Dr. Thomas J. Ward
President of the Research Institute
Recipient of a Diplôme Supérieur (DS) in French Studies from the Sorbonne and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Notre Dame, he did his doctoral studies in Political Economy and International Education at the Catholic Institute of Paris and De La Salle University in the Philippines. He teaches graduate courses in International Conflict and Negotiation and Political and Economic Integration. A former Fulbright scholar, he has lectured at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at Academia Sinica in Taipei. His published work has been featured by various publishers and journals including E-International Relations, Paragon Books, East Asia (Springer), the Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, and International Journal of World Peace. He has done peer reviews of academic articles for IJWP as well as for Springer and Routledge publications. Dr. Ward has been involved for many years with UN-related NGOs and the UN itself. He worked closely with former UN General Assembly President Stoyan Ganev.
Dr. Claude Perrottet
Secretary General
Claude Perrottet serves as Secretary General of the Research Institute for the Integration of World Thought, created and developed the Certificate Course in Unification Thought. He also served as the translator (from the Korean original to English) of An Introduction to the Thought of Sun Myung Moon Unification Thought and V.O.C. Claude Perrottet’s specialized field is Philosophy of Religion and he holds a Ph.D. from Université Laval (Quebec, Canada). He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the Unification Theological Seminary where he earned his Masters of Divinity. He has researched and taught Unification Thought for more than three decades and he has published articles on Gender in Western Philosophy and Unification Thought and a Philosophical Inquiry into Spirit World in the Journal of Unification Studies. He has also published a book on Kant’s influence on Tillich’s Philosophy of Religion, as well as articles on topics such as Kant’s Perpetual Peace as an antecedent to the United Nations and Paul Tillich and Zen Buddhism. He coauthored Unification Perspectives on Peace and Conflict Transformation (2013) with Dr. Thomas J. Ward. In addition to his course on Unification Thought, Perrottet currently teaches graduate courses in Global Development and Peace at the University of Bridgeport.
Dr. Jung Chang Choi
The Founding Chair
He is the founding Chair of the Research Institute for the Integration of World Thought. Dr. Choi earned his doctorate at New York Theological Seminary and completed his Masters at Sogang, Korea’s Jesuit University, and he did his undergraduate studies at Korea University. In his career, Dr. Choi has lectured on philosophy, theology and the Korean language in universities both in Korea and in the United States. He also served as Dean of the College of Arts and Science at Sunmoon University in Asan, Korea. He has been involved in the development of the Research Institute for the Integration for World Thought since its inception and he worked closely with Dr. Sang Hun Lee who played a leading role in the initial formulation of Unification Thought. Dr. Choi currently resides in Korea but he regularly visits the United States to oversee and assist with the education projects and programs of the Research Institute in the United States.
Dr. Mari Curry
Incoming President
Dr. Mari Curry currently serves as Incoming President of the Research Institute. In 2008, Dr. Curry graduated with a bachelor's degree in counseling and religious studies from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Following that she studied theology in South Korea and received her master’s in theology from the SunHak Universal Peace Graduate School in 2012. Dr. Curry then received her doctorate from the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS), where she graduated with honors in 2021.
Dr. Curry is now an adjunct professor at UTS and serves on its board. She also serves as the director of the Blessed Marriage Project, an organization striving to enhance marriages through education and retreats and affiliated with High Noon International. Dr. Curry has also served as a pastor, the national vice president, and the national director of education for Family Federation (FFWPU) USA. In the course of her ministry, she has pursued initiatives for church leadership development for FFWPU USA through seminars, training, educational materials, and collaborative efforts with UTS.
Mi Young Eaton
Incoming Secretary General
Mi Young Eaton currently serves as the Incoming Secretary General of the Research Institute. She is a graduate of the Unification Theological Seminary (2018) and Cornell College (2015), where she specialized in the study of world religions, Unification theology and philosophy, and education.