FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2007Contact: Carol Snapp
Program Officer / Communications Coordinator
269/373-4373
contact@arcusfoundation.org
www.arcusfoundation.org
Arcus Foundation Appoints Tom Kam to Lead Program on Religion and Values
Kalamazoo, Michigan – The Arcus Foundation announces the appointment of Tom Kam as Senior Fellow of the Foundation's new Religion and Values Program. The Senior Fellow for the Religion and Values Program will develop, design and implement a new grantmaking initiative with the goal of achieving long-term change in cultural attitudes and religious institutions that currently stigmatize same-gender sexual orientation and gender variance. The goals of this program are to engage with and advance greater understanding and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender variance by mainstream religious institutions and leaders, and to help create a positive shift in cultural attitudes and values toward sexuality in general and GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) issues in particular.
In his position as Senior Fellow, Mr. Kam will engage in consultation, convening, research and interaction with a wide range of activists, scholars, funders, academics, theologians, policy experts and institutions to design a new grantmaking and leadership initiative for the Arcus Foundation. Mr. Kam will also serve as the Program Officer for the Religion and Values Program, working with grant seekers, managing and overseeing grants made, strengthening the knowledge base and capacity of the Foundation, deepening relationships with other organizations working on religion and values change, and otherwise advance the Foundation's mission.
Mr. Kam comes to the Arcus Foundation from the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, where he served as Senior Program Officer from 2002 to 2005 and Vice President of Community Investment from 2005 to 2007. While there, Mr. Kam was responsible for representing the interests of this regional community foundation through grant distribution, convening, leveraging donor interests, establishing partnerships and advocacy. He was also responsible for leading the Foundation's Bridging Differences Initiative, a philanthropic program investing in the grass-roots leadership of immigrants and communities of color living in the Washington, DC area.
Mr. Kam's past positions include Regional Manager for Human Services for the County of Fairfax, Virginia (1997-2002), Senior Public Health Analyst for the United States Public Health Service (1991-1997) and Associate Director of AIDS Services for the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, DC (1988-1991).
Mr. Kam holds a Masters of Social Work from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. He obtained his Masters of Divinity at St. Patrick's Theological Seminary in Menlo Park, California, and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1983. During his ministry as a priest he served as the Associate Pastor of Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco (1984-1986). Motivated by a personal commitment to justice, Mr. Kam is fluent in both English and Spanish, and shares his life with his partner of sixteen years, Dr. Robert Moffitt.
Founded in 2000, by Jon L. Stryker, the President of Arcus, the Arcus Foundation's mission envisions and contributes to a world that celebrates diversity and dignity, invests in social justice and promotes tolerance and compassion. The Foundation has offices in Kalamazoo, Michigan and New York City, and its Executive Director is Urvashi Vaid. Since its founding, Arcus has granted more than $80 million dollars to organizations working to secure equal rights and social justice for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people, and to groups working to conserve the world's Great Apes and their natural habitat.
For more information on the Arcus Foundation, please visit www.arcusfoundation.org. For more information on the Arcus Foundation's Religion and Values Program, please contact Tom Kam at .