Coming from diverse backgrounds, those who attend WE are from the greater Boston area as well as the rest of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

WE offers two lecture series a year on a range of issues from the personal to the global. All lecture topics, series themes and speakers are decided in group meetings that are open to anyone who attends a lecture.

At WE, women and men have found inspiration, encouragement, friendships, and healing.

WomenExplore began as T.O.P., the Theological Opportunities Program, a program at the Harvard Divinity School, in 1973 and since then more than 4,500 have participated. It became a non-profit organization in 2003.

Between 40 and 70 people, mostly women, usually attend WE. Our chronological ages range from the 20s to the 80s. In our past and present religious orientations we represent a diverse range of religions as well as the non-religious, and welcome all faiths. We are daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, aunts, great-aunts and grandmothers. We are teachers, clergy, housewives, psychotherapists, physicists, business women, lawyers, architects, authors, composers, singers, gardeners, caregivers, artists, and craftswomen. Our participants are a very intelligent, sensitive and responsive group to speak to. We all share an interest in gaining deeper insight into our lives, our relationships and our world.

Participants travel up to two-and-a-half hours to come to our Thursday half-days. We mail to about 1400 alumni in Greater Boston, Eastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, a few in Hartford CT and the Amherst MA area, a few in Vermont, a considerable number in southern New Hampshire, and a few in Maine. We typically get 3 to 10 new attenders each Thursday. Most come because a friend brings them. Since 1973 more than 4,500 have participated.

The Advisory Committee is an open group of women which meets with the Program Coordinator to plan WE's fall and spring conferences. All WE participants are welcome to attend the Advisory Committe meetings. Not everyone comes every time. But over the afternoons of the planning process 30 to 40 women take part in giving shape to each new series. When acting in its planning capacity, which is what it spends most of its time on, this group is often referred to as the Planning Committee, but the name "Advisory Committee" better reflects its more general role as a forum to consider any matter that might affect WE.

People who took part in the Advisory Committee in recent years include:

WE has been set up as a charity with an educational mission. A board was established as a legal requirement for the incorporation of WE in Massachusetts and in order to obtain non-profit status under section 501(3)c of the Inland Revenue Code. The Board currently has no bylaws, only the legal Articles of Incorporation. (The Articles of Incorporation are available at www.state.ma.us/sec/cor/.) A Governance Committee (By-law Committee) has been set up and is considering by-laws now. Board members, and prospective Board members, should read the Attorney General’s Guide for Board Members of Charitable Organizations.

It is the job of the Board to oversee the executive director and to ensure that WomenExplore faithfully carries out its purpose without extravagance or waste. The Board oversees, especially, the financial aspects of WE and expects to meet two or more times a year. The Board is responsible for overseeing fundraising and marketing.

Since 2008 the Board has been elected by the Advisory Committee. Advisory Committee members who have attended two or more Advisory Committee meetings in the last year are eligible to vote. Term limits for Board members are two years. (A retiring Board member may stand for election again.) Board elections are required to take place annually to fill vacancies and provide a pool of candidates to fill any vacancies which occur during the year. Preferential voting is used — voters number the candidates in their order of preference. Newly elected Board members replace the retiring members at the first meeting of the Board after the election (in the summer). This is the Annual Meeting of the Board. Office bearers are determined by each new Board at this meeting.

The last Board elections took place at the Advisory Committee meeting on 16th May 2013. Charlene Brotman and Marcia Boelhke were re-elected to the Board. Sandy Wayne, Elaine Fisher and Martha Nielsen all join the Board for the first time to replace Judith Cohen, MaryMargaret Halsey, and Muna Killingback who are stepping down when their terms expire in the summer. The next Annual Meeting of the Board is due to take place at a time to be determined in July or August. (The last Annual Meeting of the Board was on 5th July 2012.) President, Treasurer and Clerk for the next year will be chosen at the Annual Meeting of the Board. Next year's Board elections will occur at the end of the Spring 2014 series, at the last or second last Advisory Committee meeting.

Members of the Board (and dates elected to Board) are:

	President................	Charlene Brotman (2003, 2011)
	Treasurer................	Marcia Boehlke (2003, 2011)
	Clerk (Secretary).....	Lindsa Vallee (2010, 2012)
	Members at large....	Paula Chandoha (2008, 2012),  Judith Cohen (2011) Mary Margaret Halsey (2011), Muna Killingback (2011) Emmy Robertson (2012), Mary Ann Serra (2012)

Elizabeth Dodson Gray (2003-2010) was Coordinator when TOP disengaged from Harvard and became the foundation President, serving until her retirement. Angela Maffeo (2008-2010) served as Treasurer from 2009 to 2010. Colleen Donohue served as TOP's treasurer and auditor for six years from when TOP disengaged from Harvard Divinity School School in 2003 until the end of June 2009. Esther Scanlan (2003-2011) was one of the founding members, appointed to the first Board. Others who have served on the Board include Anna Donovan (2010-2012) and Carol Goldman (2008-2012).

The intention is that the board will only conduct the "legal" business. The major decisions remain in the hands of the large Advisory Committee. The board is responsible for providing leadership on financial matters, fund-raising and marketing. Any "processes" considered by the board would be submitted to the Advisory Committee for approval.

Present Subcommittees:

Administration Committee
- chair is the Executive Director.

Communications and Marketing Committee
- members are Maria Behnke, Tracey Hurd, Paula Chandoha, Barbara Sweet.

Mailing Committee
- chair is Judith Cohen.

Governance Committee (By-laws Committee)
- members are Judith Cohen, Cheryl Suchors, Susan Nulsen, and now, Muna Killingback.

Finance Committee
- members include the Treasurer and the Executive Director.

Development Committee (Fundraising Committee)
- members include the Executive Director.

Website Committee
- members are Jadzia Allison and Susan Nulsen.

Search Committee 2
- led to the selection of Maria Behnke as the new Executive Director starting in December 2012, and previously Tracey Hurd starting in February 2012.

Previous Subcommittees:

Party Committee
- organized the garden party held in June 2010 in honor of Elizabeth and David Dodson Gray on the occasion of their retirement.

Search Committee 1
- was set up following the recommendations of the Transition Task Force.
- was to find one or more people to replace Elizabeth and David Dodson Gray when they retired at the end of May 2010.
- members were Charlene Brotman, Anna Donovan, Angela Maffeo, Emily Robertson, Esther Scanlan, Sandy Wayne, Cheryl Suchors (co-opted), Susan Nulsen (co-opted)
- after advertizing and interviewing candidates, selected three to present to the Advisory Committee. Conducted election at which the present Executive Director/Program Coordinator was chosen
- led to the selection of Muna Killingback as the new Executive Director and Program Coordinator starting in August 2010

Transition Task Force
- continued the work of the Growth and Sustainability Committee. It made a report to the Advisory Committee before dissolving.
- the Advisory Committee voted to determine the preferred models for succession.
- members were Helen Barron, Charlene Brotman, Chris Farrow-Noble, Louise McMurray, Elizabeth Wolfe Morse, Susan Nulsen, Cheryl Suchors, Sandy Wayne

Growth and Sustainablity Committee
- examined the organization of TOP after Liz and David retire. It has made a report to the board and is now dissolved.
- members were Jadzia Allison, Elizabeth Wolfe Morse, Pat Morris and Octavia Porter Randolph.

Nominations to the Board Committee
- looked at how new board members might be democratically selected. It has made a report to the board, which was accepted by the board and AC and now provides the basis of all WE elections. This committee is now dissolved.
- members were Louise McMurray (Chair), Sandy Wayne, Erica B.K. and Susan Nulsen.

 
Maria serves as both executive director and program coordinator.

Born and raised in eastern Kentucky, Maria Behnke is a committed feminist and has been active in planning and executing women's rights programs.

Maria graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ohio University, with a major in Political Science and is completing a Masters in Philosophy, a heavily male dominated field. She taught undergraduate Philosophy/Logic courses for two years while working on her Masters. Her graduate work in Philosophy included a focus on Women and Gender Studies. Part of her research for her Masters concerned the invisibility of females in Philosophy. Part focused on the American rape culture and the influences of popular media.

She was Women’s Affairs Commissioner for Graduate Student Senate at Ohio University for two years. One of her achievements was to bring the program, “Men Can Stop Rape”, to the campus. She was given the honor in 2012 of being named “Outstanding Female Leader on Ohio University Campus.”

Since moving to the Boston area, Maria has been participating in WomenExplore and other outreach programs in Cambridge. Maria brings her energy, passion, intelligence, and dedication to WomenExplore.

 
Tracey Hurd came to WomenExplore from Boston College as a scholar with a long-standing commitment to social justice and feminist inquiry. This is reflected in her published and presented work. She has been a Resident Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center and conducted research on women while at the Brown University Center for the Study of Human Development. Tracey says:

"I come here after years in primarily academic settings—as a former Scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Center, program director at the Unitarian Universalist Association, and faculty member at Boston College. The dual commitment to learning broadly about issues in the world today, and deep thinking about how those issues touch our own lives, drew me in. I attended a session with a friend, and came back again and again. I am honored to be part of a program that is so full of possibility and transformation."

Tracey is an alumna of Clark University, with a Masters from Tufts University and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Boston College.

Elizabeth Dodson Gray served as TOP’s coordinator for thirty-two years, from Fall 1978 to the end of Spring 2010, and she has attended TOP/WE since its beginning in 1973. She also became TOP's first executive director when it became an independent non-profit in 2003. She was instrumental in forming TOP/WE into what it is today—a strongly feminist organization which uses the feminist process of sharing our lives and issues, and looking there for concerns from which to design future WE conference series. This unique method of designing the series is what makes WE so special.

Elizabeth Dodson Gray was also instrumental in setting into motion the change of name from Theological Opportunities Program to WomenExplore Lecture and Discussion Forum in order to better describe the organization. Who is Elizabeth Dodson Gray, in addition to her role at TOP/WE?

She has her graduate professional degree from Yale Divinity School and she speaks and writes as a feminist theologian. She sees herself as an heir and critic of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

For the twenty years from 1975 to 1995 she was away two or three times a month lecturing in the U.S. and in Canada on campuses, at regional and national conferences, and in church-related settings.

Her lecturing was an outgrowth of work she and her husband David did as members of Carrol Wilson's team at MIT’s Sloan School of Management for a multi-year seminar on "Critical Choices for the Future," an anticipation of today’s energy concerns and global climate issues. In 1973 they prepared with another MIT colleague the staff work for ten days of Congressional hearings in the 93rd Congress.

Her own first book, Green Paradise Lost, asked why did we ever think we could get away with treating nature so badly. It is now viewed as one of two classic eco-feminist texts.

Her second book, Patriarchy as a Conceptual Trap, condemns what since the Middle Ages Christian theology has called the Great Chain of Being—the cosmic hierarchy which she finds rooted in the patriarchal "ranking of diversity" which begins with men ranking men above women. Ranking diversity is the conceptual trap.

In 1988 she edited Sacred Dimensions of Women’s Experience. This book was based upon the 1985 Fall TOP series. It is by 31 women, writing autobiographically, and is about the religious dimensions of those portions of the total human experience which males never experience—and therefore have never named as sacred (for example, women bringing life in childbirth).

In 1994 she wrote Sunday School Manifesto: In the Image of Her?, contrasting the woman-affirming accounts of Jesus in the gospels with subsequent centuries of woman-denigrating Christian theology and practice. She notes that Christian theology and churches have never repented of this history of denigrating women.

On 3rd June 2010, at the Spring Garden Party honoring their service to TOP, Elizabeth and David Dodson Gray were presented with the Donella Meadows Award by the Club of Rome (USA). Donella Meadows was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer and is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth. She was a long-term member of the US Association for the Club of Rome, which instituted "The US Association for the Club of Rome Donella Meadows Award in Sustainable Global Actions" in her memory . This coveted award is given to a highly outstanding individual (or individuals) who created actions in a global framework toward the sustainability goals Donella expressed in her writings.

See Elizabeth Dodson Gray's article on the "Lines of Beauty" website,  Aging Gracefully with Authenticity and Compassion.

Muna Killingback has extensive experience advocating for and writing about women's and human rights, peace, and social and economic justice. She is a former Director of Communications and Financial Development Associate for the World YWCA, headquarters of the global women's movement in Geneva, and is a freelance writer and editor specializing in the work and communications needs of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including grant writing. She continues to serve as one of the World YWCA's UN representatives.

She is an alumna of Douglass College, the women's college of Rutgers University.

Muna resigned to take up a position at the Center for Rebuilding Sustainable Communities After Disasters, UMass Boston. She served on the WomenExplore Board for two years from 2011 to 2013.