Bob Palm President Bob Palm is currently serving as a Vice President for Refugee Services of Texas, Inc., and is a Founding Member and previously served as Board President for the Association for Refugee Service Professionals. Mr. Palm has worked in the refugee field for over twenty seven years. He has served as an Affiliate Director for Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and as a Regional Consultant for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Prior to joining Refugee Services of Texas, Inc., Mr. Palm served as a private Consultant in the refugee field. Mr. Palm graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology, and attended Graduate School at Worden’s School of Social Service, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas.

Sandra Mullins Vice President Since 1998, Sandra Mullins has served as the Executive Director of Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, formerly Refugee Ministries at the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta. In November of 1999 she was nominated by her peers and elected to serve as the CWS/IRP Affiliate Representative for IRPCOM. She is the Vice President of the Refugee Council for the State of Georgia. Sandra graduated with a B.A. in English from Capital University and a Master’s of Divinity from Emory University in 1980. She has 30 years of experience working with nonprofit and church-related organizations. Sandra served as pastor for four congregations and served eight years as Assistant Conference Minister in the Southeast Conference for the United Church of Christ. During those years of service she worked with 90 congregations and designed, developed and implemented programs for local churches in the areas of Education, Stewardship, Justice and Peace, Women’s Concerns, Evangelism, Human Sexuality, and Church Growth. Over the past fifteen years Sandra has coordinated a number of USAID-funded international nonprofit training and development programs in NGO Management and in Violence Against Women and Children. She has also been responsible for developing long-range fundraising plans, recruiting and training volunteers and key leadership, strategic planning for various organizations, such as Girls Clubs, YWCA, Georgia State University Women’s Center, The Friendship Force, Winrock International/NIS-US Women’s Consortium.

Carlton E. Meier Treasurer Carlton E. Meier is a financial and management consultant providing technical assistance for refugee resettlement agencies, governmental units, foundations and not-for-profit organizations. Until he semi-retired, Carl was Vice President for Lutheran Social Services in New York City, which provided local resettlement services for up to 1,300 refugees annually.  Earlier, while Director of Finance and Administration for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Carl helped grow LIRS' Office of Refugee Resettlement Matching Grant program from annual expenditures of $700,000 to a budget of more than $8,000,000 over five years.  His involvement with refugees began as a volunteer when his congregation assisted Southeast Asian refugees during the late 1970s. Carl chairs the board of directors of Community Investing Company, Inc., Wilmington, DE and the endowment fund committee for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's New Jersey Synod, having served on the synod council.  Carl is also a board member for ISED Solutions, a not-for-profit research and consulting firm in Washington, DC.  Prior to joining LIRS he was First Vice President and corporate controller for one of the 100 largest public bank holding companies in the US. A graduate of Babson College with an MBA from the Eller Graduate School of Management at the University of Arizona, Carl continued his education with a diploma from the School for Bank Administration at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and graduate work at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Lisa David Secretary Lisa has worked in the refugee resettlement field since 1995.  She has held the position of Regional Director with the International Rescue Committee since 1999, and currently oversees both their Regional Office in Dallas and Sub-Office in Abilene.  Prior to joining IRC, she worked with Catholic Charities/Boston where she managed the Refugee Resettlement program and volunteered as Coordinator of a Haitian refugee women’s group.  She also served as voluntary Chair of the Resource Center for Women and International Development, a joint Harvard/MIT group.  Prior to entering the refugee field, Lisa served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica for two years assisting rural women with microenterprise projects.  She holds a M.A. in Intercultural Relations from Lesley College and a B.A. in Political Science/International Relations from the University of Rochester.

Sandy Myers Assistant Treasurer Sandra Hudson Myers has a Master of Education from Texas Wesleyan University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Texas Arlington.  Ms. Myers is currently employed by the School of Education at Texas Wesleyan writing grants and managing the bilingual grant program.  She is also affiliated with Refugee Services of Texas as a grant writer.  Ms. Myers has 20 years of experience developing and managing ESL/literacy, citizenship and acculturation programs for adult refugees and immigrants.  She also developed and managed a translation and interpretation program for 10 years.  Ms. Myers has presented at numerous local and state TexTESOL conferences, for the Texas Department of Human Services, and for Fort Worth and San Antonio ISDs.  Her publications can be found in the Wesleyan Graduate Review and the Journal of Teacher Education.

Carol Roxburgh Assistant Secretary Carol is the CEO of Refugee Services of Texas Inc. where she has been employed for fifteen years. Carol is also a founding member and officer of the Association for Refugee Services Professionals. She has worked in many capacities at RST from Co-sponsor Developer to Case Manager to Sub office director and has also worked at CWS national headquarters in New York on various occasions filling in for national staff and assisting with projects. Africa has a special place in her heart as she lived there for ten years and has since visited privately and with the CWS Affiliate trips to Kenya and Ghana as well as to refugee camps in Thailand. Carol has served as the CWS Affiliate Representative and is on the LIRS RCAC for the second time. Previously employed with Dallas Baptist University where she obtained a bachelor and master’s degrees, she began working in a local Vietnamese mission church and that, added to her African background, made the transition to a refugee ministry a natural fit.

Raleigh Bailey Raleigh Bailey, Ph.D., is founding Director of the Center for New North Carolinians (CNNC) at UNCG and Senior Research Scientist in the Office of Research and Economic Development at UNCG. In 2001, CNNC was established by the UNC Board of Governors to be a resource to the state university system in immigrant outreach, research, and training. It was built upon the AmeriCorps Cross Cultural Education Service Systems, established in 1994. In 2003 he received the lifetime achievement award from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Refugee Program for service to refugees, and in 2008 he received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the North Carolina Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. In March of 2010 the Office of the Governor of the State of North Carolina awarded him the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. During 1993 and 1994, Raleigh administered the Casa Guadalupe Hispanic Outreach Project for Catholic Social Services in Winston-Salem. From 1989 to 1993, he lived in Southeast Asia: first in Thailand where he administered an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) refugee training program through the Department of State; and then in Cambodia where he administered a USAID funded prosthetics project for land mine victims. Prior to that, 1984-89, Raleigh served as Director of Refugee Programs for Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas. During that time he directed the initial Montagnard resettlement project in the US. The project received a White House Presidential Citation. From 1976 to 1984, Raleigh was an education and training specialist with the Head Start State Training Office at NC A & T State University. Prior to that, he taught anthropology at Guilford College. He has an undergraduate degree from Florida Southern College and a theological degree from Boston University. His doctoral work at Hartford Seminary Foundation was in anthropology of religion. He was born in Miami, Florida, in 1943 and moved to Greensboro in 1973.

Carol Young Carol Young served as the Executive Director of Kentucky Refugee Ministries from 1999 through December 2009. Kentucky Refugee Ministries is a local affiliate of Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries. Prior to her position as Executive Director, Carol served as a Case Manager from 1992-1999. Carol’s previous experience was in education, serving as an Enrichment Teacher, Educational Examiner, and Research Assistant/ Psychometrician. Carol has a B.A. in Psychology, from Regis College, Weston, Massachusetts, and a Certificate in Non-Profit Management, from Bellarmine University. Carol served on the Louisville Metro Office of International Affairs, from 2002 – 2009, and serves as co-chair of Mayor-Elect Fisher’s International team for 2010.

Ruth Bersin The Rev. Ruth H. Bersin, M.A.R., M.Div., D. Min, Ph.D. is an Episcopal Priest with experience as a teacher and in the business world. She has extensive experience in immigration issues. She has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1975 and is a Certified Fund Raising Executive with extensive experience in marketing and fund raising. She is currently the Executive Director of Refugee Immigration Ministry in Boston. She was Executive Director for English Life Line from 1989-1992 and served as a Civilian clergy person on the Yokosuka Navy Base at that time. Dr. Bersin is a clinical member of American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a Certified Fund Raising Executive. She has training as a chaplain in a reform school, in a medical center and she received a trauma certificate from the Trauma Center in Brookline. In addition, she received specialized training for police chaplaincy in 1996 following her work as Team Leader for the National Organization of Victim Assistance in response to the Oklahoma City bombing. She has provided training for volunteer chaplains for detention centers across the country. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants she organized a conference for Refugee Service Providers. She is serving on the National Association for Refugee Service Professionals and on the National Advisory Committee for Episcopal Migration Ministries. Dr. Bersin has written on Spirituality in the Recovery Process after Traumatic Experience and has given papers on the subject to numerous conferences including the Episcopal East Coast Military Chaplains Conference, Association of Trauma Stress Specialists, and American Association of Pastoral Counselors. She has published an article: “Healing Traumatic Memories: A Spiritual Journey.” in Theological Literacy for the 21st Century, Eerdmans, 2002 and “Life Beyond the Gates.” in The Antoich Agenda, Andover Newton Theological School and The Boston Theological Institute, New Delhi, 2007. Her dissertation topic: “Community-based Resettlement: Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Asylees Rebuild Their Lives with the Help of Congregations and Community.”

Caitriona Lyons Caitriona Lyons began her work in the area of refugee and immigration programs many years ago and is privileged to be working for the US refugee program. She is currently the Refugee Program Coordinator for the State of Texas Health and Human, Services Commission. Prior to this, she worked in the Government Relations department within the Texas Department of Human Services as an immigration specialist. She has extensive work experience in the non-profit sector including the direction of a refugee resettlement program in Austin for USCCB. Caitriona has a master’s in Human Services Administration from St. Edward’s University and is a licensed social worker. She is the past President for the State Coordinator’s of Refugee Resettlement association and currently serves on the executive board. In June 2006, Caitriona was awarded Outstanding American by Choice by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for her work with immigrants and refugees in Texas.