GHR Foundation is committed to building a proactive team focused on excellence and impact. This team includes GHR’s board, many of our whom are experienced leaders in the philanthropic community. Our board charts the strategic direction of the Foundation, and our committees help execute the work. We are pleased to welcome new members to the board of directors for 2016--Sister Carol Keehan and Kristine Widmer.

Sr. Carol Keehan is the president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. She is responsible for all of the association’s operations and leads teams in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., where she is based. Learn more about Sr. Carol here.
 
Kristine Widmer serves on the GHR Foundation Program and Results Committee, and serves as the chair of Opus Foundation. She has a master’s degrees in real estate and construction management from the University of Denver and a bachelor’s degree in marketing and sociology from the University of St. Thomas. Learn more about Widmer here.
 
We look forward to tapping into their valuable experience as we drive results that improve lives and build a better future for all. To learn more about how GHR's board and committees drive the Foundation's work, contact us.

GHR Foundation's Inter-Religious Action funding works to advance peace by mobilizing religious leaders and communities to address common challenges. On Tuesday, April 12, United States Institute of Peace President Nancy Lindborg will be visiting GHR for a round table discussion, following an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio’s News with Kerri Miller.

The radio conversation, as well as the round table with leading international funders, thinkers and actors in Minnesota and beyond, will be focused on Wars, Refugees and the Real Roots of Global Crisis. Lindborg will discuss how innovative civil society partnerships—like those in Minnesota, Myanmar, Nigeria and elsewhere that are supported by GHR Foundation’s Inter-Religious Action initiative—are central to the long-term solutions that will build resilience, advance development and foster peace.
 
Lindborg will join us in discussing how there is a deeper crisis beneath the traumas that generate news headlines. A collection of “fragile” states across the Middle East, Africa and Asia suffer from weak or ineffective governance that is seen as illegitimate by most of their people and fails to meet the populations’ needs or to manage internal conflict. From Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan or Nigeria, these fragile states are the wellsprings of violence, refugees and extremist groups such as ISIS.

To target this problem, world heads of state adopted a new set of global development goals last year that focuses on building resilient nations with “peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all and effective and capable institutions.” In its mission to end violent conflicts abroad, the United States Institute of Peace works to promote this resilience and inclusion.

We invite you to listen between 9 and 10 am—if you are in the Twin Cities, tune in on 91.1 FM. If you are listening from elsewhere, you can stream the program. To learn more about GHR’s work to advance peace and inter-religious collaboration, contact us.