Reverend Debra Haffner

• Author of "A Time to Heal" and "Balancing Acts", two guidebooks for congregations on child sex abuse prevention.

• Religion and sexuality, morality, sexual abuse, sex offenders, abortion, LGBT issues, abstinence education, parenting education

• Author, What Every 2lst Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today's Challenges with Wisdom and Heart, 2008

• Former CEO, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States

The Reverend Debra W. Haffner is currently serving as a consultant as well as a part time transitions minister. She was the director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing from 2001-2016. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, and an endorsed community minister with the Unitarian Church in Westport, CT.

Rev. Haffner was the chief executive officer of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, from 1988 through May 2000. Under her leadership, SIECUS tripled in staff size, increased its annual budget revenues more than six fold, and opened professional offices in New York and Washington, DC. During Rev. Haffner’s tenure at SIECUS, she created the Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing; the National Coalition to Support Sexuality Education; the Commission on Adolescent Sexual Health; and the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Kindergarten – Grade Twelve.

Prior to joining SIECUS, Rev. Haffner served as the Director of Education for the Center for Population Options, the Director of Community Services for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, a Special Assistant in the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Resource Center Coordinator of the Population Institute.

In 1996-97, she was a Research Fellow at the Yale Divinity School. She is also a Fellow of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. She is currently a Visiting Professor at Union Theological Seminary and the Yale Divinity School.

Rev. Haffner is the author of From Diapers to Dating: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children, and Beyond the Big Talk: Every Parent’s Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Teens.She is also the co-author of a college sexuality textbook and “What I’ve Learned About Sex.” Her most recent book is What Every 2lst Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today's Challenges with Wisdom and Heart.

Rev. Haffner has also published nine chapters in books and encyclopedias, more than 70 articles in professional journals, 14 monographs, and numerous pamphlets for the general public. She has conducted speeches and training workshops in Brazil, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, New Zealand, Uruguay, Guatemala, England, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Rev. Haffner’s work has been honored by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, the Association for the Advancement of Health Education, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine. She received the Connecticut Sexuality Educator of the Year Award in May 2002 and the Norwalk High School 2005 Alumni Award.

Rev. Haffner appears regularly in the national media. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times and Washington Post, and has appeared on such programs as "Nightline," "PrimeTime Live," "20/20," "Dateline," "Crossfire," "Good Morning America," "Oprah," and "Today".

Rev. Haffner has a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, a Masters of Public Health from the Yale University School of Medicine and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. She has been married for 24 years and is the proud mother of a 20-year-old daughter and a twelve-year-old son.

Rev. Haffner received an honorary doctorate of public service from Widener University in 2011. She also received the 2011 Ministry to Women Award from the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation, and has been invited to donate her personal and professional papers to the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe/Harvard University.

Follow Rev. Haffner on Twitter @RevDebra.