SCI Announces New President

The Board of Trustees of the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey (SCI) has called the Rev. David M. Rider to be the organization’s ninth President and Executive Director. Rider succeeds the Rev. Dr. Jean R. Smith, who retires after 17 years of service. Rider comes to SCI after ten years with The Church Pension Group, where he served as Managing Trustee of the Episcopal Church Medical Trust and Senior Vice President (Claims) of The Church Insurance Company. Since 2001, Rider has served as interim leader of two large Episcopal Churches, Grace Church in New York City and St. Mark’s Church, New Canaan, CT. Already, Rider is getting his feet wet as he prepares to take the helm. He has visited ships in Port Newark, and in early October will attend an industry conference and visit SCI’s Houston and Paducah sites, meeting staff and stakeholders. Rider brings decades of experience in chaplaincy ministry, along with advanced management training to his work at SCI. In addition to many years in parish pastoral ministry, he has been a hospital chaplain in Manhattan and a pastoral counselor in Washington, DC. While at The Church Pension Group, he completed The General Manager Program and additional training in non-profit management in the Executive Education division of Harvard Business School Founded in 1834 and affiliated with the Episcopal Church, the Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey (SCI) is the largest, most comprehensive mariners’ agency in North America. Annually, its chaplains visit 3,400 vessels in the Port of New York and New Jersey and along 2,200 miles of America’s inland waterways. SCI’s maritime education program provides navigational training to nearly 1,600 mariners each year at simulator-based facilities located in Houston, Texas and Paducah, Kentucky.