IRD Staff
STAFF BIOS:
Mark Tooley
Mark Tooley became president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) in 2009. Tooley has been with the IRD since 1994, directing the United Methodist committee (UMAction) of the Institute on Religion & Democracy. He continues to direct UMAction’s ministry for traditional United Methodists working to reclaim America's third largest religious body for historic Christian beliefs. Mark is the editor of UMAction Briefing and the author of Taking Back The United Methodist Church. His articles about the political witness of America’s churches have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, Human Events, The Washington Times, Touchstone, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Post, and elsewhere. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television.
Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked eight years for the Central Intelligence Agency as an analyst. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia. A lifelong United Methodist, he has been active in United Methodist renewal since 1988, when he wrote a study about church funding of pro-Marxist groups for his local congregation. Since 1993 he has served as a board member of Good News, an evangelical renewal caucus within United Methodism. He currently attends Washington Street United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
Order Mark Tooley's Book, Taking Back the United Methodist Church
Alan Wisdom
Alan Wisdom has served since October 1994 as Vice President of the Institute on Religion & Democracy. While serving as IRD Vice President, Alan also served as Director of Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom (formerly called Presbyterians for Democracy and Religious Freedom)—an IRD-affiliated committee that works within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He has attended every PCUSA General Assembly since 1988. Alan’s research has had a particular focus on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Latin America. He has written articles on these and other topics for IRD's quarterly publication Faith & Freedom, of which he also serves as executive editor.
Alan served as interim president of IRD from July 2005 to March 2006, filling the position left vacant by the passing of Diane Knippers in April 2005.
Alan is an elder at the Georgetown Presbyterian Church and a member of the Global Mission team of the National Capital Presbytery. Before coming to IRD, Alan taught high school in Florida. He received his B.A. in history, English, and Spanish from Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1979. He then did two years of graduate work in history at Princeton University. In 1983 he received a second B.A., in education, from the University of Maryland.
Faith McDonnell
At IRD since 1993, Faith McDonnell is the Director of Religious Liberty Programs and of the Church Alliance for a New Sudan. She writes and speaks on the subject of the persecuted church and has organized rallies and vigils for Sudan in front of the White House, the State Department, the Canadian Embassy, and the Sudanese Embassy. She has drafted legislation on religious persecution for the Episcopal Church and for the United States Congress. In June 2007, her book, Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children, was published by Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
Faith has a BA in English from Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, MA. She received her master’s degree in English from the University of Maryland.
Faith is a member of Church of the Apostles, Anglican, and serves on the church’s international missions committee. She serves as a board member for several human rights organizations. Faith is married to Francis John McDonnell, and they have a daughter, Fiona.
Jeff Walton
Jeff Walton is Communications Manager for the Institute on Religion & Democracy and also serves as a staffer on the Anglican Action program. Prior to joining IRD, Jeff worked as Systems Administrator for Congressman Frank Wolf (VA-10) and later as Legislative Correspondent for Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05).
Jeff worships at Restoration Anglican Church in Arlington, Virginia, a daughter congregation of the Falls Church in Falls Church, VA, where he is active in the young adult and global missions programs. Jeff holds a degree in Political Science and Communications from Seattle Pacific University.
Jim Tonkowich
Jim Tonkowich served as President of the Institute on Religion & Democracy from March 2006 through April 2009. Tonkowich now writes for the IRD as a scholar, offering commentary on how Christians develop a political witness.
Prior to joining IRD, Jim served as the Managing Editor of BreakPoint radio. Jim comes to IRD with a varied background. He worked in prep school youth ministry with FOCUS (Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools) directing boarding school outreach. After that he pastored Peninsula Hills Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. He then spent two years in a Northern Virginia high-tech company.
Jim holds a degree in philosophy from Bates College and both a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. His doctorate focused on issues of spiritual and cultural transformation and renewal making it a solid educational foundation for his work at IRD.
Jim is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He and his wife Dottie attend McLean Presbyterian Church in McLean, Virginia.
Visit Jim's blog at www.jimtonkowich.com
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