Linda LeSourd Lader

Linda LeSourd Lader – President of the Renaissance Institute, which she co-founded in 1981 – is an ordained Presbyterian minister (having served on the pastoral staff of Washington, D.C.’s historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church for ten years and as pastor or member of the ministerial staffs of several Florida congregations).

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

From 1993 to 1996, she assisted with White House liaison to American communities of faith and advised the President on public policies pertaining to religion.  Associated with the ecumenical National Prayer Breakfast Ministries throughout the 1970s, she coordinated the 1979 National Prayer Breakfast. In recognition of her 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.

A fifth-generation graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Mrs. Lader received the Masters in Divinity degree from Yale University. Her editing work continued the tradition of her parents – Leonard LeSourd,  longtime editor of “Guideposts Magazine,” and Catherine Marshall, author of A Man Called Peter, Christy and other best-selling inspirational books.