Magna Carta Opening Event

Jeffrey Kloha joined Museum of the Bible in summer 2017. He manages the Museum of the Bible Education, Scholars Initiative, Exhibits, Curatorial, and Collections departments and is responsible for executing those departments’ strategic plans, along with managing other professionals.

Jeff previously served 18 years as professor of New Testament at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and also served Concordia as provost/chief academic officer. During that time, he oversaw two accreditation processes, transitioned the institution from quarters to semesters, steered the development of new curricula and managed strategic planning for the institution. He earned the PhD from the University of Leeds.

His areas of teaching and research include the textual and canonical history of the early Christian writings, hermeneutics, and the Pauline Epistles. Jeff is co-editor of Texts and Traditions: Essays in Honour of J. K. Elliott (Brill, 2014) and The Press of the Text: Biblical Studies in Honor of James W. Voelz (Pickwick, 2017). He has published peer-reviewed essays in the areas of New Testament textual criticism and the use of New Testament texts in early Christianity. He is a frequent conference presenter, radio guest, and television documentary commentator. 

Prior to arriving in DC, Karen Pierce was the United Kingdom’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York since March 2018. Prior to this role, Karen served as the director general for Political Affairs and chief operating officer of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, from 2016.

Karen joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1981. Her first role was in Tokyo between 1984 and 1987, after which she returned to the UK to work in the Security Policy Department. Karen worked in Washington as the private secretary to the British ambassador to the United States between 1992 and 1995. Between 1996 and 2006, Karen held several positions in London, including team leader for Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, deputy head of Eastern Adriatic (Balkans) Department, head of Newsroom, head of EU Department (Bilateral) and, concurrently, head of Afghanistan Political Military Unit after 9/11 before returning to the Balkans as Balkans coordinator from 2002 to 2006.

In 2006, Karen moved to New York for the first time to be the deputy permanent representative and ambassador at the UK Mission to the UN. In 2009, she returned to London to become the director of South Asia and Afghanistan Department and the UK’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2012, Karen started her second multilateral role, this time in Geneva, where she was the ambassador and permanent representative to the UK Mission to the United Nations, World Trade Organization, and other international organizations until 2015. Between 2015 and 2016 Karen was the UK’s ambassador to Afghanistan.

Luke has been a director of English Heritage, and of the Royal College of Art, in London. He has worked with partners across the globe raising philanthropic and sponsorship income for leading educational and cultural institutions, including the University of Oxford, the Ditchley Foundation, and the Courtauld Institute. 

Luke co-founded the Dubai-based Global Grad Show in 2014. In 2018 Luke and his Hawkwood co-founder, Alon Shulman, organized the first ever official music performance at Stonehenge. In 2019, he worked with the Gagosian Gallery in London to create a ground-breaking exhibition featuring Rembrandt’s finest self-portrait, alongside rarely seen works by Warhol, Richter, Picasso, and Jenny Saville.

Luke grew up in Herefordshire, England, and was chorister in Hereford Cathedral. In 1989, Luke was invested as Boy Bishop at Hereford. His reign lasted for three weeks and in this time, he played an important part in services, wearing full episcopal regalia, in a tradition that goes back to the thirteenth century. 

Luke is an advisor to the Queen Rania Foundation in Jordan, a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He studied history at the University of Oxford. Luke and his wife, Anna, divide their time between homes in London and France.

Canon Pullin studied at Durham University and Ripon College, Cuddesdon. He spent a year of his studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, and holds an MA in Philosophy and Religion.

He began his ministry in London, before moving to Worcester in 1992, where he was an Honorary Canon of the Cathedral. He was appointed as the Canon Chancellor of Hereford Cathedral in 2008. His role as Chancellor is one of responsibility for all the cathedral’s educational work, and he has Chapter oversight of the historic library and archives, and the modern working library.

In recent years, he has accompanied the Hereford Magna Carta to many places in America, Europe, and Asia, and served as a member of the Magna Carta Trust. He is the author of The Magna Carta at Hereford Cathedral. In current research work he is exploring the Anglo-Saxon beginnings of Hereford Cathedral, and its tremendous development in the Norman era.

Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm is the chief executive of Bnai Zion, which supports Israel and the Jewish people by building partnerships with our natural friends and allies in other faith communities and beyond. He is the host of Good Faith Effort, a weekly podcast showing how the values and ideas of the Hebrew Bible can illuminate all the most important conversations in society, from politics to pop culture and beyond. And he is the president and co-founder of The Joshua Network, a faith-based multimedia studio producing premium content for a new generation that takes faith seriously and seeks content that reflects and celebrates their values.

He holds rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, received his MA from University College London, through a Fulbright Scholarship, in ancient Judaism and Eastern Christianity, and earned his PhD from Princeton University in ancient Judaism and Christianity. His writing has appeared in the The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The New York Post, Tablet Magazine, The Jerusalem Post, and First Things. He and his wife, Shlomit, are raising four wonderful children together.