Senior Chabraja Fellow Robert G. Bottoms became the Interim President of Bexley Hall Seabury Western Federation after serving as the Seabury Western Board Chair.  His term as Interim President ended July 1, 2012 when the Rev. Roger A. Ferlo became the President. 

Bob retired in July 2008 after 22 years as president of DePauw University. He holds a bachelor degree from Birmingham-Southern College, a bachelor of divinity degree from Emory University, and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University.  His career in higher education began when he was appointed chaplain and assistant to the president at Birmingham-Southern College.  He was later assistant dean and assistant professor of church and ministry at Vanderbilt Divinity School.  In 1978, Bob became vice president for university relations at DePauw; he also held the post of executive vice president there before being named president in 1986.

In addition to his work at Seabury, Bob also serves on the board of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago and has been a consultant to the Lilly Endowment, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Fund for Theological Education.  He has written articles and opinion pieces for The New York Times, The Indianapolis Star and the Chicago Tribune. He and his wife, Gwen Vickers Bottoms, are active members of Emmanual Episcopal Church in Athens, GA.  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of eight books including Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening, A People’s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (2009), nominated for a Library of Virginia literary award and the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) which was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY.

Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She blogs at The Huffington Post and Patheos and regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She is a contributing editor for Sojourners Magazine has written widely in the religious press, including Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations.

From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality—a project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from The General Theological Seminary in New York. Diana also serves on the boards of the Beatitudes Society and Public Religion Research.

Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. Diana can be contacted through her website at www.dianabutlerbass.com and can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. 

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William L. Sachs is currently Director of the Center for Interfaith Reconciliation which he founded in 2006. Based in Richmond, Virginia the Center promotes Christian-Muslim understanding through educational and travel programs for churches and businesses. He also serves as Director of Education for the First Freedom Center, an international educational organization.

Previously Sachs was Vice-President of the Episcopal Church Foundation in New York where he directed research and leadership formation programs. He has served as a parish priest in Virginia, Chicago, and Connecticut. He has held various church leadership roles and assists at St. Stephen’s Church, Richmond.

Sachs serves as a consultant to Family Health International, one of the world’s largest providers of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services. He conducted USAID-funded research on the treatment of this disease by religious groups in seven countries, and sits on the Protection of Human Subjects Committee which reviews research in dozens of countries. He has consulted with foundations such as the Lilly Endowment on leadership formation in religious congregations.

He is the author of four books including Homosexuality and the Crisis of Anglicanism (Cambridge, 2009) and Restoring The Ties That Bind (2004). He is the author of over 150 articles, reviews, reports, and chapters in multi-author works on Anglicanism, pluralism, minority rights and leadership. A contributor to the Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer and the Oxford Guide to the Anglican Communion, he is an editor of the Oxford History of Anglicanism.

His work has been cited and he has been interviewed in major media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor, CBS Evening News and Al Jazeera. He writes a regular column on faith and values for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Sachs received the PhD at the University of Chicago after earning degrees from Baylor, Vanderbilt, and Yale. In addition to being a Chabraja Fellow at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Sachs has been a visiting faculty member at various institutions, including Yale Divinity School in 2006. A native of Richmond, he is married to Elizabeth Austin Tucker. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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