Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative has added three new members to its board of advisors: Kristina Arriaga of Intrinsic Communications, Peter Petkoff of Brunel Law School, and David K. Trimble of the Religious Freedom Institute. The board of advisors provides invaluable insight and strategic direction as the Religious Liberty Initiative addresses ongoing challenges to and opportunities for religious freedom.
Established in 2020, the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative promotes and defends religious freedom for all people through advocacy, formation, and thought-leadership. The initiative protects the freedom of individuals to hold religious beliefs as well as their right to exercise and express those beliefs and to live according to them. Since its founding, the initiative has become one of the largest academic institutions in the world that is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and defending religious freedom for all people.
The Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative recently hosted its winter board meeting in Miami, Florida, on February 3. The board meeting takes place biannually under the leadership of Notre Dame Law School Dean G. Marcus Cole, who founded the Religious Liberty Initiative, and Associate Professor of Law Stephanie Barclay, who serves as the initiative's director.
The initiative’s board of advisors consists of 20 members representing an array of faith traditions, political beliefs, and cultural backgrounds. Their chosen careers reflect a diverse range of sectors, including nonprofit and religious organizations, higher education, government, law, and health care.
Despite their different beliefs, backgrounds, and work experiences, the board is united by a shared commitment to protect religious liberty for all people. Their collaboration and collective experience, wisdom, and guidance continue to enrich the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative’s mission and values.
The board of advisors will convene again in July at the 2023 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in London.
Meet the new board members
Kristina Arriaga is the CEO of Intrinsic Communications and serves on other boards including as a trustee on Meta’s Oversight Board. She is a respected scholar and internationally recognized advocate for expressive rights, particularly religious freedom. Arriaga has published dozens of editorials, op-eds, and book chapters on a wide range of topics related to this field. Her distinguished career includes heading a public interest law firm in the U.S. devoted to defending the free expression of all religious traditions and being a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the U.S. delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and serving as vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Peter Petkoff is an associate professor at the Brunel Law School in London. He is also director of the Religion, Law and International Relations Programme, a collaborative international research network at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and managing editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.
He is the legal consultant on media freedom and freedom of expression for the Representative on Freedom of the Media at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a member of the Executive Board of the European Academy of Religion and of the Executive Board of the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20). Petkoff is involved in cutting-edge research on the relationship between religion, politics, and law. In his capacity as director of the Religion, Law and International Relations Programme at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, he brings together lawyers, theologians, philosophers, and social and political scientists to develop innovative interdisciplinary strategies for studying law, religion, and international relations from legal and theological perspectives.
David K. Trimble serves as the vice president for public policy and education at the Religious Freedom Institute. After serving as a principal and of counsel at the leading D.C. firm of Van Scoyoc Associates for many years, Trimble now leads the Religious Freedom Institute’s public policy work, as well as its nationwide and international initiatives in secondary and higher education.
With a degree in law, expert knowledge from working with the executive and legislative branches of state and federal government at the highest levels, and years of teaching at the graduate level, Trimble understands the critical role of sound policy and education in stable societies and the myriad threats that challenge religious conscience. Throughout his career, Trimble has focused on the intersection between religious freedom and policy. He is recognized in the U.S. and abroad for his international religious freedom advocacy on behalf of ethnic and religious minorities worldwide and for his acute knowledge of the legislative process. He has demonstrated an understanding of how to get laws passed. During the 114th Congress, Trimble provided leadership in the drafting and passing of H.Con.Res.75, expressing the sense of Congress that the atrocities perpetrated against Christians, Yezidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria constitute genocide; and H.R. 1150, Pub.L. 114-281, The Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, signed into law on Dec. 16, 2016.
Learn more about the Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative’s highly esteemed board of advisors at https://law.nd.edu/religious-liberty/people/advisory-board/.
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on February 17, 2023.