Our Board of Directors

The Institutes for Christian Spirituality and its various institutes, including World Citizenship Institutes and Peacebuilding Institute of East Tennessee, are the brainchild of Rev. James Foster, our president and founder.  They grew out of a perceived need for promoting world peace in a time of world chaos and violence as well as the realization that a dynamic personal spirituality is the key to addressing these needs on both the personal and corporate levels.  The ways chosen to do this are the dissemination of information and the promotion of dialogue.  This website is designed to facilitate this process.  Jim lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.

Our Vice President for Organizational Development is Victoria Medaglia, a former school librarian who has a passion for peace and is deeply involved in the program planning process of Peacebuilding Institute of East Tennessee, a program entity of ICS.  She lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  Victoria is the editor of the organization's bimonthly newsletter, Peace Memo, serves as a facilitator for the Nonviolent Living program, and is active in the training program for teaching Nonviolent Communication.

Our secretary, Sandra Foster also lives in Knoxville, Tennessee and is a chaplain at East Tennessee Children's Hospital.  Sandy brings a reasoned, meticulous and compassionate approach to the oversight of the organization and its decision making processes.  She can be reached by the Contact Us for information regarding current and past actions of the ICS Board of Directors.

Our Treasurer, Ernie O. Sutton can be contacted by using the Contact Us. All questions regarding our financial accounting should be directed to Ernie. Questions regarding individual contributions should be directed to Jim Foster who maintains those records for all the Institutes. Ernie lives in Sweetwater, Tennessee.

Bob Rundle is retired from a career providing counseling, training, supervision and administration in family counseling and mental health agencies.  He has a Masters in Social Work, done graduate study in history and has taught social work and sociology at Xavier University.  His passion has become the study and illumination of how faith can be part of building a just and moral economy.

John has a BA degree from Elon University and a M.Div. degree from Duke Divinity School. He has served congregations for forty two years, in North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. The focus of his ministry has been on
building a more just and peaceful society and developing congregations as examples of "radical hospitality" (open and affirming of all persons without regard for race, creed, sexual orientation, etc.).

 He is, along with Bob Rundle, a contributor to En Christo: A Journal for a New Christianity. A number of their articles are available on the Global Economics page of this website.