The SSA has two full-time paid staff.

August E. Brunsman IV, Executive Director
Albany, NY
[august AT secularstudents DOT org]

Brunsman is the executive director of the Secular Student Alliance.  He has served in that position since 2001, and started getting paid for it in 2004. He  also worked as a programmer for the Institute for Humanist Studies from 2001 to 2004. In 1997 he co-founded Students for Freethought at the Ohio State University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa majoring in psychology and minoring in mathematics and cognitive science in 2001. Brunsman is also the camp director of Camp Quest Ohio where he has volunteered since 1999.

Alison Bates, Field Director
Albany, NY
[alison AT secularstudents DOT org]

Bates has a Bachelors Degree from Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) where she majored in philosophy and minored in both political science and humanities classics.  While attending OWU, Bates was a member of Amnesty International and Progress OWU (an organization dedicated to fighting social injustices in Delaware, Ohio, and in Columbus).  Alison also organized students to bring OWU up to sweatshop-free standards by participating in United Students Against Sweatshops.

Alison was elected Student Chair of the Philosophy Department, and served on the OWU Judiciary Committee.  She is a member of three honor's societies, including Phi Sigma Tau, an international honors society acknowledging excellence in philosophy.  She received the Lloyd D. Easton award from OWU, one of the two highest accolades given to students of philosophy.  Her primary philosophical interest is epistemology.

Past Staff of the SSA:

Neil Polzin, Southern California Campus Organizer
Alhambra, CA
[neil AT secularstudents DOT org]               

Born in metro Los Angeles, Neil grew up in a moderately religious household. Never finding logic in religion he often looked toward science and reason for answers about the world, leading him into science and philosophy in higher education.

Neil found himself in conflict with groups like the Campus Crusade for Christ in college life. Becoming an early member of the Round Earth Society at Cal Poly Pomona, in response to the need for secular activism on campus. Soon after joining the club he became active in the officer circle in which he is still involved.

In 2006 Neil was elected to the Board of Directors.  In early 2007 he stepped down as a Board member in order to become the Southern California Campus Organizer.  Neil's position is made possible through a grant by Atheists United.

Ryan Langley, Southern California Campus Organizer (August 2006 - March 2007)


Langley was involved in the underground, hardcore, punk music scene of Orange County in the 1990s.  He worked for New Age and Revelation Records helping them get their merchandise into mainstream retail stores (a feat unheard of in the mid 1990s for underground music). He helped book tours for politically themed bands starting out and he even started a record label of his own to give voice to some of the unrecognized music around him. He also began to study the writings of such people as Richard Rorty and Karl Marx, as well as music and political theory.

“Punk music... no matter how much of a commodity it might’ve become, is innately about subverting the dominant paradigm. I keyed into that because I think it’s always good to be checking your motivations.”

Langley graduated from Chapman University where he majored in Peace Studies and minored in Philosophy. While a student, he became a member of Students for Peaceful Empowerment Action and Knowledge (SPEAK), a group that holds lectures, debates, and events to raise awareness of progressive causes.  He lives in Orange, California.

Lisa Swinehart, Campus Organizer (Dec. 2004-Jan. 2006)

Jessica Sharon, Campus Organizer (June 2004-October 2004)

Robert Nekervis, Campus Organizer (February 2003 - August 2004)