Board of Trustees

Elizabeth (Liz) Gates (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and New England Yearly Meeting) has a wide background of Quaker service over 45 years.  She has served a Clerk of Lancaster Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania and was active in Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) for over 25 years, serving on the Executive Committee of the Section of the Americas, as Assistant Clerk on the Central Executive Committee for the World and as co-clerk of the planning committee for the World Gathering of Friends held in 2012 in Kabarak, Kenya.  She and her husband Tom worked at Friends Lugulu Hospital in Western Kenya for three years and in Lisungwi, Malawi for a year and a half.  Now retired from conservation work at a seminary library, Liz has a love of gardening, bookbinding and paper marbling.

Marian Beane (Piedmont Friends Fellowship and Yearly Meeting) has served as a Quaker volunteer internationally in Ramallah (1968-1970) and Kenya (1970). She has also held many positions of leadership in Quaker organizations, including Friends World Committee for Consultation and as Clerk of Central Committee for Friends General Conference. From 1976-2015 she taught international education with international students. 

Tom Gates (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting) has spent his career as a family doctor and medical educator, bookended by two stints of medical work in rural Africa: 1991-94, at Friends Lugulu Hospital in Kenya, with Friends United Meeting; and 2015-17, at Lisungwi Community Hospital in Malawi, with Boston-based Partners in Health. He is a member of Lancaster Friends Monthly Meeting, and has authored five Pendle Hill Pamphlets (319, 341, 371, 422, and 435). In his retirement, he works 3 days a week at our the Community Health Center in Lancaster, PA (dubbed by the BBC as “Americas Refugee Capital”) taking care of many refugees and immigrants.

Phil Goodchild (Western Yearly Meeting) lives in Zionsville, Indiana.  He grew up in various developing nations as the son of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and spent his career as a commercial real estate lawyer.  He is a member of Indianapolis First Friends Monthly Meeting, and is active as an advocate with Friends Committee on National Legislation, and on the state level with Indiana Friends Committee on Legislation.  He is privileged to serve RSWR, furthering a collaboration with women's groups in other countries that promotes both self-determination for them and a deeper understanding of what "enough" is for us.

Spence retired after serving in the financial services industry for 40 years as a sales leader and commercial lender to public and private companies across many industries.  A graduate of Guilford College, he has served on many not-for-profit Boards including several that were Quaker related.  He and his wife live in Charlotte, NC.  He is drawn to the work RSWR does because of the dignity RS brings to women in societies where they have little to no standing as well as the thoughtful and efficient manner with which it deploys its resources.

Peggy Horner (New England Yearly Meeting) splits her time between Maine and Missouri, where she attends Quaker meetings in both places. Her experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone in the early 80s gives her a personal connection to the RSWR mission, and her travels to Mozambique on a medical mission in 2009 renewed her interest in staying involved in humanitarian work with underprivileged peoples. As a retired Executive Director of a non-profit conservation organization, she now enjoys and appreciates being on a board dedicated to training and supporting women in partnerships and ensuring the long term success of RSWR.

Becky Garris Perry has been a part of Western Yearly Meeting her whole life. Her involvement with Quakers includes camp director, camp counselor, YM committee member, Meeting treasurer/clerk, adult sponsor for Youth Cabinet, First Day teacher, and Quaker Haven board member. Her employment has been in the field of finance and her experience has ranged from healthcare to retail to public accounting and the nonprofit association field. A motivating quote from John Woolman is “conduct is more convincing than language”.

Beirne Roose-Snyder (Baltimore Yearly Meeting) lives in Takoma Park, MD. She is a human rights lawyer working at the intersections of U.S. foreign policy, HIV/AIDS, LGBTQI+ rights, and women’s health. She served at Quaker Cottage in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a lifelong camper, counselor, and now parent at Farm & Wilderness Camps, and is deeply immersed in Quaker education, including as a graduate of Westtown School, Earlham College, and as a current Sandy Spring Friends School parent.

Bob Runyan is a member of Chico Friends Meeting in northern California. He served in the Peace Corps in Seychelles from 1983 to 1985 and then worked in the computer software industry. He served three years as the Executive Director of Sierra Friends Center and eight years as Co-Director (with wife Kathy) of Ben Lomond Quaker Center. Bob currently enjoys working as a piano technician.

Mico Sorrel (Whidbey Island Friends Meeting, North Pacific Yearly Meeting) has served Quakers in many capacities including as clerk of NPYM, Friends Association of Services for the Elderly, and as co-clerk of the Friends General Conference 2006 Gathering. A career in osteopathic medicine, with patient care devoted to chronically ill and developmentally disabled children, continues to offer professional leadership opportunities including international teaching.

Jackie Speicher, a recorded pastoral minister, received her M.Div. from Earlham School of Religion. Jackie is a member of member of West Richmond Friends and the New Association of Friends. She was Program Secretary for RSWR for 4 years, traveling among monthly and yearly meetings providing programs on simplicity and on global economic disparities and wrote a Right Sharing curriculum for First Day School children. She serves several leadership roles in her monthly meeting. She worked 20 years in community development in economically challenged communities in the U.S. and in Berlin, Germany, working with Native Americans and immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Turkey. As Executive Director of a job skills training program for unemployed and underemployed women she helped start similar programs in 6 states and trained staff for startups in India and Tonga.

A recorded minister, Ruthie was raised in Northwest Yearly Meeting, and served in pastoral ministry in Iowa and Western Yearly Meetings of Friends.  Prior to this, Ruthie was an elementary music teacher and holds a master’s degree in Education/Creative Arts in Learning.  Ruthie prompted the experiential curriculum Quaker Affirmation – a Course of Study for Young Friends for middle school students needing to learn about Quaker history, faith, and practice. Ruthie writes, leads worship and study groups, and volunteers as the Children’s Program Coordinator at her local Library.

Brooks Shippen-How, formerly a member of Fresh Pond Monthly Meeting, Cambridge, MA, attended Friends Camp in China, Maine for many years.  She graduated from Guilford College and now resides in Greensboro, NC.  Working as an Epidemiologist within the Public Health sphere, Brooks has also partnered with many Quaker based national and international organizations helping build community capacity and housing/clinics. Brooks has a Graduate level background in monitoring and evaluation coupled with a passion for women, gender, and reproductive studies.  

Sally Weaver Sommer (Lake Erie Yearly Meeting) has a PhD in Economics with one focus being Economic Development. For the past 35 years she has worked as a faculty member and administrator at Bluffton University, a Mennonite university in Bluffton, Ohio. Sally also is co-owner of "The Food Store," a natural foods store in Bluffton, which opened in 1981.