Our People.

Chris grew up in Ohio. One of his first memories is the smell of vinegar and overripe tomatoes from the ketchup factory next to the trailer park where he lived with his young mom and dad in Bowling Green. Later, after his parents’ divorce, his mom relocated to Youngstown, where the night sky glowed from the open hearth blast furnace fires.

As a teenager Chris discovered philosophical and theological writings. Louis Fischer’s biography of Gandhi introduced Chris to the moral power of non-violent resistance. Reading CS Lewis’s Narnia stories gave Chris his first entry into Christian-inflected ways of making meaning. Later, in college, Chris became even more intrigued by the image of the human being revealed in the mystical writings of St. John of the Cross, the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and the short stories of Flannery O’Connor.

At Georgetown, Chris met teachers he had not yet encountered: faithful Christians who could think clearly and deeply about complex questions. He began to see that faith and reason were not necessarily at war. While pursuing an international relations degree, Chris increasingly gravitated to classes in theology and philosophy. He went on to get a Master of Philosophy degree in Philosophy of Religion at St. Andrews University, and then a Master of Divinity degree at Andover Newton.

The S1 Project is the culmination of Chris’s vocations, avocations, and passions. Teaching, writing, and engaging in generative conversations have been constants throughout Chris’s work and life. Connecting philosophy and theology—and humanistic learning in general—to real life, in pragmatic ways, motivates Chris in his preaching, as well as in his filmmaking and podcasting. Chris has also always loved history in general, and American history in particular. The S1 Project reflects this passion, in its focus on America’s shared common life.

While not collaborating with Brandon on the S1 Project and with Shayna on the What In God’s Name podcast, Chris built, and continues to modify, his 20-foot wooden sailing boat, the yawl “Josephine.” He cuts and splits firewood, and makes maple syrup. He lives with his wife and a pet steer on a patch of stony southern New Hampshire soil.

Chris is grateful for this broken yet beautiful world: for art, for collaborative creativity, for kindness—and for the power at the heart of all things, that can bring new life from dead ends.

Shayna was born into a culturally Jewish household but claims to have had a healthy curiosity about her faith from a young age. Jewish holidays were celebrated in the home but Temple was not a part of her family’s life together. She discovered Unitarian Universalism in her early thirties and soon thereafter discerned a call to ministry. In an effort to overcome her fear of all things Christian, Shayna chose to attend a Christian seminary (Andover Newton), where she was introduced to Rabbi Jesus. Suffice it to say that she overshot the mark a bit and wound up getting ordained in the United Church of Christ at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College on December 3, 2006. In December of 2014 Shayna was also given standing in the Unitarian Universalist Association. She has served churches in both denominations and is most at home practising her faith among those with differing perspectives.

In a previous life, Shayna worked in pre-hospital emergency medical care, having been certified as an Emergency Medical Technician in 1980 while attending Hampshire College, and then as a Paramedic in 1986. In 1987 she became the first woman to serve in the East Hartford Fire Department as a Firefighter/Paramedic. This background, combined with Shayna’s work in parish ministry, led her to Fire Department Chaplaincy. She currently serves as Chaplain to Townsend (MA) Fire & Rescue, Peterborough (NH) Fire & Rescue, the Granite State Critical Incident Stress Response Team, and the UU Trauma Response Team.

Shayna met Chris sometime in 2016-17 while they were both serving congregations in Jaffrey, NH. When Chris approached her with the idea of a podcast she jumped at the chance to work with him. “Having an opportunity to sit with Chris week in and week out and discuss the issues of our time through the lenses of theology, ethics, morality and humanism has certainly deepened and clarified my own faith journey,” says Shayna.

Now retired from parish ministry (as of June 2023), Shayna is excited to have more head-space and heart-space for the work of the S1 Project which, she says, “is something our world desperately needs right now!”

Shayna lives in Milford, NH with her faithful canine companion Arlo. She enjoys camping in her spare time, golf, any excuse to get to Star Island (Isles of Shoals, NH) and time hanging out with friends!

One of Brandon’s fondest childhood memories is learning to read with his mom. Through the Berenstain Bears, Frog and Toad, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, she instilled in him the importance of education as a vehicle for personal transformation. Brandon also grew up attending a Southern Baptist church with his parents and grandparents in rural North Carolina. Taken together, education and Christianity constitute two of Brandon’s most deeply-held core values. But as is the case in our complex culture, these two also came into conflict in impactful ways for Brandon.

A lover of liberal arts even in high school, Brandon was accepted to study history at Wake Forest University. But his Southern Baptist pastor had something to say about this: “Don’t do it, you’ll lose your faith.” Undaunted and unconvinced, Brandon matriculated anyway, commencing a years’ (21!) long journey of educational exploration.

His undergraduate years afforded him exposure to the academic study of religion, which he continued in earnest at Harvard Divinity School. Here, he encountered the concept of religious literacy, which he values as a necessary ingredient of a robust, pluralistic society. Then, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Brandon learned from Robert Kegan, who helped him frame a central question: does democracy in 21st Century America demand that citizens reach a certain level of self-authorship? These guide his work in the S1 Project.

But it was the encounter with his childhood minister that spawned the topic of his doctoral dissertation, The Search for the ‘Right’ College (2023). In an ethnographic and ecological study, Brandon observed how White evangelical youth navigate college choice in a polarized society. He believes that non-sectarian four-year colleges and universities – as institutions tasked with educating citizens in a diverse, pluralistic democracy – should take note. Perhaps appropriately, Brandon works closely with Chris to develop an educational and overall strategic vision for the S1 Project.

Beyond this, Brandon has a deep affinity for Carolina pulled pork (with Lexington sauce, of course!), ACC basketball, cozy, armchair mysteries, and the Blue Ridge Mountains. An avid hiker and backpacker, he has summited the NH48 and been fortunate to sleep under the stars among the red rocks of Utah, the snowcapped Sawtooths of Idaho, and many beautiful landscapes in between. He’s also a burgeoning gardener, having grown the dahlias for his lovely wife’s wedding bouquet, an aspiring beekeeper, and enthusiastic dog dad to Margot, his beloved English Springer Spaniel.

In case you were wondering, his Southern Baptist pastor was wrong: Brandon is now a devout Anglo-Catholic, having fallen in love with the tradition’s deep commitment to the life-giving Eucharistic, its emphasis on salvation as a process, and appreciation for the church’s two millennia history.

Hal grew up in Berlin, N.H. and went to the University of New Hampshire as a Political Science major.  While at UNH he worked as a Research Assistant in the Poli Sci Dept for two years. This experience gave Hal a lifelong interest in politics.

A curious mind, Hal has minors in History, Sociology, and Art History.

Hal entered the financial services industry and has spent 50 years working in that field. In 2000 he and his wife started Sullivan & Sullivan, LLC.  Hal was one of the first Certified Financial Planners (since 1986) in N.H.

While at UNH, Hal played 2 years of baseball and carried that knowledge and love of the game into 25 years of coaching youth baseball. His satisfaction comes in never having a kid quit and seeing several move on to college sports.

Hal and his wife, Nancy, live in Manchester, N.H., have four children and three grandchildren.  Hal is active in Rotary and several volunteer boards of city departments. He is an avid golfer and loves sports.