South Carolina’s Liberty Fellowship: a State Chapter of the Masonic Aspen Institute?

Let's Take a Look into the Actors, Members, Contributors, and Criteria to Become a Part of this Exclusive Society that Holds More Power than We Realize

While taking a look through South Carolina legislators’ biographies on scstatehouse.gov, I noticed several patterns, one being the several legislators listed themselves as “Liberty Fellow.” However, this fellowship was not listed on bios of legislators who are known for upholding liberty, instead it was quite the opposite. This fellowship was listed on the bios of some of the most notorious bullies in the legislature, Republicans and Democrats alike.

So, what is this mysterious Liberty Fellowship? Well, it seems that it is acting as a state chapter for the Aspen Institute, an exclusive society only available to the political elites to push global initiatives.

What is the Aspen Institute?

Walter Paepcke founded the Aspen Institute to celebrate the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe was a Freemason and joined the Amalia Lodge In Weimar in March of 1780. In his writings, Geothe frequently alluded to masonic themes of universal brotherhood and was drawn to the Bavarian Illuminati. Goethe’s rhetoric on evolution would frame the scientific paradigm that Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace would create.

On one occasion Goethe described himself as "not anti-Christian, nor un-Christian, but most decidedly non-Christian,"[76] and in his Venetian Epigram 66, Goethe listed the symbol of the cross among the four things that he most disliked.[77] According to Nietzsche, Goethe had "a kind of almost joyous and trusting fatalism" that has "faith that only in the totality everything redeems itself and appears good and justified."[78]

U.S. Senator Jesse Helms was a Freemason himself and warned Americans during a Senate speech in 1987:

“A careful examination of what is happening behind the scenes reveals that all of these interests are working in concert with the masters of the Kremlin in order to create what some refer to as a new world order. Private organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Trilateral Commission, the Dartmouth Conference, THE ASPEN INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDIES, the Atlantic Institute, and the Bilderberg Group serve to disseminate and to coordinate the plans for this so-called new world order in powerful business, financial, academic, and official circles.”

What is Liberty Fellowship & How is it Connected?

According to a video posted by the Liberty Fellowship, the organization was created to bring leaders of different thought together to work collaboratively and find commonality, assisted by the moderators in seminars. This video also referred to the Liberty Fellowship as a sisterhood/brotherhood “that is there for you at a moments notice”...sound familiar? After hearing this, I decided to look into the board members, staff, and moderators of the Liberty Fellowship. Every individual seems to hold a high level of power in either the public sector, private sector, or nonprofit field. What is even more interesting? All but two individuals are listed as members or employees of the Aspen Institute/Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Also notice the several mentions of the Riley Institute at Furman University. That program was named after Richard Riley, a former South Carolina governor and the former U.S. Secretary of education during the Clinton Administration. Riley is a named partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough which is one of the most powerful law firms in South Carolina. Both the Riley Institute and Nelson Mullins have an office/large initiative for “diversity” and “inclusion” and both organizations seem to act as a pipeline to grow Aspen Institute globalists.

Board Members

Elizabeth Fleming is now a consultant, but sits on several powerful boards like Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, CTE (one of NC’s largest privately held companies,) and Davidson College. Fleming served as the President of Converse College from 2005 to 2016 and Executive Director of the Gigges Museum of Art in Charleston. Fleming is also an Aspen Institute trustee and a moderator for the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Kerri Forrest is the Vice President of Grantmaking & Community Leadership at Coastal Community Foundation. Kerri has also “become an active member of the Charleston community and is working with numerous organizations to address economic, racial, environmental, and gender disparities.” Forrest is a Furman University Riley Fellow, Liberty Fellow, and a Fellow in the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Michael Allen has spent more than 19 years in architectural business development and project management, including LEED and Green Glob Sustainability projects. Previously, Allen has worked with higher education, K-12, and is a former Clemson football player. Allen is listed as a speaker for a handful of events hosted by the Aspen Institute.

Patrick Cawley is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MUSC Health and Vice President for Health Affairs of the Medical University of South Carolina. Cawley is deeply entrenched in the hospital system and is a Fellow in the Aspen Global Leadership Network. On 1/5/2021, Cawley made several tweets on the “early learning of [the] COVID19 vaccine” and how the “number one priority” should be the number of “shots in arms.”

Iris Griffin is the vice president of power generation for Dominion Energy/vice president of Finance at SCANA. She is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Jason Tompkins is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Asana Partners, a real estate investment company. He is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Octavia Williams Blake is the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for McLeod Health in Florence, South Carolina. Blake is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Geoff Wilson is the founder and Principal of Wilson Growth Partners, LLC, a strategic advisory firm. Geoff has previously served as the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development at Milliken & Company.

Staff

Tycely Williams is the new CEO of Liberty Fellowship and is based out of DC and according to her LinkedIn, sits on seven different boards. Previously, Williams served as the chief development officer for the Bipartisan Policy Center and has worked for several large nonprofits. She is an inaugural 2024 fellow at The Washington National Cathedral’s Sacred Spaces: Racial Justice and Spirituality in Action.

Summer Dickson is the Strategic Communications Director of Liberty Fellowship. Previously, Dickson led marketing for the Riley Institute at Furman University. Summer’s user profile is listed on the Aspen Global Leadership Network but it does not make it clear if she is a member. Summer lives in Greenville with her wife and two children.

Janice Wilkins is the Seminars Manager of Liberty Fellowship and has been with the organization since its founding. Prior to this position, Wilkins served as the Faculty Administrative Assistant to the Wofford College Department of Biology. Janice’s user profile is listed on the Aspen Global Leadership Network but it does not make it clear if she is a member.

Moderators

Todd Breyfogle is the Executive Director of Seminars at the Aspen Institute and is based out of Denver, Colorado. Breyfogle has worked for the Aspen Institute since 2008 and sits on several non-profit boards.

John Deasy is the President of the Bezos Family Foundation that is partnered with Save the Children and the Aspen Institute. Deasy is also a moderator for the Aspen Institute and an Aspen Fellow of the first class of the Pahara Fellowships.

John Cannon Few is a Justice with the Supreme Court of South Carolina. Previously, Few served as the Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals from 2010 to 2016 and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Sejal Gulati is the Chief Growth Officer for NOW, a crypto payments company. Gulaticurrently lives in New York City and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Tonya Hinch is the executive director of the Henry Crown Fellowship, a program within the Aspen Institute and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Danielle Holley is the President of Mount Holyoke College and is the co-chair of the Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Holley is a moderator for the Aspen Institute executive leadership seminars and is a “Liberty Fellow through the Aspen Global Leadership Network.”

Stace Lindsay is the President of Fusion Venture Partners a firm he founded to “bring together.” Lindsay is the co-founder of the Aspen Institute’s Central American Leadership Initiative and has served on the executive committee of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs. Lindsay is a Henry Crown Fellow, member and senior moderator for the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Leighton Lord is the Chairman of Nexsen Pruet and the Founder and Managing Director of Nexsen’s communication and crisis management affiliate, NP Strategy, LLC. (NP Strategy is the same organization that Richland County Economic Development Department hired to blacklist residents who were vocal about the Scout Motors destruction in their community.) Leighton is the Chairman of Santee Cooper the Governor’s appointee on the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management Offshore Renewable Energy Task Force. He is a Riley Institute Diversity Fellow and serves on the Board of Governors of the Palmetto Club. He is a moderator and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Ranji Nagaswami is Chief Strategy and Chief Commercial Officer of SVPGlobal, a global investment firm. Nagaswami has held several leadership roles in investments, including serving as chief investment advisor to the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the City of New York. She founded the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship and is an Aspen Institute/Aspen Global Leadership Network member, moderator, and Henry Crown Fellow.

Windsor Westbrook Sherrill is an associate vice president for health research at Clemson University and chief science officer at the Greenville Health System. Sherrill is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

John Simpkins is President and CEO of MDC, Inc. in Durham, NC which is an organization that is “working on behalf of racial equity and economic mobility in the South.” Simpkins formerly served as Vice President of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Simpkins was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in the Obama Admin for the U.S. International Development and deputy general counsel for the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Ann Marie Stieritz is the immediate past-President and CEO of Liberty Fellowship. Stieritz has served as the President and CEO of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness and has worked in positions at the University of South Carolina and in the South Carolina Technical College System. She is a Certified Moderator for the Aspen Institute and sits on the board of the Columbia Museum of Art.

Lifetime Partners

The Liberty Fellowship has a massive donor list and there are major businesses listed as lifetime donors. Here are just a couple of huge organizations that have contributed to the Liberty Fellowship since inception: BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, The Boeing Company, Dominion Energy/SCANA, Milliken & Company, South State Bank, The Duke Endowment, Nelson Mullins, Prisma Health, Wells Fargo, and Wofford College.

Criteria

In order to be a Liberty Fellow, you must be a South Carolina resident between the ages of 30 and 47. The nominee must also be open to ideas, be an accomplished leader, be at an “inflection point,” be willing to challenge existing normative behaviors with actionable ideas, and contribute effectively to the seminar experience by listening and learning from their peers.

The seminar schedule for the Class of 2025 includes week-long seminars relating to the (1) Challenge of Leadership and (2) an Aspen Seminar, (3) a choice between five Aspen Institute Globalization seminars (in the U.S. or abroad), and other week-long seminars titled “the promise of leadership” and a “call to action.”

The Class of 2025 was announced in 2023, check out the long list of individuals HERE.

Most Notable Liberty Fellows

I wish we could do a deep dive on all 350 active fellows of the Liberty Fellowship but I would have to find a book publisher for that analysis. Instead, let’s take a look at a couple of the most powerful political figure heads in South Carolina listed as Liberty Fellows:

Former U.S. House Representative and current Nelson Mullins Partner Trey Gowdy (2007), current U.S. Senator Tim Scott (2009), SC Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (2011), SC Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge Robert Hood (2019 and mentored by Trey Gowdy), SC Representative Weston Newton (2015 and mentored by Pat McKinney, former gubernatorial candidate John Warren’s running mate), SC Representative Beth Bernstein, current South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (2017), SC Senator Thomas McElveen (2018), and SC Representative Micah Caskey (2020).

The Silence is Deafening

We reached out to the Liberty Fellowship headquarters regarding an interview but did not hear back before this article was published. We also reached out to one of the board members, Geoff Wilson, who declined an interview.

It is worrying that a large, global entity like the Aspen Institute is deeply ensnared in our state through what seems to be a state chapter. How much power do they have over the leaders of South Carolina? While South Carolina is a “Republican supermajority” the voting records of our legislators says otherwise. Why would these same legislators that are Liberty Fellows advocate and vote in favor of legislation like the Health Czar bill that is tied to globalist organizations like the World Health Organization? Always watch their actions, not their words.