IRD Staff
STAFF BIOS:
Mark Tooley
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 denominational funding of pro-Marxist groups for his local congregation. He currently attends Washington Street United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.Mark Tooley became president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) in 2009. He joined IRD in 1994 to found its United Methodist committee (UMAction), which he still directs as a ministry to reclaim America's third largest religious body for historic Christian beliefs. He is the author of Taking Back The United Methodist Church, published in 2008, and Methodism and Politics in the 20th Century, to be published in 2011. His articles about the political witness of America's churches have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, National Review Online, Washington Examiner, Human Events, The Washington Times, The Review of Faith and International Affairs, Touchstone, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Post, and elsewhere. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television.
Order Mark Tooley's Methodism and Politics in the 20th Century!
Download "Security and Immigration: What is the State's Duty Under God?"
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.
John Lomperis
John Lomperis is IRD’s United Methodist Director. God first brought John to IRD in 2004 to serve as a Research Assistant. Since that time, he was promoted to Research Associate, temporarily left IRD to earn a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, wrote his master’s thesis on Wesleyan spirituality among present-day United Methodists and Nazarenes, and came back to serve as Legislative Coordinator for the 2012 General Conference efforts of the United Methodist Renewal and Reform Coalition. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago, and devoted much of both his undergraduate and graduate studies to tracing the rise of theological liberalism within American Methodism. His articles have been published by the Christian Post, Good News magazine, OrthodoxyToday.org, National Right to Life News, LifeNews.com, and The American Spectator.
John has been a member of the United Methodist Church since his confirmation as a teenager. Through the various geographical chapters of his life, he has been active in United Methodist congregations in four jurisdictions, and is currently on the roster of supply preachers for his district of the denomination. He lives in Chicago with his beautiful Christian wife.
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 the IRD, Jeff worked on Capitol Hill for members of Congress from Virginia and North Carolina.
His articles have appeared in Touchstone, Forward in Christ, Inside Catholic, The American Spectator and Human Events.
Jeff worships at Restoration Anglican Church in Arlington, Virginia, a daughter congregation of the Falls Church in Falls Church, VA. Jeff holds a degree in Political Science and Communications from Seattle Pacific University.
SUPPORT STAFF:
Mikhail Bell
As Digital Communications Officer, Mikhail oversees digital engagement, in addition to editing the quarterly Faith & Freedom at the Institute on Religion and Democracy. With connections to the Carter Center and World Hope International, he has multifarious professional experience. Previously, he assisted in a communications capacity with several anti-trafficking organizations. At the Alliance for Consumer Education and Vital Voices, Mikhail utilized social media to facilitate collaboration among domestic and international audiences.
Mikhail graduated from Hamilton College where he wrote his thesis on the connection between state strength and human trafficking in sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently pursuing a Master of Public Policy at George Mason University.
Barton Gingerich
Barton Gingerich serves as a Research Assistant at the IRD. As an Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Fellow, he gained a broad knowledge base that pulls from the traditions of classical education. Before working at the IRD, he interned as an archivist at the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society and worked as an assistant at an academic library. As a student, Bart held several positions in campus leadership, ranging from resident assistant to moderator of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society.
In 2011, Bart graduated from Patrick Henry College with a B.A. in History, where he completed a sizable thesis on railroads in Reconstruction-era West Virginia. He currently attends Holy Trinity Reformed Episcopal Church (ACNA) in Fairfax, VA.
Luke Moon
Luke Moon serves as the Business Manager for IRD. Prior to this position, Luke served as a missionary with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in Hawaii and around the world. Having lived, worked, taught, and traveled to over 45 nations, Luke has seen firsthand the impact of the churches social witness. He has lead reconciliation teams in the Balkans, Northern Ireland, and Nigeria. He also has been a tireless advocate for women caught in the sex trade and for the voiceless millions who have fallen victim to gendercide. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from the University of the Nations and a Master’s degree in Global Politics from Regent University. Luke is also an ordained Southern Baptist minister.
Luke, his wife Meredith, and their daughter Havilah live in Falls Church, Virginia.
Rick Plasterer
Rick Plasterer is a staff writer for IRD concerned particularly with domestic religious liberty. He attended Eastern Mennonite College (now University) receiving a B.A. degree in history and sociology, and an M.S. in library science from Drexel University. He has served first as a public librarian and then in corporate and federal libraries, most recently working at the library of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (formerly the General Accounting Office) as a cataloging librarian, analyzing and cataloging documents pertaining to international relations, business, and social policy. He has also served as church librarian at Presbyterian Church of the Atonement in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he has been a member for many years.
From his general interest in Christianity and society, he has been interested and concerned with current challenges to domestic religious liberty, and has worked at publicizing religious liberty stories and concerns through an electronic newsletter to church members and other interested persons.
Kristin Rudolph
Kristin Rudolph is an Evangelical Program Coordinator at the IRD. Kristin graduated in 2011 with a Bachelors of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from the King’s College in New York City. The rigorous, classically based liberal arts curriculum prepared her to engage in discussion about challenges currently facing the church and society. During her time at King’s, she served in various student leadership positions in organizations across campus, including The King’s Debate Society and the House of Susan B. Anthony.
The Washington state native also worked as a teaching assistant for American history and theory classes for two years. To complete her undergraduate education, Kristin wrote a thesis evaluating the justice of NATO’s 1999 intervention in Kosovo.
