2021 Annual Conference
We held our 2021 annual conference on Saturday 24th April. It was a fantastic opportunity to hear from Christians working on some of the world’s most pressing issues, and offered networking opportunities with a welcoming community of Christians using reason and evidence to make the world a better place.
We were delighted to welcome Paul Niehaus, who graciously agreed to be our keynote speaker. He spoke about how his faith has influenced his work lifting people out of poverty via academia, business and charity. Paul is an associate professor of economics at UC Sandiego. He also co-founded GiveDirectly, a GiveWell top charity delivering cash transfers to the global poor as well as the startups Taptap Send and Segovia which both aim to increase accessibility to financial services across Africa.
Our programming featured people working in a variety of areas including animal welfare, existential risk and theology. See below for videos from the conference, and watch the Events page for information about future conferences.
Speakers
Paul Niehaus
Associate Professor Paul Niehaus is co-founder and chairman of GiveDirectly, a GiveWell top charity. GiveDirectly is a recognized leader in the use of modern technology to transfer funds directly to the extreme poor, and in the use of rigorous scientific methods to document its impact. Paul is also a co-founder of Segovia, which builds enterprise technology for the management of social programming in emerging markets.
He holds an academic appointment in the Department of Economics at UC San Diego, holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and is a National Science Foundation Fellow and a Sloan Fellow. In 2013 Foreign Policy named him one of its 100 leading "Global Thinkers."
David Clough
Professor David Clough completed his doctoral studies at Yale University and then moved to Durham as F.D. Maurice Postdoctoral Fellow in Christian Ethics at St Chad’s College, Durham, and taught systematic theology and ethics at St. John’s College. He is now a professor at the University of Chester.
He launched CreatureKind and DefaultVeg which encourage organisations to make simple changes that benefit humans, animals, and the planet. He now runs a project at the University of Chester developing Christian Ethics of Farmed Animal Welfare and an associated policy framework for Christian institutions, with 13 institutional partners including major UK churches.
Brian Green
Dr Brian Patrick Green is the director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. His work is focused on the ethics of technology, including AI and space exploration. He has doctoral and master's degrees in ethics and social theory and his undergraduate degree is in genetics. He has conducted molecular biology research in both academic and industrial settings.
He is also a member of the Safety-Critical AI working group at the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society.
Jay Dykstra
Jay Dykstra is an experienced medical doctor and board certified radiologist. He is also the founder of world wide house church which organises free small group or house church meetups and is the author of Healing Hereafter exploring rational and refreshing answers to many difficult faith questions.
He is a longtime supporter of effective altruism and his story has been featured on the life you can save and is a strategic giving coach at bless big.
Joan Gass
Joan Gass is the managing director at the Centre for Effective Altruism and oversee’s CEA’s groups team, leads their work on recruitment and provides input on organisation wide strategy.
She has an MBA from Stanford and an MPA in International Development from Harvard. She previously worked in strategy consulting at Bain, where she was a founding member of their Nigeria office. She also co-founded and directed a nonprofit in Uganda, and launched a fellowship related to catastrophic risks and emerging technology policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Dominic Roser
Dr Dominic Roser is a senior lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Ethics and Human Rights. As a philosopher and economist, his focus includes the ethics of climate change.
He published Climate Justice: An Introduction and has been a long-standing supporter of the effective altruism movement. He is currently working on two books, one providing various religious perspectives on effective altruism and another exploring why Christians should engage with effective altruism.
Amplifying capital flows to people in extreme poverty
Paul Niehaus - Co-founder of GiveDirectly.
How Should Christians Think about Existential Risk?
Brian Green - Director of technology ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
Why should Christians care about animal welfare?
David Clough - Profesor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chester.
Fireside Chat with Joan Gass
Joan Gass - Executive Director at the Centre for Effective Altruism.
Faith, EA and the Climate Emergency
Dominic Roser - Senior lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Ethics and Human Rights.
Fireside Chat with Jason Dykstra
Jason Dykstra - Doctor (MD) and board-certified radiologist.