URI Celebrates its 25th Anniversary with New Five-Year Strategy and Executive Leadership

United Religions Initiative (URI) is thrilled to announce three significant milestones in 2025:

• Celebrating the exceptional leadership and contributions of Jerry White who has served as our dynamic Executive Director during a time of transition and renewal.
• Celebrating and welcoming the promotion of Karen Volker to serve as our next Executive Director as of March 1,2025.
• Celebrating 25 years with the launch of our new Five-Year Strategic Framework to guide the priorities of URI through 2030.

URI Founder William Swing expressed his gratitude to the Global Council and Executive Leadership for achieving its aims of a smooth succession plan with close-knit collaboration by our many stakeholders worldwide. 

“We are all deeply grateful for Jerry White’s world-class leadership. He has provided creative vision to re-energize our prospects for growth and recenter URI on its promise to end religiously motivated violence. And now, Karen Volker brings profound experience and expertise to this new day. I am confident URI is in great shape as we launch our next 25 years.”

 — The Right Rev. William E. Swing, Founding Trustee and President Emeritus 

Jerry agrees, “It’s been a labor of love and a privilege to serve. I utterly believe in URI’s purpose and potential, and I happen to believe the world needs URI more than ever.”

Under Jerry’s tenure and leadership, while he visited all URI regions and renewed URI’s commitment to growth, URI:

• doubled individual membership and added 142 new Cooperation Circles (CCs), 102 new donors, and five (5) new senior advisors to the URI family.
• introduced an evidence-based public health approach to violence prevention that promises to save lives and significantly reduce violence in targeted regions.
• engaged unprecedented Indigenous leadership across Latin America to focus on Earth restoration, including an historic gathering of 40 in Central America. (These leaders are now planning to host the next global URI gathering in Mexico in June 2025.)
• launched an immersive “Learning in Action” platform to offer 12 new courses for 1,974 online registrants, plus training for the entire URI global network that includes unprecedented human resource guidelines and the first-ever mobile-friendly URI APP.
• saw global staff, trustees, advisors, and regional partners lay the groundwork for the 2025-2030 Strategic Framework focused on growth, learning, and impact for more than 1,200 Cooperation Circles and members active in 113 countries.

“Jerry White has served URI with passion and great care and helped URI grow to new heights during his service as Executive Director. Now moving on after having set the future for success, he will remain a great friend and someone remembered for his drive and his accomplishments in modernizing URI and giving it a renewed vision. On behalf of URI I want to deeply thank him for his service, and I am positive that he will remain a great support to our global movement.”

 — Eric Roux, Global Council Chair

As Jerry departs on February 28, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Karen Volker as Executive Director of URI, starting March 1, 2025.

Karen started at URI in January 2023 as URI’s Director of Partnership and Violence Prevention, and she has delivered on all counts. After 25 years as a U.S. diplomat and ten years at the international nonprofit Cure Violence Global, Karen has earned the much-deserved respect of all her colleagues and the URI Global Council.

Prior to working at URI, Karen’s impressive career included serving as:

• Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in the U.S. State Department, offering strategic guidance and management of a $530 million assistance program focused on promoting pluralistic and prosperous societies in the Middle East and North Africa.
• The U. S. Coordinator for the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, responsible for the development of U.S. policy toward the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe and the development of regional assistance programs in the Balkans.
• Vice President of Cure Violence Global, serving as the primary contact for the Board of Directors and introducing the health approach to violence prevention to several new countries and cultural contexts.

As URI’s new Executive Director, Karen will continue to build on Jerry’s strategic vision, collaborating with all URI stakeholders to mobilize resources and expand the contributions of newly integrated regional teams. She brings energy, enthusiasm, and a deep commitment to the purpose and principles of URI.

In Karen’s own words: “I am honored and excited to be taking on this leadership role at a critical time in URI’s history. As we celebrate URI’s 25-year anniversary, we will focus on growing our dynamic network and increasing our interfaith impact so that together we can achieve our vision of a world where peace, justice, and healing prevail.” 

Chair Eric Roux echoed the sentiments of the Global Council:

“It’s an honor and a privilege for us to have Karen Volker accepting to serve as the ED that fuels an energized future for URI and great deal of hope and growth expectation in terms of impact, numbers, and visibility. She has my full support as well as that of our Trustees!” 

 — Eric Roux, Global Council Chair

Please join our Founder, Global Council Chair, Trustees, Staff, and Members worldwide in thanking Jerry White ([email protected]) for his service and welcoming Karen Volker ([email protected]) into her new leadership role at United Religions Initiative.