Linda LeSourd Lader

Linda LeSourd Lader — President of the Renaissance Institute, which she co-founded in 1981 — is an ordained Presbyterian minister (formerly serving on the pastoral staff of Washington, D.C.'s historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church for ten years).

Reflecting a career-long commitment to non-profit initiatives, she has served on the boards of Habitat for Humanity, Yale Divinity School, Communities in Schools, Spoleto USA, Alpha USA, International Justice Mission, Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, Sojourners, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the American International University in London.

From 1993 to 1996, she assisted with White House liaison to American communities of faith and advised the President on public policy issues pertaining to religion. Associated with the National Prayer Breakfast Ministries throughout the 1970s, she coordinated the 1979 National Prayer Breakfast. In recognition of such public service, she received the International Women’s Foundation Leadership Award in 2000 and the 2012 Humanitarian Award from Emma Willard School, her alma mater.

Mrs. Lader's education also includes degrees from Yale Divinity School and Ohio Wesleyan University. Her editing work continues the tradition of her parents — Leonard LeSourd, longtime editor of "Guideposts", and Catherine Marshall, author of A Man Called Peter, Christy and other best-selling books.