Commissioners and Advisory Board Members
President Trump designated the following individuals to serve as Religious Liberty Commission members and advisors.*
- Religious Liberty Commission Members
- Advisory Board of Religious Leaders
- Advisory Board of Legal Experts
- Advisory Board of Lay Leaders
Religious Liberty Commission
- Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Chair)
- Dr. Ben Carson (Vice Chair)
- Mary Margaret Bush (Director and Designated Federal Official)
Religious Liberty Commission Members
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (Chair)
Dan Patrick was first elected Lt. Governor of Texas in 2014 and then re-elected in 2018 and 2022. He previously spent over 40 years in the media as a television anchor, conservative talk show host, and successful radio station owner. Lt. Governor Patrick led the Texas Senate in passing legislation to end the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, abolish DEI practices in our universities, place “In God We Trust” in the Texas Senate, and add “Under God” to the state pledge of allegiance. He produced the awarding winning film, “The Heart of Texas.” That film led him to start a four-year seminary program in Texas prisons in 2011. The program is now the largest in the world. In 2002, long before he was in office, Lt. Gov. Patrick wrote The Second Most Important Book You Will Ever Read, a challenge to read the most important book ever written, the Bible.
Dr. Ben Carson (Vice Chair)
Rising from poverty to become one of the most renowned pediatric neurosurgeons in the world, Dr. Ben Carson served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the first Trump Administration. Dr. Carson is the founder of the American Cornerstone Institute. His most recent book, The Perilous Fight, outlines what needs to be done to restore the foundations of family in America.
Ryan T. Anderson
Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author or co-author of five books, including several related to religious liberty. Anderson received his bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University and his doctoral degree in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. In addition to leading the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Anderson serves as the John Paul II Teaching Fellow in Social Thought at the University of Dallas.
Bishop Robert Barron
Author, speaker, and theologian, Bishop Robert Barron reaches millions of people around the world through his Word on Fire ministry, a Catholic media nonprofit that produces podcasts, videos, books, articles, and Gospel meditations. Since 2023, Bishop Barron has served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota.
Carrie Prejean Boller
Former Miss California USA and Miss USA first runner-up in 2009, Boller is the author of Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan
Cardinal Timothy Dolan is the Archbishop of New York. A member of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America, Cardinal Dolan previously served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and also completed terms as chair of the Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life activities and the Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty.
Pastor Franklin Graham
Pastor Franklin Graham is the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and of Samaritan’s Purse, an organization that provides disaster relief and medical aid around the globe.
Allyson Ho
Partner at Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, Allyson Ho has established herself as one of the United States’ premier appellate lawyers. She has presented over 100 oral arguments in federal and state courts nationwide, including five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dr. Phil McGraw
The longtime host of Dr. Phil and bestselling author, Dr. McGraw holds a doctorate in psychology. His most recent book, We’ve Got Issues: How You Can Stand Strong for America’s Soul and Sanity, encourages Americans to reclaim the principles of hard work, independence, faith, and ingenuity.
Eric Metaxas
Writer, speaker, and radio host, Eric Metaxas has written dozens of books, including the national bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer was so beloved by readers that it was made into a major motion picture. Metaxas has testified before Congress on the global rise of anti-Semitism and been awarded the Canterbury Medal by the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom.
Kelly Shackelford
President and Chief Executive Officer of First Liberty Institute, Shackelford is a constitutional scholar who has argued before the United States Supreme Court, winning numerous landmark religious liberty cases. Shackelford has testified before Congress on religious liberty issues and served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas Law School.
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel—the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He also serves as the Director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, and as a Senior Scholar at the Tikvah Fund. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured internationally on topics relating to faith in America, the Hebraic roots of the American founding, Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, Jewish-Christian relations, and more. His recent book, Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship, profiles some of the great Jewish leaders throughout history.
Pastor Paula White
Pastor Paula White is the founder and president of Paula White Ministries and the National Faith Advisory Board. She is the overseer and a teaching pastor at StoryLife Church in greater Orlando, Florida. Pastor White was an advisor to President Donald Trump in the Faith and Opportunity Initiative during his first term in office, and now she serves as the Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office.
Pamela Bondi
Attorney General of the United States, ex-officio member
Scott Turner
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, ex-officio member
Vince Haley
Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, ex-officio member
Advisory Board of Religious Leaders
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone
Salvatore Cordileone is the Archbishop of San Francisco and a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth and also of its Committee for Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.
Pastor Jentezen Franklin
Jentezen Franklin is the Senior Pastor of Free Chapel, a multi-campus church based in Gainesville, Georgia. He has written multiple books including the bestseller, Fasting: Opening the door to a deeper, more intimate, more powerful relationship with God.
Archbishop Elpidophoros of America
Archbishop Elpidophoros is the eighth Archbishop of America elected since the establishment of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in 1922. He has been an active member of the World Council of Churches and has advanced religious freedom for decades.
Father Thomas Ferguson
Father Thomas Fergusonis the pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of Catholic and American: The Political Theology of John Courtney Murray.
Rabbi Mark Gottlieb
Rabbi Mark Gottlieb is Chief Education Officer of Tikvah and founding dean of the Tikvah Scholars Program. Prior to joining Tikvah, Rabbi Gottlieb served as head of school at Yeshiva University High School for Boys and principal of the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Rabbi Gottlieb is a trustee of the Hildebrand Project and serves on the Editorial Committee of Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought.
Pastor Jack Graham
Jack Graham is Senior Pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, and author of multiple books, including The Jesus Book: Reading and Understanding the Bible for Yourself. Dr. Graham has served as Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer and has helped lead various national prayer initiatives. From 2002-2004, he served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Executive Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values. He previously co-founded and edited Cross-Currents.com, an online journal of Orthodox Jewish thought and opinion. Rabbi Menken is a fellow of the Amud Aish Memorial Museum, focusing upon the study of modern anti-Semitism, and author of The Everything Torah Book.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki
Thomas Paprocki is the Bishop of Springfield, Illinois. He coined the “Fortnight for Freedom,” a campaign of American Bishops to defend religious liberty. The episcopal board chair for the Catholic Athletes for Christ, Bishop Paprocki has completed 24 marathons and authored Running for a Higher Purpose and Holy Goals for Body and Soul.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades
Kevin Rhoades is the Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. He currently chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Religious Liberty. In addition to his religious liberty work, Bishop Rhoades sits on the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, ad hoc Committee against Racism, and served on the board of directors for the National Eucharistic Congress.
Rabbi Eitan Webb
Rabbi Eitan Webb co-founded the Chabad House of Princeton in 2002, with his wife Gitty and has served as a Jewish Chaplain at Princeton University since 2007. In addition to his service to university students, Rabbi Webb serves on the board of directors of the Chabad on Campus International Foundation and of the Sinai Scholars Society.
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel is the Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America, an American organization that represents Orthodox Jews. In 2020, he helped organize one of the largest gatherings of Orthodox Jews in U.S. history.
Advisory Board of Legal Experts
Francis Beckwith
A Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies, Affiliate Professor of Political Science, and Associate Director of the Graduate Program in Philosophy at Baylor University, Dr. Beckwith teaches and publishes in the areas of religion, jurisprudence, politics, and ethics. A graduate of Fordham University (Ph.D. and M.A. in philosophy) and the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis (Master of Juridical Studies), he has published over 100 academic articles, book chapters, reviews, and reference entries.
Jason Bedrick
Jason Bedrick is a Research Fellow in the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, where he focuses on policies that promote education freedom, religious liberty, classical education, and restoring the primary role of families in education. Bedrick is the co-editor and co-author of two books, including Educational Freedom: Remembering Andrew Coulson, Debating His Ideas and Religious Liberty and Education: A Case Study of Yeshivas vs. New York.
Josh Blackman
A national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court, Blackman serves as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston where he holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Blackman was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy and is the President of the Harlan Institute.
Gerald Bradley
Gerard Bradley is professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. He directs the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century.
Alyza Lewin
Alyza Lewin is the President of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. Lewin is also a co-founder and partner in Lewin & Lewin, LLP where she specializes in litigation, mediation and government relations. Her experience includes criminal defense, civil litigation and anti-discrimination matters. Lewin served as President of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists from 2012 – 2017.
Kristen Waggoner
Kristen Waggoner is the CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom: the world’s largest legal organization advancing every person’s God-given right to live and speak the truth.
Advisory Board of Lay Leaders
Abigail Robertson Allen
An on-air reporter for over ten years, Abigail Robertson is the co-host of Heaven Meets Earth, a podcast of the Christian Broadcasting Network that highlights modern-day miracles and divine encounters.
Gene Bailey
Gene is a host on The Victory Channel, a faith-based Christian television network. He is known for hosting programs like FlashPoint, which discusses current events and prophecy, and Revival Radio TV, which explores historical and modern-day spiritual awakenings.
Mark David Hall
A professor at Regent University in the Robertson School of Government, Dr. Hall is a scholar of early America. Prior to Regent, he was the Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University. Hall has written or edited a dozen books including, Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth, Great Christian Jurists in American History, and Faith and the Founders of the American Republic.
Alveda King
Building upon the efforts of her father, Rev. A.D. King, and her uncle, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Alveda King has dedicated her life to the civil rights issues of our time. King is Chair of the Center for the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute and Board Member to Priests for Life. She previously served on the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commission.
Christopher Levenick
Director of the Program for Civic Renewal with the Connelly Foundation, and the editor-in-chief of Philanthropy Magazine, Levenick has explored religion in the United States throughout his career. Writing for Claremont, AEI, and other publications, Levenick has long traced strands of the Founding manifesting themselves in the character of American Christianity, compared the principles of constitutional interpretation with those of scriptural exegesis, and explored the implications of pluralism on the exercise of religion in the public square.
Sameerah Munshi
Sameerah has courageously spoken out against forcing children to learn radical gender ideology in schools. She testified before the Montgomery County School Board, in a case that is currently before the Supreme Court, and has worked with the Coalition of Virtue and the Religious Freedom Institute.
Ismail Royer
Ismail Royer serves as Director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute. Since converting to Islam in 1992, he has studied religious sciences with traditional Islamic scholars and spent over a decade working at non-profit Islamic organizations. Royer has worked with nonprofits to promote peace between faiths. His writing has appeared in multiple publications and he co-authored an article on Islam on Religious Violence Today: Faith and Conflict in the Modern World.
Ryan Tucker
Ryan Tucker serves as senior counsel and director of the Center for Christian Ministries with Alliance Defending Freedom. He oversees all litigation efforts to maintain and defend the constitutionally protected freedom of churches, Christian ministries, and religious schools to exercise their rights under the First Amendment.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
Sheikh Hamza is one of the leading proponents of classical learning in Islam and is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States. He is an advisor to the Center for Islamic Studies at Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union. For almost a decade, Hamza was consecutively ranked as “The Western world’s most influential Islamic scholar” in The 500 Most Influential Muslims. During the first Trump administration, he served on the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights.
* Original White House Statements: