
Michael Ramos
Member, Voices / United Religions Initiative; President & CEO, United Way of Tompkins County
2024
Michael Ramos has been part of the United Religions Initiative and its Cooperating Circle, Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, since 2008. He also has been President & CEO of United Way of Tompkins County since May 2023. His career has been inspired by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of Beloved Community and the challenge he posed to confront the “triplets” of racism, poverty, and militarism. United Way of Tompkins County envisions and strives for a community where all people thrive. Poverty is rare and all households live sufficiently and sustainably. Equitable access, opportunity, and mobility are experienced as a societal norm.
During his many years in Oakland and Seattle, Michael educated, advocated, and organized to address homelessness, promote affordable housing, secure living wages, build community alliances, and uphold and affirm immigrant rights. He served as Executive Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle for 15 years, where he was the first lay and first Latinx director in its 100 year-plus history. He most recently served on the Regional Homelessness Authority Implementation Board, the Affordable Housing Committee, and the Pandemic and Racism Community Advisory Group (in King County, Washington), as well as serving as Board President of Puget Sound Sage. He is a native of New York City. He is married and has two adult daughters. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Seattle University.

This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
