Board of Directors
MARGARET CHEW BARRINGER (Founder) is a producer, director, video editor, web designer, and Free Speech pioneer. She continues her mother’s life-long research into their pacifist ancestor, Benjamin Chew, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province of Pennsylvania before the American Revolution, and then became the Chief Justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the Rule of Law entered the Constitution of our new nation.
In 1985, Barringer founded the American Poetry Center, and (under a series of PA Council on the Arts-initiated grants), brought Free Speech and the Spoken Word to audiences across Pennsylvania, reaching over 12 million people per year through local newspaper coverage. During this time, she conducted 7 reciprocal exchanges with members of the Union of Soviet Writers before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
As Free Speech entered the 21st Century, she renamed the organization American INSIGHT: an online educational resource that broadens exposure to the history and future of Free Speech through emerging technologies. Under her guidance, the Interns at American INSIGHT spent five years researching Violet Oakley’s 13 murals in the Governor’s Reception Room of the PA State Capitol Building; and then in 2011, developed the first Free Speech Film Festival, and its international Free Speech Award. Barringer recently expanded the educational scope of this organization with Make History Every Day! - an online self-taught course that empowers students to find their meaning and purpose in Democracy today.
ROBERT HASKELL (President) is an experienced systems architect, strategist and business executive in the healthcare IT industry. His overarching professional goals were to help improve the quality, efficiency and cost of healthcare delivery through health information technology solutions for domestic and international healthcare markets. He is the holder of seven US software and business process patents and author of many published articles in healthcare information technology-related topics. He retired from the global software solutions division of Siemens Healthcare, headquartered in Malvern PA, in 2012. Prior to that, he worked many years for Shared Medical Systems, which was acquired by Siemens. In retirement, his personal goals are to be an informed and engaged participant in local and global affairs, and to help other individuals also become so informed and engaged. Personal interests include land conservation, science, history, domestic and foreign affairs, philosophy, and a desire for continued learning. Leisure activities include tennis, reading, travel, and hiking.
JENNIFER H. BEACOM (Vice President, Treasurer) is the CEO of Beacom Consulting, Inc., where she works with the libraries of a number of Center City law firms to manage their day-to-day operations. She is the volunteer President of the Radnor Historical Society and a member of America250PADelco Revolutionary Reads Committee. Jennifer has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati, a J.D. from Capital University in Ohio, and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Syracuse University in New York.
KAREN CURRY (Vice President) is a veteran broadcast journalist, communications specialist and educator, having served as NBC News London Bureau Chief, CNN Vice President and New York Bureau Chief, National Director of Communications for the ACLU and was Executive Director of the Kal and Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies at Drexel University. She produces exhibitions and symposia on a wide range of topics and consults with non-profits on programmatic and communications issues.
OLIVER FRANKLIN After a 35-year career in the financial services industry, Oliver now works as a Senior Advisor to next generation financial services firms. He enjoys working with entrepreneurs and learning the latest methodologies for gaining Alpha. Oliver provides advice to businesses, working closely with the British Embassy and Consul General in New York to solve consular issues and engage in public diplomacy. In 2022, Oliver was bestowed the CBE Honour by Her Majesty the Queen, in recognition of his services to British Business. Along with the late Lord Peter Walker, Oliver founded The City Fellows scheme, which was a major change agent in their field. He has a degree from Lincoln University, the first Afro-American college in the US, as well as a BPhil in economics from Oxford University and is a Hon Fellow of Balliol College. Oliver is an experienced diplomat, non-executive chairman, corporate director, advisor and keynote speaker.
PERRIN HAMILTON is past President of Wynnewood Civic Association; Lower Merion Federation of Civic Associations; Vice Chairman of the Republican Committee of Lower Merion & Narberth; and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Public Access Television of Lower Merion & Narberth. He currently presents multimedia lectures on American Business History focused on the Quaker influence along Main Line Philadelphia, including the following topics: Industry Along the Schuylkill Valley before the American Civil War; History of the Reading Railroad; The Pennsylvania Railroad; How and Why Industry Saved Philadelphia; Plain People: the History of Quakers and Mennonites in the Holy Experiment; William Penn: Forgotten Founding Father.
TIMOTHY A. LENDERKING Timothy A. Lenderking retired from the U.S. Department of State in April 2026, where he was a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, after 33 years. He served most recently as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, as the first United States Special Envoy for Yemen (2021-2025), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arabian Peninsula Affairs, Deputy Chief of Mission and Acting Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2013-2016); and Director of the Pakistan Office from 2010-13.
From 2008-10, Lenderking completed two tours in Baghdad, the first as the senior democracy advisor at the U.S. Embassy and the second as the policy advisor to Lieutenant General Charles Jacoby, commanding general of Multinational Forces Iraq, based at Camp Victory. Before his Iraq tours, Lenderking served as the Economic Counselor and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. He was also the Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, Morocco, from 2002-06. Lenderking’s other tours in the Foreign Service include Special Assistant to the Undersecretary for Political Affairs in 2001-02, Lebanon Desk Officer in 2000-01, and Watch Officer in the Operations Center. Lenderking also served in Dhaka, Bangladesh and in Damascus, Syria.
Lenderking joined the Foreign Service in 1993 after a career in the refugee field in which he held numerous positions with U.S. nongovernmental organizations and with the United Nations in New York, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Thailand. Lenderking received a master’s degree in history and international Relations from the University of Washington in 1989 and a bachelor’s degree with Honors from Wesleyan University in 1985. He is the recipient of the Presidential Merit Award, nine Superior Honor Awards, and the Meritorious Civilian Service Award from the Department of the Army for his service in Iraq.
Lenderking joined the international law firm Squire Patton Boggs as a Principal on June 1, 2026.
PABLO SANTIAGO PEREIRA is the business development manager for DAPLAN at Quanam USA in Philadelphia, and specializes in B2B technology and data-driven solutions for financial planning and analysis. He is also a director at the University of Montevideo's INITIUM entrepreneurship center, where he helps incubate startups and develop innovation projects. He is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs through creativity and discipline, helping them transform their ideas into products that solve real-world problems. He is a telematics engineer from Universidad de Montevideo and holds master's degrees in both business administration and technology and innovation management from Universidad ORT Uruguay, as well as several certifications from Harvard Medical School and IBM.
MARC SONNENFELD is a retired partner of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius with extensive trial experience, including defending class actions asserting violations of the federal securities laws, derivative cases, and claims arising from mergers and acquisitions and appraisal actions, as well as regulatory and enforcement proceedings. He was recognized as an established figure in commercial and securities litigation practices by Chambers USA. He is past chair of the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association and a past board member of the American Inns of Court Foundation and Swarthmore College. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Swarthmore College and earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.
MICHAEL WOOD is professor emeritus of English at Princeton University. He is a literary and cultural critic, and an author of critical and scholarly books as well as a writer of reviews, review articles, and columns. He was director of the Gauss Seminars in Criticism at Princeton from 1995 to 2001, and chaired Princeton's English department from 1998 to 2004. He writes in literary publications such as The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, where he is also an editorial board member and writes a column, "At the Movies". Wood also teaches at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont during the summers. He has written many books. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Philosophical Society.
What Does Free Speech Mean to Me?
"Freedom of speech for me is about listening to the speech of others, who may be very different from me. My freedom of speech means nothing if others do not have the same freedom."
- Michael Wood
"Broadly, it's the liberty to say whatever one chooses to say on a particular subject, with very limited restrictions. The U.S. Constitution has an assurance of Freedom of Speech but offers no definition of the phrase so the meaning is, quite simply, whatever the Supreme Court determines it to be at a particular time and circumstance."
- David Singleton
"Free speech is not only safety from punishment for expressing ideas that goes against the actions of a government, it now entails freedom from persecution from the general public. It is the exact opposite of the "cancel culture" that exists today. The concept is what makes America special and sets us apart from others."
- Jennifer Beacom
I can simply describe it as hearing, reading, or seeing Alex Jones will his obnoxious ideas and defending his right to do it in every media form. And to support those students fighting against the murder of innocent Palestinian woman and children by the IDF. Free speech can be social, political, and cultural.
- Oliver Franklin
Free speech is a challenge, as much as a right. My free speech exists only in so far as I extend that same right to speech that I find reprehensible. This is hard.
Frederick Douglass, one of the champions of free speech, had more reasons than most to want to deny free speech to supporters of slavery, but as he said so eloquently “To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.” So, heed Mr. Douglass – listen, speak and protect free speech.
- Karen Curry
Free speech is the keystone connecting the First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion and prohibition of the establishment of religion with freedom of the press and protection of the right to peaceable assembly to petition the government.
- Marc Sonnenfeld
