Biography of Barbara J. Elliott
Barbara J. Elliott
9525 Katy Freeway, Suite 303,
Houston, TX 77024
713 984.1343 ext. 107
fax 713 984.0409
belliott@centerforrenewal.org
Barbara
J. Elliott is the president of the Center for Renewal, a resource center
she founded in 1997 for faith-based organizations working to renew the cities of
America. She is the author of Street
Saints: Renewing America’s Cities, a book on best practices of faith-based
initiatives nationally, based on more than 300 interviews across the country
(Templeton Foundation Press October 2004). An advocate for faith-based and
community initiatives, frequent writer and speaker, she was a Senior Fellow with
the Hudson Institute 2003-4,
and is an Associate Fellow for the normal”>Sagamore
Institute. She is also a Philanthropic Advisor with the Legacy Group.
President
George W. Bush awarded her the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights
in 2001, recognizing her work with refugees and the poor. She addressed the
national conference of the normal”>White House
Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2004. She has served as
an analyst with the Hudson Institute in its project to study faith-based
intermediaries, and served as an expert reviewer for the $26.5 million
Compassion Capital Fund for the U.S. government in 2002. As an advocate for
faith-based groups she has collaborated with the Philanthropy Roundtable, and
addressed the Faith-Based Summit by the House-Senate Majority 2001.
She
has served as a Senior Fellow for the Acton Institute for the Study of
Religion and Liberty, where she was
the director of the Samaritan Awards. She has been a contributor to
numerous publications, including Philanthropy, Policy Review, World, and
Compassion and Culture, and to radio and television programs
domestically and internationally.
She
was an international television correspondent, covering economic and
political news on the PBS-Deutsche Welle program European
Journal (84-89).
She launched a private initiative to assist refugees fleeing communist
countries in 1989. She is the author of Candles
Behind the Wall: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution that Shattered Communism,
(Eerdmans,1993) based on
150 interviews with East bloc Christians who resisted communism because of their
faith.
Barbara
was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to The White House Office
of Public Liaison in 1981, where she was responsible for the White House
briefings on economic policy for the business community. She served as the
Director of Legislative Information for The Heritage Foundation for the
previous three years. Before that,
she was the director of the Center for Constructive Alternatives at Hillsdale
College, and the editor of its journal, Imprimis.
Her
undergraduate work was at Ohio Wesleyan University, and graduate study in
political science at George Washington University (78-79) and in theology at the
University of St. Thomas (1999-2004). She has been a frequent participant in
colloquia of the Liberty Fund, and is a lecturer for the Center for the American
Idea. She has also lectured at Ashland Theological Seminary, the Ashbrook
Center, and Northwood University.
Books:
Forthcoming: Street Saints: Renewing America’s Cities, Templeton Foundation Press (fall 2004)
Forthcoming: Equipping the Saints: A Guide to Giving to Faith-Based Organizations (fall 2004)
Chapter in Power and Leadership, published by the Ashland Theological Seminary (Ashland University, 2003).
Chapter in Empowering Compassion: The Strategic Role of Intermediary Organizations in Building Capacity Among and Enhancing the Impact of Community Healers (Hudson Institute, 2002).
Chapter in: A Peace Reader, edited by Luke Keefer and Morris Sider (Evangel Publishing House, 2002).
Candles Behind the Wall: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution that Shattered Communism, Barbara von der Heydt (Elliott) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993).
Aufbruch: Die Heimliche Helden der friedlichen Revolution, (Stuttgart: Hanssler Verlag, 1993).
Editor of Champions of Freedom, Volumes I, II, and III, (Hillsdale College Press: 1974-75-76).
Selected Articles and Papers:
“Private Sector Support Needed to Equip Faith-Based Organizations,” presented to the White House Conference for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Washington D.C. June 2004.
“Reweaving the Tattered Fabric of Civil Society,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, October 2003.
“The Roots of American Compassion,” Compassion and Culture, July 2003.
“The Spirituality of Compassion:
Mother Teresa and Henri Nouwen,”
presented to the Institutes of Catholic Culture, April 2003.
“Equipping the Street Saints,” Philanthropy magazine,
September 2002.
“Transforming the Soul of the City: One by One
Leadership” Compassion and Culture, Aug. 2002.
“Twentieth Century Fragmentation,” Center for the
American Idea seminar, June 2002.
“Renewal of the Social Fabric: Virtue, Civil Society, and
Faith” presented at the Philadelphia Society meeting April 14, 2002.
“Igniting the Blaze of Greatness” a White Paper on the
Compassion Capital Fund, for the Department of Health and Human Services,
February 2002.
“The Nehemiah
Strategy” presented at the national meeting of the CCDA (Christian Community
Development Association) November, 2001.
The War
Within: Renewing America’s
Soul,” The Walsingham Way, Nov. 2001.
Christianity,
Culture and Civil Society: Communicating
the Vision” presented at the national conference of the Council of Leadership
Foundations, June 14-17, 2001.
Renewing
America Through Faith” presented at the Faith-Based Summit, sponsored by the
House-Senate Majority, April 24-25, 2001.
Faith-Based
Initiatives: The Power that Transforms” presented at the Heritage
Foundation’s Resource Bank, April 20, 2001.
“Standing
by Our Street Saints,” The Gathering, Spring 2001.
“Christianity
and Culture: from the Wasteland
to Civic Renewal” presented at the Center for the American Idea, March 26,
2001.
“The
Virtues of Economy and Charity” presented at the Philadelphia Society, Nov. 8,
2000.
The Case for Faith-Based Social Entrepreneurs” presented at the State of the World Forum,
September 2000, N.Y., N.Y., at the invitation of the John Templeton Foundation.
Social
Entrepreneurship from A to Z” presented at the Council of Leadership
Foundations, June 2000.
“FaithWorks:
From Success to Significance”:
Compassion and Culture, Capital Research Center, August 2000.
“Compassionate
Conservatism” presented to the Republican Eagles, October 1999.
“The
Brookwood Community: Healing Through the Dignity of Work“: Philanthropy,
Culture, & Society, Capital Research Center, Nov. 1999.
“Kids
Hope USA: One Adult, One Child, One Hour.” Philanthropy, Culture, &
Society, Capital Research Center, July 1999.
“Courage
and Character” presented to the International Association of Evangelical
Publishers,
Frankfurt, Germany, October 1998.
“KIPP
Academy: No Shortcuts to Learning,” Outstanding
Social Entrepreneurs, June 1998.
“Can
Pope John Paul II do for Cuba what he did for Eastern Europe?”
normal”>World, Jan. 24, 1998.
“Healing
Lives, One Person At A Time,” Religion
and Liberty, May-June 1997.
“Tough
Medicine for Welfare Moms,” Policy
Review, May-June 1997.
“One
to One Strategy: Kids Hope USA,” World, June
1997.
“Seven
Years After the Fall,” Religion and
Liberty, November, 1996.
“Has
the Salt Lost its Saltiness in Leipzig?” World,
October 5, 1996.
“A
Job Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” Policy
Review, Jan. 1996.
“No
Democracy Without Morality,” Christian
Democrat, Moscow, 1995.
“Corruption
in Russia,” white paper prepared at the invitation of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, 1995.
“Russia’s
Spiritual Wilderness,” Policy
Review, 1994.
“The
Role of Religion in the Collapse of Communism” presented to legislators and
diplomats from Eastern and Central European Countries, 1994.