Carl Tracy – President

Carl likes making things on computers and building things in his free time which is useful because he lives on a horse farm and there’s always something to build or fix on a farm. He studied physics but his day job is in finance, which he doesn’t talk about much because people seem to find physics more interesting than finance. He was raised in an evangelical church, but became a Humanist in his 20s – even though he didn’t know the word for it until much later. He has run the Skeptics at the Pub meetup since 2010 and plans to do so for the foreseeable future. Carl joined the board because he wanted to be more involved with the Humanist community and give back to the people in central Ohio who have made him feel so welcome here.

Contact: president[at]hcco.org

Bob Leonhard- Treasurer

Bob grew up in Grove City and graduated from GCHS in 1975. He earned my BA in History and Archaeology in 1987 and my Master of Public Administration in 1992 both from OSU. The then entered the fire service in 1995 and was hired full time for Pleasant Valley Joint Fire District, from which he retired in December, 2018 with 23 years service. He did public sector consulting for 20 years, primarily with local fire departments. Bob fell in love with investing in 1987 and have remained fascinated with the financial world ever since. He started my financial planning/tax preparation and tax planning firm, Vital Signs Financial Services in January, 2010. Bob was raised Methodist, but realized early in his academic career that there is no validity in religion and so he have followed a secular path since about age 18. Bob have been married to his lovely wife, Mary, for over 37 years and has no children.

Bob volunteers with the Ohio History Connection, Honor Flights, the Humanist Community of Central Ohio, Foxfire Golf Course and soon, The Nature Conservancy. Among my too many hobbies are golf, custom pen making, woodworking, photography, Spanish language study and he loves to read and owns too many books, but he is not bored.

Contact: bob[at]hcco.org

Ben Iten – Secretery

Ben is now an endorsed Humanist Chaplain, but he was raised in the evangelical church. Over time his academic studies in Judaism (at The Ohio State University) and Bible Interpretation (at the University of Oxford) challenged him to rethink how he understood religion and spirituality. Eventually this rethinking led him to Humanism and its progressive outlook on life. Humanist values continue to inspire Ben’s work as a Chaplain for OhioHealth where he helps people find their inherent worth and dignity. When he’s not out visiting patients, he’s teaching new chaplains and advocating for Humanism at the national level. He is the first openly Humanist Chaplain to seek certification from the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education as a Certified Educator. Ben is excited to bring his skills and training to HCCO where he can continue the work of building a supportive and engaging community.

Contact: ben[at]hcco.org

Randall Saunders

Randall grew up in small-town Iowa, and has lived in central Ohio since the 1990s. Raised in a Lutheran home, Randall became a born-again Christian late in high school, but through the influence of education, friends, and life experiences, gradually moved from biblical literalism to agnosticism and eventually to atheism. Randall joined the HCCO Board in early 2018, and is excited to be a part of and to support a community of secularists and humanists. He has a PhD in Ancient/Roman History from the University of Cincinnati, and enjoys gardening, the sciences, tennis, dabbling in guitar, and meeting new people and learning new ideas from being involved with HCCO!

Contact: randall[at]hcco.org

Catherine Carney – Vice President

Diana Spade

Pauly Ventling