Tina Huesing, PhD, President (term to 2027), Germany/USA
Tina Huesing has been involved with our organization from the very beginning. In February 2009, Tina attended the Houston convocation that led to the establishment of the International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women as a non-profit organization. And she was hooked! A group of powerful women working together to make the world a better place for women, and by extension, for all! Tina took the ideas from the first convocation back to her home organization, the European Unitarian Universalists, where she started a Global Sisters group that led to a revitalization of the social action committee and a youth exchange program with the Unitarian High School in Transylvania.
Tina also attended the Second Convocation in Romania in 2012 and served as the Program Chair for our Third Convocation in California in 2017. She has been active in ICUUW as a Board member (2013-2016), and as the Chair of our Development Committee since 2020.
This year, Tina is serving on the task force that is renewing ICUUW’s Strategic Plan; she also heads up the scholarship task force for the Fourth Convocation. Tina is a member of our UN Advocacy group, serving as a representative for ICUUW at the UN Commission on the Status of Women meetings in New York City for the past two years.
When she is not working on ICUUW issues, Tina is a professor at Montclair State University, NJ, where she teaches management.
Elgiva Dora Shullai, Vice President, India (term to 2028)
Ms. Shullai has been actively participating in various Unitarian Church activities in Meghalaya, India, since childhood. She is a registered Nurse specializing in Surgical Nursing and served as an Officer with the prestigious Armed Forces Medical and Nursing Services until 2011. Now she is actively supporting philanthropic work and is active with the Seng Kynthei (women's organization) of the Unitarian Union, North East India. In this capacity, she has coordinated health camps, awareness programs, and very successful Global Sisters workshops in four Unitarian communities in Meghalaya (Kyrdem, Padu, Kharang, and Puriang).
A number of years ago she organized the launch of a White Ribbon campaign to eliminate violence against women and children in Unitarian communities in North East India.
Mária Zsuzsánna Bartha, Secretary, Hungary (term to 2028)
Zsuzsánna Bartha graduated from Kolozsvár Seminary in 1996. Since then, she has served as a Unitarian minister in several congregations: Kénos, Mészkő, and the North West Diaspora in Románia. Since 2012, she has been the minister in Kocsord, Hungary.
Zsuzánna studied at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, summer Seminary 1997, and Starr King School for Ministry 2001/2002.
She has been involved in UNOSZ, the Unitarian Women's Association of Transylvania, since 1997 and currently serves MUNOSZ, the Unitarian Women's Association in Hungary, as its president. Her involvement in ICUUW has included attending the Convocations in Marosvásárhely, Asilomar (California) and Kolozsvár.
She is married and the mother of 3 boys.
Geri Kennedy, Treasurer (term to 2028), USA
Geri has served on the ICUUW Board of Directors as its treasurer since June 2018. A UU for about 30 years, she is a member of the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, WA. Before her retirement, Geri spent 25 years managing homeowners’ associations, partly in a company of her own.
In the early ’90s, she got involved with the Pacific Central District’s Women & Religion Task Force, serving as its co-convener and then its treasurer. Geri was the UU Fellowship of Redwood City’s bookkeeper for about 15 years and is a former board member of UUPCC and a current co-convener of Continental UU Women & Religion.
Sylvie Nyiramana, Director (term to 2029), East Africa
Sylvie Nyiramana and her family moved to Canada from East Africa in 2023 where she is a mother to her three young children. She has attended services at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Halifax and hopes to return in the future. Sylvie volunteers at The North Grove, a community hub with a Family and Community Food Centre. She helps with the distribution of meals and grows her own vegetables on her plot in the North Grove Community Garden.
Sylvie was introduced to the Unitarian Universalist faith through her husband and has been a UU since 2013. In 2020 she joined ICUUW’s virtual Tuesday gatherings, at the very beginning of this popular ongoing program. Soon after, she was an active participant in ICUUW’s international young adult network program in 2022-2023. Sylvie is active in the Gatherings Task Force and the Membership Committee. She serves as the Board liaison for the Outreach Committee.
Sylvie is an entrepreneur with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and experience in customer service relations and marketing management.
After having just completed her first 3-year term on the Board, Sylvie looks forward to continuing her service.
Erika Orbán, Director (term to 2028), Hungary
Erika Orbán is a trained Unitarian minister from Transylvania, living in Budapest since 2012. She has also studied social work and mental health, and over the years, she has worked as a religious educator, community minister, and chaplain in a large hospital in Sepsiszentgyörgy/Sfântu Gheorghe (Romania). She led several support groups for cancer patients and their family members – and also for helping professionals prevent burnout. She is familiar with UUism in the US, as she was a Balázs scholar at Starr King School for the Ministry (Berkeley, CA; too many years ago...). They also lived in Washington, DC, for several years through her husband's work.
Since moving to Budapest, she's been working for an institute supporting the Hungarian minorities within the Carpathian basin, outside of Hungary (Research Institute for National Strategy). She's a dedicated mental health counselor, working with individual clients and teaching related courses (healing conversations, case studies, and mental health projects) at Károli Gáspár Reformed University. Erika is an active member of the largest Unitarian Church in Budapest, being a member of the board of trustees, too. It is a great joy for her to give sermons, by substituting for her colleagues every once in a while. She participated actively in the first, third, and fourth ICUUW Convocations.
Siro Kwamboka, Director (term to 2029), Kenya
Siro Kwamboka is a Kenyan community leader based in Nairobi. She is involved in grassroots climate justice, food security, and sustainable water initiatives. She is associated with the Homeland Institute of Innovation Technology (HIIT) and a member of the local congregation of the Unitarian Universalist community (UUAA).
In Kajiado County, she works with the women of the Maasai Unitarian Universalist Community. A Water Project provides clean, reliable water to improve health, economic growth, and agriculture. A Food Sovereignty Project trains women to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious indigenous vegetables. This project helps reduce malnutrition and creates additional income.
Siro is a business woman with a background in sales and marketing from Kisii University College, as well as in logistics and transport. In addition, she has knowledge in HIV/AIDS and Drug and Substance Abuse Management, as well as Environmental Management.
Siro attended the Fourth ICUUW Convo and was a speaker in a recent ICUUW side event offered during the 2026 UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). She is now looking forward to serving on ICUUW’s Board.
Allison Balogh, Director (term to 2029), Greece
Allison Balogh has been living in Greece since 1996. In 2023, on a renewed journey to find a like-minded group of people, she discovered ICUUW and in 2024 attended the Fourth ICUUW Convocation in Romania. There she learned more about the organisation and its people and enjoyed the experience of connection, collaboration and sharing!
After the Convo Allison became a member of ICUUW and joined the Membership Committee. She also became active in ICUUW’s UN Advocacy Committee and (virtually) attended the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings in March of this year.
With a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and a focus on neuroscience lab research, Allison works on communications of various science topics including biomedical science, sustainable development, and justice and equity in the face of climate change. She has also covered topics like the critical role of indigenous women, energy poverty, an EU-Africa collaboration on healthy soils, and gender-equity policy.
Allison looks forward to becoming even more involved with ICUUW advocacy and programming.
Bruce Knotts, Director (term to 2029), USA
Bruce Knotts worked as a U.S. diplomat between 1984 and 2007, and afterwards served as the Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations until his retirement in 2022.
In 2004, Bruce was elected to the Board of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA). Currently, he is a member of the Security Council Working Group which meets with all member states on the United Nations Security Council. He is a Trustee of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and chairs the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, and co-chairs the NGO Committee on Human Rights.
Bruce has been active in ICUUW for some years, especially in the UN Advocacy Committee. In 2024 he attended the fourth Convo and in 2025 presented at the Spring Seminar ICUUW held in New York.
Bruce is well connected at the United Nations and at the Church Center of the UN where the faith community meets.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Beth O'Connell, Nominating Committee, (term to 2028), USA
Beth O'Connell served on the ICUUW board for two terms. She is a retired journalist who has moved back to the U.S. after living and working in Europe for 21 years. She was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Paris (UUFP) and the Unitarian Universalists in Europe (EUU), focusing on social action.
She participated in ICUUW’s pilgrimage to Bolivia in 2015, the Asilomar Convocation in 2017 and the most recent Convocation in Transylvania in September 2024. She remains active in several ICUUW committees including UN Advocacy. She is a member of the UU Congregation of Monmouth County in New Jersey.
Gizella Nagy, Nominating Committee (term to 2028), Romania
Gizella (Gizi) Nagy served as vice president of ICUUW and UNOSZ, the National Association of Unitarian Women of Romania. She attended all four convocations, was the president of the Second International Convocation of U*U Women and People of Liberal Faiths held in Transylvania in 2012., and just completed six years on the Board of ICUUW.
Gizi is now looking forward to serving on the Nominating Committee where she has already been helping out.
Gizella has also coordinated a joint ICUUW-UNOSZ leadership and mental health program for women in Transylvania and is co-editor of a leadership handbook, digital storytelling book and mental health handbook published by ICUUW and UNOSZ.
She is currently engaged in helping people with mental health challenges. Her specialization is grief recovery. She has a master’s degree in Mental Health from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj/Kolozsvár, Romania.
ICUUW Staff
Gretchen Ohmann, Marketing/Tech Director, USA
Gretchen is a long-time UU. She is Storekeeper and Treasurer for Continental UU Women and Religion and current President of the UU Women's Connection Council. Gretchen also worked several years as Administrator for SW UU Women and served on the board of the UU Women's Federation.
Now retired from her day job as Technology Coordinator for the UUA MidAmerica Region, she also designs and hosts web sites. She believes that gathering and connecting women is one of the keys to re-balancing power in society, along with reverence for Mother Earth and the interconnected web of our existence.
Nikki Steele, Bookkeeper, USA
Nikki started with the ICUUW in May 2023 as the bookkeeper. She has been putting her bookkeeping skills and Non Profit Management Masters degree to use in Unitarian Universalist churches since she founded her company - Your Bookkeeping Department, LLC - in 2019. Nikki first discovered Unitarian Universalism in Houston, TX in 2013. She loved the Unitarian Universalist community and was hired as Congregational Administrator at First UU Church of Houston. She later moved back home to Virginia with her wife and son, to be there to help her mother as she was entering hospice. In addition to her work supporting small organizations with their bookkeeping, she is the Congregational Administrator at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington - where she and her family are also members.
Founders
Barbara Kres Beach, Founding President, USA
Barbara Kres Beach is an educator, artist, dancer, business executive, writer, and non-profit leader, passionate for women’s empowerment worldwide. As founding president of ICUUW, Barbara helped design and develop projects in Romania, India, the Philippines, Bolivia, and Uganda. For her efforts to revive UU international partnerships as a founding member and board member of the UU Partner Church Council (UUPCC), the UUPCC gave her the Louis B. Cornish “Living the Mission” award in 2012. Barbara and her husband Kim were Creative Sageing Award recipients in 2018, an award given by the UU Retired Ministers and Partners Association in recognition of outstanding service and creativity in pursuing new ventures after retirement and building on one’s experience in creative ways. She currently serves on many nonprofit boards including the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Religious Freedom and Virginians for the Arts, and is president and CEO of the Madison County Education Foundation.
Laura Nagel, Founding Executive Director, USA
Laura Nagel was the administrator of the 2009 Houston Convocation. She is a past president of Southwest UU Women and past co-convener of UU Women and Religion. Laura has served as president of the First Jefferson UU Church in Fort Worth, TX, and as fundraising consultant for the UUA. She is presently on the board of directors of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula. In 2004, she began doing international work through the UU Partner Church Council and was instrumental in conducting the first community capacity building program in Árkos/Arcuș, Transylvania. Laura is committed to the Global Sisters Process, a grassroots democratic planning process that has been a foundational element of ICUUW gatherings and convocations and for setting organizational priorities. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs and Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research.