Polls for the 2026 election for Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Boards, Committees, and Commissions will be open starting at 9am ET / 8am CT / 7am MT / 6am PT / 5am AT / 4am HT on June 1, 2026 until at 9am ET / 8am CT / 7am MT / 6am PT / 5am AT / 4am HT June 15, 2026, and the results will be announced at General Assembly (GA) 2026. Please take a moment to read through our helpful information sheet (PDF) on what you need to know about voting this year.
Candidates for Position #5 on the UUA Board of Trustees
Each candidate is running for a 3-year term ending at GA 2029. A candidate forum will be held at a date and time in early June. More information will be made available soon.
Terry Grim
This candidate was nominated by the UUA Nominating Committee to serve a 3-year term in Position #5 of the UUA Board of Trustees.
Candidate Statement
Terry Grim is honored to be nominated by the Nominating Committee to serve as a Trustee on the UUA Board of Directors.
Growing up in diverse communities across multiple countries, Terry experienced firsthand the deep interconnectedness of life and the many ways people live and believe. Those early experiences shaped her enduring commitment to the dignity and worth of every person and led her to Unitarian Universalism, where she found a true spiritual home.
For thirty-four years as a member of Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church, she has served in a wide range of leadership roles, including President, Vice President, and Treasurer of the Board, and chair of numerous committees and teams. She remains actively engaged as a Worship Associate, choir member, mentor, and participant in ministries and social justice efforts.
Terry’s professional path reflects a lifelong focus on understanding change and helping organizations navigate it. With academic grounding in computer science, future studies, and organizational psychology, she spent thirty years at IBM in strategic, management, and technical roles. She later taught Foresight at the University of Houston and founded a consulting practice serving associations and organizations. She has also served on the Board of the Association of Professional Futurists and chaired the development of its Code of Ethics.
Across all of Terry’s work, she has been committed to creating inclusive environments where diverse voices are heard and valued, because both organizations and communities are stronger when everyone can participate fully.
Terry believes our faith calls us to imagine the future boldly, care deeply for one another, and act courageously for justice. She is inspired by the opportunity to help the UUA meet this moment, bringing her deep love for our faith, her ability to connect across difference, and her training and experience helping people come together to envision and build a better future.
Online Campaign Presence
Larry Ladd
This candidate submitted a petition, which was approved by the Secretary, to serve a 3-year term in Position #5 of the UUA Board of Trustees.
Candidate Statement
As a child in the late 1950s, Larry occasionally attended services at the First Unitarian Church of Providence, where his aunt and uncle were members. Up front was Bill Jones, the assistant minister who was of African descent. Larry didn’t know how unusual that was, even as he returned back to his white congregation in Grafton, MA. Bill Jones never served another congregation after Providence, his experience being, in a subtle word of the times, “disappointing.”
Today, that white congregation in Grafton, where Larry grew up, is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the ministry of a minister born of Haitian immigrants. And Bill Jones stayed in ministerial fellowship with the UUA, had a successful academic career, wrote the book “Is God A White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology,” and went on to serve on the UUA Board and receive the Award for Distinguished Service to Unitarian Universalism.
Stories like these make Larry optimistic that Unitarian Universalism can become the liberating faith its theology promises. He has devoted much of his volunteer time to that promise. “I’m not done yet,” he says.
We know the future that we seek. We don’t agree on how to get there. We do know that it requires optimism, care, persistence and focus, characteristics Larry has demonstrated throughout his volunteer career in Unitarian Universalism.
Larry’s spiritual practice is grounded in the UU Fellowship of Falmouth, MA. A former president, he recently chaired its ministerial search committee. He ia a welcoming greeter, the chair of the denominational affairs committee, and an occasional preacher. UU Falmouth has been an honor congregation with the UUA since that designation was created.
He has served Unitarian Universalism since he became a youth leader and anti-racist activist, including three terms as UUA Financial Advisor, chairing the board of Meadville Lombard Theological School, and advising the Starr King School for the Ministry.
The UUA board needs the stability and the institutional knowledge Larry will bring. When its two longest serving members complete their six years of service this June, the remaining nine members will have an average of 2.3 years of service each. Four of the nine will have completed one year or less. You can’t make change if you are busy trying to figure out how things work.
The theme of his candidacy is “Liberate Unitarian Universalism,” a bombastic assertion but also an optimistic one. The Commission on Institutional Change described our governance as overly complex and as frustrating to volunteers. It gives many people authority to stop change but offers few channels to more fully live out our mission. Larry knows that culture well and will encourage its transformation. Because of his experience within the culture, he can start right away to help change it.
Professionally, Larry has been a leader, board member, or consultant with a wide variety of not-for-profit organizations. Those entities include Harvard, Tuskegee University, Consumer Reports, Girl Scouts USA, Rotary International, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, His expertise, in governance, finance, and strategy, is needed by the UUA.
He will be grateful for your vote and will work to earn your continued trust.
Online Campaign Presence
Review the full slate of candidates for election at GA 2026.
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