President Trump Appoints Regent University Professor, Former Trustee, and Alumni to Serve on Religious Liberty Commission

May 21, 2025

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (May 21, 2025) – President Donald J. Trump has appointed Regent University professor Dr. Mark David Hall, former Regent trustee Dr. Ben Carson, and Regent alumni Kristen Waggoner (LAW, ‘97) and Abigail Robertson (DIV, ‘23) to the newly formed Religious Liberty Commission.

On May 1, the President signed an executive order establishing the Religious Liberty Commission, tasked with providing reports on religious liberty, identifying threats to religious freedom, and recommending strategies to preserve and enhance protections. The commission will also advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council.

The Religious Liberty Commission will be chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Dr. Ben Carson – who previously served on the Board of Trustees at Regent University – will serve as vice chair of the Commission. Dr. Carson is an acclaimed neurosurgeon and former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He ran for President of the United States in 2016.

Mark David Hall will serve on the commission’s Advisory Board of Lay Leaders. Dr. Hall, a professor in Regent University’s Robertson School of Government, is a scholar of early America who has written or edited a dozen books, including Did America Have a Christian Founding?: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth, Great Christian Jurists in American History, and Faith and the Founders of the American Republic.

Kristen Waggoner will serve on the commission’s Advisory Board of Legal Experts. Waggoner is the CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom: the world’s largest legal organization advancing every person’s God-given right to live and speak the truth.

Abigail Robertson, the granddaughter of Regent University founder Dr. M.G. “Pat” Robertson, will serve on the commission’s Advisory Board of Lay Leaders. Robertson currently co-hosts and co-produces the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) podcast Heaven Meets Earth. Since joining the CBN team in 2015, she has also worked as a Capitol Hill and White House correspondent.

Commission members include religious leaders such as Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Pastor Franklin Graham, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, and Pastor Paula White, as well as figures like Dr. Phil McGraw, Kelly Shackelford, and Bishop Robert Barron.

Additional advisory board members include religious leaders like Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Pastor Jentezen Franklin, and Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, alongside legal experts and lay leaders Alveda King and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.

About Regent University

Founded in 1977, Regent University is America’s premier Christian university, with more than 13,000 students studying on its 70-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and online around the world. The university offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in more than 150 areas of study, including business, communication and the arts, counseling, cybersecurity, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, nursing, healthcare, and psychology. Regent University has been ranked the #1 Best Accredited Online College in the United States (Study.com, 2020), the #1 Safest College Campus in Virginia (YourLocalSecurity, 2021), and the #1 Best Online Bachelor’s Program in Virginia for 13 years in a row (U.S. News & World Report, 2025).

To support the Royals Rise capital campaign for campus expansion, visit www.regent.edu/royalsrise.

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