President Donald Trump has appointed members to the advisory boards of the newly established Religious Liberty Commission, the White House announced Friday. The appointments come just two weeks after Trump signed an executive order creating the commission on May 1.
The commission, led by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as chair and Dr. Ben Carson as vice chair, will now be supported by three specialized advisory boards consisting of religious leaders, legal experts, and lay advisors.
Notably, two high-profile appointees hail from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, a longtime advisor to Trump, was named to the Advisory Board of Religious Leaders. Also selected was Kelly Shackelford, President and CEO of First Liberty Institute, a legal group based in Plano that defends religious liberty cases nationwide.
Other members of the religious advisory board include Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Georgia, Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and Rabbi Mark Gottlieb of Tikvah.
The legal advisory board features constitutional scholars and religious liberty advocates including Kristen Waggoner, CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, and Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.
The lay advisory board includes figures like Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King Jr. and Chair of the Center for the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute, and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts college in the United States.
The Commission’s work will focus on issues including parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, and the defense of houses of worship. It is scheduled to operate through July 4, 2026, unless extended by the president.