Kristin Wintermute, Director of Education, has BA degree in Psychology and a minor in Art Studio from the University of Montana and a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Maine, Orono. Wintermute has done post-graduate coursework in Business Administration at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management; Web Design at Minneapolis College of Art and Design; and Accounting Certification at North Hennepin Community College. She worked for over seven years as a family therapist in a variety of settings, including private practice, a non-profit clinic for women and a for-profit health maintenance organization.
She is a life-long humanist who attended the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis (FUS) throughout her childhood and teen years. At first, she was enrolled in FUS’s “Humanist Education Program” and in high school became a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate at the University of Montana, she used FUS’s “Humanist Education Program” curriculum at the Unitarian Fellowship of Missoula, Montana to form their first Humanist-oriented Sunday School. In 1998, she was hired by the North American Committee for Humanism (NACH) as Membership Director. In 1999, NACH and its subsidiary, The Humanist Institute, became one organization and she became its business manager and later the executive director. In 2018 The Humanist Institute became the American Humanist Association Center for Education.
Emily Newman, Education Coordinator, previously worked as the Development & Communications Assistant for The Humanist Institute before it merged with the American Humanist Association. For almost ten years, Newman was the Communications Coordinator of the American Ethical Union and continues to be active with the Future of Ethical Societies and the Young Humanists International. She grew up at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture and is a member of the Washington Ethical Society. She holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology and creative writing as well as a Master of Arts in professional writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Throughout her career, she has enjoyed assisting nonprofits and small businesses with social media, design, event planning, website development, editing, and marketing.
Becca Ray, Program Assistant, works primarily with The Humanist Society. Ray was a Director and Co-Founder of The Atheist Community of Polk County, where she and her team developed various community outreach programs. She also served as an Assistant State Director for American Atheists for the state of Florida. She is very happy to be joining the AHA team, and is very excited about working alongside people she considers to be role models in the humanist community. Ray is originally from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She recently relocated to Denver, Colorado, with her wife and two kids. She is very passionate about serving the community, and hopes to find ways to recreate some of the programs she helped develop for Florida in Colorado.