Freedom From Religion Foundation – Valley of the Sun Chapter
Board of Directors
FFRF-VS Chapter President
Whit serves as President on the Board of FFRF-VS. He has held secular values his entire adult life. Even before he discovered there was a label for his belief system — Humanism. He was an early member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the AHA, and is currently an at large board member of the Secular Coalition for Arizona. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and philosophy from CMU. He is a retired Air Traffic Controller and currently owns two small businesses in Phoenix.
Vice-President
Janet serves as Vice President on the Board of FFRF-VS. She is new to the secular community having retired within the last year after nearly 40 years as a public servant working initially in social services and the Judiciary in Missouri and for the Arizona Supreme Court. Janet’s most recent position was Clerk of the Arizona Supreme Court. While in Missouri, Janet served as a member of the Jefferson City Big Brothers Big Sisters Board of Directors and was also a Big Sister volunteer. Janet holds a master’s degree in Social Work with an emphasis in planning and administration and is a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management.
Treasurer & Governance Committee Chair
Philip serves as Treasurer and Governance Committee Chair on the Board of FFRF-VS, and is the FFRF Arizona State Representative. In the past he served as the Mayor of Greendale, Missouri and on several non-profit boards including the University of Missouri Alumni Association, the Arizona Quality Alliance and the Harris Park Homeowners’ Association. He was a volunteer with the Valley Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization and an adjunct professor for the National Graduate School. Philip retired after thirty years as a senior manager with the Boeing Company and its various subsidiaries. He holds an MBA in technology management, a bachelor of science in physics, and a bachelor of fine art in design.
Secretary & Communications Committee Chair
Enci serves as Secretary and Communications Committee Chair on the Board of FFRF-VS. She has been engaged in secular advocacy for over a decade and works as a freelancer providing tech and design services. She has previously served as president of Compassion & Choices AZ chapter, an advocacy org for medical-aid-in-dying for terminally ill patients, and as Secretary for SecularAZ and Americans United for Separation of Church & State (AU-GP). She has volunteered with RepresentUS, an anti-corruption org, and Bernie2016tv, a grassroots media group promoting the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders. She has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Valparaiso University with minors in healthcare, and is a strong believer in lifelong-learning and self-education. She was an ophthalmic technician for over 15 years, last working on a travelling surgical team before being diagnosed with (and beating) cancer, after which she shifted her career to tech in 2014. She enjoys playing guitar and gardening, and lives in Phoenix with her husband and animals.
Programs Committee Chair
David serves as the Programs Committee Chair on the board of FFRF-VS. He has been secular, rational and atheist pretty much his whole life, before even knowing there were such things. Even as a child, he knew the religious beliefs and tales didn’t make sense, finding the discrimination, criticism and judgments inherent in religion to be particularly objectionable and offensive, particularly to those of opposing beliefs. Currently a resident of Glendale, he has lived in the Valley of the Sun for almost 25 years and retired in 2021 (somewhat) from a career as a programmer/developer. For more than 10 years, he has been an active participant in various local secular and atheist groups, among them Phoenix Atheist Meetup Group (where he is an event organizer), Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, Secular Coalition for Arizona, Americans United for Separation of Church and State as well as American Atheists and FFRF, of course.
Member at Large
Debbi was on the board of Freethought Arizona from 2017 through 2022. She was also the liaison to the Secular Student Alliance club at the U of Arizona, and handled Facebook for Freethought. She was active in the SSA group for many years, helping with publicity and funding. Though not an official advisor, but was in practice, as the faculty advisors for that time were not active. She has attended two national SSA conferences with officers.