Board of Trustees Welcomes 5 New Members

HIU's Board of Trustees has approved five new members: Russell H. Jones '94, Luma Chalabi, Fatima Fiazuddin, the Rev. Dr. Linda Spiers '22, and Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum '00. Dr. Tatum will officially join the board in January 2026.

Luma Chalabi is the principal at the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center in Avon. In that role, she leads a team of 16 teachers who work at the center's weekend academy for K-12 students. She also serves on the center's Outreach Committee.

Russell H. Jones is well known to the business community in Hartford and has a long list of volunteer and philanthropic experience.

Russell worked most recently for Voya Funds and has worked for CIGNA Mutual Funds, Kaman Corporation, and Hartford National Bank. He is a former corporator of then Hartford Seminary and an alum, earning an MA in 1994. His BA is from the University of Connecticut.

He has held volunteer leadership positions at institutions as varied as the Hill-Stead Museum and the Hartford Area Business Economists. He has chaired the Asylum Hill Congregational Church's Boar's Head Festival and served on the board of the Newington Children's Hospital.

Fatima Fiazuddin is a docketing specialist who has worked as a paralegal for many years. She is a member of the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut board. and operates a food pantry for needy Muslim families. She is also the principal and a teacher at Al Noor Islamic Center's Sunday School.

She has a degree from Andover College in Portland, ME, in Paralegal Studies. She speaks fluent Hindi and Urdu. 

The Rev. Dr. Linda Spiers '22 currently serves as a supply priest at St. Francis Episcopal Church, Stamford, CT. She is retired as Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, Collinsville, after serving there for nearly 15 years. She has also served at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford where she did her Seminarian internship and later served as Curate and Associate for Cathedral Life.

She graduated from Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (HIU) with her Doctor of Ministry degree. She also holds degrees from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale (M.Div.), University of Richmond (MBA), and Mary Washington College (BS). Ordained an Episcopal Deacon in June 2000 and Episcopal Priest in January 2001, she has served all of her ordained life in Connecticut.

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum '00, president emerita of Spelman College, is an award-winning psychologist widely known for her expertise on race relations and as a thought leader in higher education. Her thirteen years as the president of Spelman College (2002-2015) were marked by innovation and growth and her visionary leadership was recognized in 2013 with the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award. In spring 2017 she was the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University. In 2022-23, she served as interim president at Mount Holyoke College.

Dr. Tatum is the author of several books, including the New York Times best-seller, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations About Race. Her newest book, Peril and Promise: College Leadership in Turbulent Times addresses the contemporary challenges and opportunities facing higher education in a time of rapid social change (to be released 9/2/2025). 

An active civic leader, she currently serves as Board Chair of the Tull Charitable Foundation in Atlanta and is a member of the Board of Directors of Sesame Workshop as well as the Educational Testing Service.

Dr. Tatum holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, and M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan as well as an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hartford International University (formerly Hartford Seminary).  In 2014 she was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society and was also the recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology.  

Welcome, everyone!