for America from 2013–2019 in various roles, including Director of Grassroots and Community Programs and Director of Governmental Affairs. Prior to joining the Secular Coalition, Sarah completed a year of AmeriCorps service and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from American University, where she served on the leadership board of the university’s Secular Student Alliance affiliate.
In 2022, the Secular Strategies team conducted a survey of the leaders and activists RARF seeks to serve. The project was designed and implemented by Secular Strategies associates with personal experiences leaving insular religious groups—Mormon and evangelical, respectively. The team presented our preliminary findings at the 2022 RARF conference. You can read the full report here.
Lindsay Rodriguez
Community manager
Lindsay was raised in the Republic of Panama and gained an interest in politics and foreign policy from an early age, living through the rule of Manual Noriega and the following governmental transitions. She has worked as an advocate in international human rights for 19 years, with a focus on freedom of religion, conscience, and belief for religious minorities, along with numerous other related rights such as gender equality, reforming justice systems, trafficking of women and girls, and much more.
Lindsay graduated with a B.A. in Intercultural Studies and Political Science from BIOLA University and from the Torrey Honors Institute at BIOLA University followed by an M.A. in Political Science from Cal State Fullerton. Lindsay is proud of her blended, multilingual family which includes 4 rambunctious kids and a lot of Spanglish. Her hobbies include soccer, hiking, camping, and blogging about religious abuse from the perspective of an Evangelical missionary kid survivor.
Lindsay played a lead role in designing and conducting RARF’s report on disaffiliate communities. You can read the full report here.
About our Founders
The Rights and Religions Forum was co-founded in 2019 by Sarah Haider, Founder of Ex-Muslims of North America and Malkie Schwartz, Founder of Footsteps.