Find A Secular Celebrant
- California
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Missouri
- New York
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
California
Steven Gibson
Email: steven@stevengibson.org
Phone: 562-900-2834
Steven Gibson has served on the Board of Directors of Atheists United in California and lead and supported secular and freethought meetups in Los Angeles for more than 6 years. He has been on the staff of non-profit organizations including AARP and American Friends Service Committee. He has led trainings in community organizing and volunteered with community groups including as a founding board member of Latinos for America. He is currently a student working toward a degree at California State University, Northridge.
District of Columbia
Melody Hensley
Email: mhensley@centerforinquiry.net
Phone: 703-879-4499
Phone: 202-546-2332
Melody Hensley is the Executive Director of CFI Washington D.C. Ms. Hensley has a background in volunteering and community organizing. She has been involved with church-state separation and secular activism, as well as reproductive rights and progressive issues, in the DC area for over a decade. Prior to her latest role, she served as the CFI D.C. event and volunteer coordinator.
Florida
Ted Allman
Email: tedallman@comcast.net
Ted Allman has served on the executive committee of the CFI Community of Fort Lauderdale since its inception. Besides a career in computer systems, he has served the community on the Minnesota Literacy Council, Pathfinder Council of the Boy Scouts, and the American Cancer Society; as a soccer, swimming, and diving coach; and as a certified official in basketball and volleyball. Mr. Allman has taught on numerous campuses.
He has raised six children, and cherishes 17 grandchildren, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Computer Information Systems at Nova Southeastern University.
Rick O'Keefe
Email: rokeefe@centerforinquiry.net
Phone: 813-849-7571
Rick O’Keefe is Executive Director of CFI Tampa Bay and has been a skeptic for 40+ years. He is an Air Force veteran and his education includes Oberlin College, Fordham University, US Armed Forces Institute, and numerous business and technical courses. He is a composer, technical and business writer, accredited journalist, and a small business consultant.
A focus of Rick’s life is growing the secular humanist community in the west central Florida region so that freethinkers can enjoy a positive and supportive environment for themselves and their families. Promoting education, civic participation, science, and secular ethical values are the ongoing work of CFI Tampa Bay. Being a certified celebrant seems to fit naturally into his experience and sense of service.
Indiana
Steve Duerr
Email: steveduerr@indy.rr.com
Phone: 317-989-1959
Steve Duerr is a CFI Indiana Friend of the Center and financial supporter. He has been a volunteer staff member at CFI Indiana since its inception and is manager of technology for the Indiana center including the web page, computer and internet, and audio/video equipment. He hosts science and philosophical discussions, book reviews, and various other programs. He is also a member of the Skeptics Society and Freedom From Religion Foundation, producer and co-host of a freethought podcast (www.indyfreethought.com), and co-founder and webmaster of a local freethought meetup group.
Cheri Harris
Email: cahmyf@gmail.com
Phone: 317-255-5881
Cheri is an attorney and the executive director of a national association of regulators. Early in her legal career she worked for the ACLU of Indiana and continues to believe firmly in the separation of church and state. She and her husband were married 1994, in a secular service which they wrote themselves. She officiated at a marriage for the first time in 2000, and found it to be one of the most enjoyable activities of her adult life.
In the past two years both of Cheri parents died, so she has had recent experience with finding successful ways to honor and memorialize loved ones in a secular fashion.
She believes that creative choice and expression unique to the individuals involved are important components of memorable rituals. She earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from the George Washington University in Washington D.C. She also has a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics, and obtained her J.D. from Indiana University in Bloomington.
Mary Hunt
Email: indymary@peoplepc.com
Home Phone: 317-916-9993
Cell Phone: 317-874-7513
Mary Hunt is a textile artist specializing in quilt design. Her spiritual path began with an atheist upbringing and has gone through Paganism, agnosticism, Unitarian Universalism, and back to atheism. She has a strong interest in church-state issues and feminism. Her activities at CFI-Indiana include organizing dining out nights, science fiction and movie viewings at CFI-Indiana, staffing the center, and assisting with other CFI programs. She hopes to strengthen our freethinking community through her role as a Secular Celebrant.
John Kiel
Email: jkiel@comcast.net
Phone: 317-402-4301
John Kiel has an AAS from Indiana University. He is employed by Ford Motor Company as a safety trainer and pipefitter/plumber (skilled trades). He is a charter member of Humanist Friendship Group of Central Indiana and Center for Inquiry Indiana. He is a member of NOW, AU, ACLU of Indiana, FFRF, and UAW Local 1111. He has taken the Dale Carnegie Course—Public Speaking.
Susan Lantzer
Email: slantzer@att.net
Phone: 317-430-1221
Susan Lantzer has been a CFI Indiana Friend of the Center for three years. She is a Humanist, Freethinker, Spouse, Parent, and Professional.
As a Humanist, she is convinced that any couple who is willing to make a commitment to each other should have the freedom to do so, without limitations. As a Freethinker, she understands the need for non-judgmental, no-religious-strings-attached celebrations and ceremonies for our community. As a Spouse and Parent, she understands how important and emotional those occasions can be and also understands the desire to have those occasions be deeply personal and meaningful. In her professional life, she has noticed that all people share a need for a personal connection, respect, and dignity.
As a Secular Celebrant, she wishes to join our community in the celebrations of life, memorializing the importance of our humanity with love and respect for each other.
Timothy C Platt
Email: timothycplatt@live.com
Phone: 317-786-6166
Timothy C Platt is a US Air Force veteran and a former Grand Canyon tour guide. Tim's Bachelor degree in Liberal Arts is through Concordia University – Wisconsin. His Master of Science degree in Management is from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Tim is a freethinking secular humanist with a Taoist slant. There is ample evidence showing ritual as a part of the human experience for hundreds of thousands of years. Even though mankind no longer needs a supernatural paradigm to explain the forces of nature, people still have an evolved human need to participate in ritualistic activities that mark transitional moments in their lives.
Regardless of what your transitional moment may be, Tim is dedicated to officiating a meaningful secular experience that is both thoughtful and respectful.
Reba Boyd Wooden
Email: indy@centerforinquiry.net
Phone: 317-797-5892
Reba Boyd Wooden is Executive Director of Center for Inquiry Indiana. She started Humanist Friendship Group of Central Indiana in 1999 which became CFI Indiana. She has officiated at numerous weddings and same-sex commitment ceremonies and some memorials and other ceremonies. She is a board member of ACLU of Indiana and and a member of several other progressive organizations. She is a regular blogger at CFI's Free Thinking: Freethought from the Heartland.
She is co-director of the CFI Secular Celebrant Program. If you would like a Secular Celebrant training session to be held in your area, email indy@centerforinquiry.net.
Kentucky
John Kiel
Email: jkiel@comcast.net
Phone: 317-402-4301
John Kiel has an AAS from Indiana University. He is employed by Ford Motor Company as a safety trainer and pipefitter/plumber (skilled trades). He is a charter member of Humanist Friendship Group of Central Indiana and Center for Inquiry Indiana. He is a member of NOW, AU, ACLU of Indiana, FFRF, and UAW Local 1111. He has taken the Dale Carnegie Course—Public Speaking.
Missouri
Kathleen Kelly
Email: StLCityIsbest@gmail.com
Phone: 314-533-3972
Kathleen Kelly graduated with a bachelor’s degree from UMSL and was a computer programmer/systems analyst for almost 20 years. She has been a member of the Ethical Society since 1991 and President of The Rationalist Society of St. Louis for several years. She is a member of Center for Inquiry, Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Atheists and Atheist Alliance International. She decided to become a Secular Celebrant after hearing way too many bad stories about funerals and weddings that just weren’t suitable for freethinkers. Her goal is to change the world, one ceremony at a time!
New York
Sue McKegney
Email: sgmckegney@msn.com
Phone: 716-807-4433
Sue McKegney is a Friend of CFI-Amherst. Sue lives in Western New York and has two adult sons. She has a psychology degree from University of Buffalo. Sue was a certified birth and postpartum doula and has worked in Client Service for over 10 years. She is a 10-year member of Toastmasters.
Sue became a Secular Celebrant to help others create ceremonies that reflect their own beliefs and values. She strives to work with the individual to help create weddings, funerals and memorials which will be rewarding, memorable and personal.
Ohio
Chris Kenney
Email: info@secularcelebrant.com
Phone: 513-910-8870
Over the past several years Chris attended funerals that were more of a "come to Jesus" sermon than a celebration of the deceased's life so he decided to do something about it and became a certified secular celebrant in 2009. Being a celebrant is a natural fit for his positive worldview, enjoyment of public speaking, and genuine interest in people’s unique stories.
Chris is a CFI Indiana Friend of the Center and a member of the American Humanist Association.
Oregon
Victoria Cummings
Email: tricker62@hotmail.com
Phone: 503-753-6456
Victoria Cummings has a B.A. in Science from Marylhurst University. She is a science educator, naturalist, owner of Northwest Naturalist, Outdoor Education volunteer, now retired.
Bill Burcham
Email: bill.burcham@gmail.com
Phone: 503-720-2991
Bill Burcham grew up in a liberal Catholic home. Though he studied logic, physics and psychology in engineering school, the light didn't really come on until almost 20 years later, sparked by the responsibility of raising three kids. Study and contemplation on the question, "which religion are we Daddy?" led him to the conclusion that our beliefs ought to be dictated by science and reason, rather than dogma. As a Secular Celebrant, Bill is contributing to a society where we can celebrate together and mourn together as a community — without sacrificing our intellectual integrity.
To support his bicycle and burrito habits, Bill makes software for the Interwebs. He is active in Portland Public Schools Odyssey Program where he has tutored math students and has scrambled eggs for over eleventy people. He is a Friend of the Center of Center for Inquiry-Portland.
Dani Tofte
Email: dani@nwsecularcelebrant.com
Phone: 503-888-1173
Dani Tofte wrote her own secular wedding ceremony and would like to see this option available to others, along with other secular ceremonies for such events as memorials, births and coming-of-age celebrations. She also plans to promote inclusion of non-religious officiants in the privilege of solemnizing marriages.
She is a secular humanist and is committed to furthering CFI’s mission “to foster a secular society”. She currently volunteers as the Communications Chair for the CFI–Portland Advisory Board.
Dani has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Oregon. Before coming home to raise her children, she was an educational trainer for many years.
Virginia
Jennifer Caires
Email: jennifercaires@yahoo.com
Phone: 703-254-6166
Jennifer Caires is a certified Creativity Coach. As a coach, she helps creative people overcome blocks and obstructions in their work. Jennifer holds a BA in writing and has worked in publishing and higher education. Jennifer embraces a humanist world view and is dedicated to free inquiry, reason and rationality. She is a Friend of the Center, Washington, DC.
Wisconsin
Scott McAndrew
Email: scott549@yahoo.com
Phone: 608-259-0549
Scott McAndrew is a Court Commissioner for Dane County, Wisconsin, located in Madison. He is authorized under the laws of the State of Wisconsin to perform wedding ceremonies and seeks to afford those without religious affiliation the opportunity to participate in weddings and other formal ceremonies with a format and content of their own choosing.
Scott and his family are enthusiastic supporters of CFI and the secular humanist community. In his spare time, Scott enjoys spending time with his wife and three boys and is an avid distance runner, music fan, and rock musician.
