Trinity Forum Staff

Cherie Harder

Cherie Harder serves as President of the Trinity Forum. Prior to joining the Trinity Forum in 2008, Ms. Harder served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Policy and Projects for First Lady Laura Bush.

Earlier in her career she served as Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, advising the Leader on domestic social issues and serving as liaison and outreach director to outside groups. From 2001 to 2005, she was Senior Counselor to the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), where she helped the Chairman design and launch the We the People initiative to enhance the teaching, study, and understanding of American history. Prior to that Ms. Harder was the Policy Director for Senator Sam Brownback and also served as Deputy Policy Director at Empower America.

She holds an Honors B.A. (magna cum laude) in government from Harvard University and a post-graduate diploma in literature from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where she was a Rotary Scholar. She is also a Senior Fellow at Cardus, an Editorial Board member of Comment magazine, a past board member of Gordon College and the C.S. Lewis Institute, a current board member of the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution and Faith and Law, and an advisory board member of the National Museum of American Religion.

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Brian Daskam

Brian Daskam is the Director of Communications at the Trinity Forum. Contact Brian with questions about the website, social media, podcasts, or other Trinity Forum communications.

As the former editor of Cityvision Magazine and a communications professional for cities in Texas and Washington state, Brian has over 15 years of experience as a writer, photographer, designer, and communication strategist. Brian is an avid reader with a special interest in discussing ideas deeply in community. He holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of North Texas.

Kristen Forney

Kristen Forney is the Executive Assistant and Office Manager at The Trinity Forum. Kristen was born and raised in Raleigh, NC. She has worked for various organizations over the past few years including an educational nonprofit called the Charlotte Mason Institute where she has served in project management, event planning, and administration. Most recently she worked at Captiveaire, an engineering and manufacturing firm, where she oversaw interns and worked in areas of marketing and executive administration. Kristen holds a B.S. from Regent University where she studied Business and Marketing.

Tom Walsh

Tom Walsh joins The Trinity Forum as Vice President of Operations from London where he led advocacy and communications for a startup, the Global Solidarity Fund, which catalyzes collaboration across the faith, business & development sectors for vulnerable people. Before that, Tom worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Washington DC and London, creating alliances to support governments in investing in international development and health.

From 2004-2012, Tom served in the US State Department on PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, as the deputy head of the program and as its chief of staff. As a civil servant, he served as its acting head for five months during the 2009 presidential transition – an important moment for ensuring that it remained a US foreign policy priority. At both the Gates Foundation and PEPFAR, collaboration with faith leaders and communities was central to Tom’s work. Before these roles, he worked at the US Senate Finance Committee on US domestic health programs. Tom holds degrees from Duke (undergraduate), the University of Texas (law), and Harvard (master’s in public health), and is a former champion on Jeopardy!.