Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members

May 13, 2014

Hartford Seminary's Board of Trustees welcomed three new members to its ranks at its annual meeting on May 12. It also confirmed new terms for several trustees, welcomed new corporators and said goodbye to four board members. Re-elected to three-year terms were Fatma Antar, Reza Mansoor, Salahuddin Muhammad, Sydney Perry and James Robertson, and re-elected to a one-year term was William Cronin. The new Faculty Trustee for a two-year term is Prof. Yehezkel Landau. Leaving the board after nine years of service were Amy Robinson and the Rev. Stanley Kemmerer. Also leaving were Christel Ford Berry, on the board since 2012, and the Rev. Dr. Edward G. Horstmann, on the board since 2007. The new trustees are Peter Kelly, the Rev. Matthew Laney, and the Rev. Stephen W. Camp. Peter Kelly, an attorney and businessman, has long been active in Democratic politics at the local, state, and national level. He has served as Treasurer and National  Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and was a member for 16 years. He served as a senior political advisor to Al Gore in 1988 and 200, and to Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. Mr. Kelly was founder, director and Treasurer of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and Chairman of The Center for Democracy, a bipartisan foundation, both based in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is a senior principal of Updike, Kelly & Spellacy, P.C., a law firm with offices in Hartford, New Haven and Middletown, CT. He is the former Chairman of The PBN Company, a strategic planning firm with offices in Moscow, Kiev, London and Washington, and he previously served as Chairman of Black, Kelly, Scruggs and Healy, a Washington public affairs firm, and as Managing Director of Burson-Marsteller (Latin America). He is Chairman of the Saint Francis Hospital Foundation board and a member of the boards of Saint Francis Care and Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center. He also serves as Chairman of the Malta House of Care Foundation, Inc. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of the International Council of Middle East Studies. He previously served as the founder and Chairman of the Greater Hartford Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc., Chairman of the MetroHartford Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, Chairman of the Hartford Civic Center commitee, Chairman of the World Affairs Council of Connecticut, and as a member fo the board of Connecticut Public Broadcasting and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Rev. Laney is a native New Englander, born and raised in Maine. He moved to New Jersey with his family during his teen years and graduated from Kenyon College in 1993 with a B.A. in Religion and a minor in Theater. After graduation, he moved to Atlanta and worked with organizations serving the homeless and emotionally disturbed adolescents. Having heard the call to ministry, Rev. Laney enrolled at Andover Newton Theological Seminary in 2001. After graduation, he was called to serve as Associate Minister at First Congregational Church in Manchester, VT, and in 2007, he accepted a position as Senior Minister of First Congregational UCC in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 2001, he was called to serve at Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford as Senior Pastor. The Rev. Stephen W. Camp was born and raised in the Hartford area and was nurtured at Faith Congregational Church. He attended Bethune-Cookman College in Florida, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Religion and Philosophy. He received his Master of Divinity at Chicago Theological Seminary before being called to ministry as pastor of the Lincoln Memorial Congregational, United Church of Christ in Chicago. After seven years, Rev. Camp accepted a position as Executive Director of the South Side Health Project, which provides medical care for poor women and children. Rev. Camp served as a minister for several years before becoming Associate Executive Minister of Local Church Ministries for the national United Church of Christ. He then became a Conference Minister of the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ. In the Southern Conference, Rev. Camp served as a trustee of Elon University, the United Church Homes and Services Board, three Outdoor Ministries sites, and was active with the North Carolina and Virginia Council of Churches. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the United Church of Christ, the Council of Conference Ministers and the Cornerstone Fund. In 2009, Rev. Camp was called to be the Senior Pastor of Faith Congregational Church, Hartford's oldest black church. Corporators elected to the Class of 2019 include Win Adkins, Edward Charlebois, James Curry, Shareda Hosein, Alyce Hild, Louis Romanos, Donna Schaper and Joseph Tobin.