Kara Markell

Rev. Dr. Kara Markell is a gifted educator and public teaching theologian dedicated to creating spiritually grounded and academically enriching opportunities within the many stages of faith formation. Kara earned her Doctor of Ministry degree steeped in the Ignatian tradition from Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry with a focus on discerning the linkages between congregational identity and the capacity for communities to adapt in a quickly changing religious world. Her theological roots are nourished by feminist and liberation studies, ecumenical and inter-spiritual exploration, Celtic Christianity and Eco-Spirituality. She seeks opportunities to learn from wisdom traditions, gaining new fluencies in religious literacy and interreligious connections.

Today, Kara’s research and writing in adaptive leadership explore the wild edges of religious expression and the intersectional nature of adaptive change. Kara earned her Master of Divinity from Brite Divinity School and is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She leaves a position as senior pastor in her community and continues to serve on several regional and national boards and committees. Kara is a life-long educator, earning her BS in Teaching from Minnesota State University and a Master of Music from the Conservatory of Music at University of Missouri – Kansas City.

As an educator, Kara excels in curriculum development and implementation. She is a gifted mentor who delights in nurturing future leaders. As a systems-thinker she brings creativity, curiosity and skill to developing and implementing learning opportunities, spiritual gatherings, liturgical resources, retreats and academic programs. Kara is a regular consultant and coach for religious communities seeking new ways to adapt to today’s religious landscape.

Suraj Arshanapally

Suraj Arshanapally, MPH, is an Indian-American storyteller and public health advocate. He started The Multicultural Man to celebrate cultural diversity and healthy masculinity through storytelling. He is also the Managing Editor for the CDC Yellow Book, an international travel medicine publication at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suraj received his MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Yale University. He believes multiculturalism and interfaith cooperation are crucial to building a healthy and peaceful society.  

Chris RayAlexander

After a decade in higher education as a professor of Spanish-language literature, history, and culture, Chris RayAlexander completed an MDiv at Emory’s Candler School of Theology in 2023 and dove into a new career in interfaith relationship building. His current research focuses on the intersection of pluralism and practical theology of religions. He is passionate about creating a more humane and unified world through interfaith advocacy, education, and community cultivation. He is Program Coordinator at Interfaith Children’s Movement, a Board Member of Interfaith Atlanta, and Support Chair for its youth organization, Interfaith Atlanta Youth (IAY). Chris serves as an interfaith consultant in his community, and in his free time he translates philosophy as a member of the French Metaphysics Translation Project. He lives in Atlanta with his partner, their son, and a pile of philosophy and theology books that constantly remind him of his own mortal finitude.

Claire Thielens

Claire Thielens is a student of Political Science and English at Seattle University. She grew up an active participant in her Episcopal congregation in Milton, Georgia, and she now brings a philosophy of intentional inclusion to her ongoing Jesuit education.

Amar Peterman

Amar D. Peterman (M.Div., Princeton Seminary) is an author and scholar working at the intersection of faith and public life. He is the founder of Scholarship for Religion and Society LLC, a research and consulting firm working with some of the leading philanthropic and civic institutions, religious organizations, and faith leaders in America today. Amar is also a Program Manager at Interfaith America. His first book, which focuses on the common good, faith formation, and love of neighbor, is forthcoming with Eerdmans Publishing Company. 

Vasu Bandhu

Vasu Bandhu serves as Interfaith Manager for AFN, assisting in the development, coordination, and implementation of programs. He has been a volunteer in the interfaith movement since he was 18 years old, a founding member of the interfaith latigo youth council “Fraternidad Interespiritual,” collaborating with the Parliament of the World's Religions among other interfaith organizations. He serves as representative for North America on the International Youth Committee of Religions for Peace International, and as treasurer on the North American Leadership Council of the United Religions Initiative (URI). He serves the Buddhist community as Bhikkhu (monk) in the Dhammapada Sangha, (Zen Buddhism), assisting in the practice and teaching of the principles, ceremonies and rituals. He is 28 years old; his studies are in Political Science and Social Projects from UnADM. He is Mexican and has immigrated to the United States to live with his husband, creating an interfaith family, since his husband’s practice is Islam, while his practice is Buddhism.

Betsy Woodman

Betsy Woodman’s Jana Bibi trilogy of novels, set in India, earned the affection of readers across the globe. She was a writer and editor for the award-winning Library of Congress documentary series, Experiencing War, and is currently working on a novel set in New Hampshire and France during World War 1. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, but is a frequent guest speaker on Zoom to the Kearsarge Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship in Andover, New Hampshire.

Diana Whitney

Diana Whitney is a global social entrepreneur. She is founder and president emeritus of Corporation for Positive Change, a global consulting cooperative; a founder of the Taos Institute, an international think tank dedicated to relational processes in business, education, families and communities; and a founding advisor to the United Religions Initiative, a global network of 530 interfaith cooperation circles working for peace and social justice.

Dr. Whitney is a positively powerful keynote speaker, whose messages of hope, positive change, and the call for appreciative leadership offer practical guidance for new ways of working, living and being. Diana’s unique style of ‘interactive storytelling’ inspires audiences from 50 to 1500 at national and international conferences and leadership symposiums in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Diana’s presentations are rich tapestries of experience, research and innovative practices that transform leadership and enliven relationships.

Diana is a prolific, provocative and practical author. Her award winning books on Appreciative Leadership and Appreciative Inquiry, the revolutionary process she helped to develop, have been translated into over a dozen languages and are used as text books in business schools, universities and corporate learning centers around the world. The International Organization Development Network (ODN) honored Diana’s written contributions to the field with the Larry Porter Award.

As a master consultant, Dr. Whitney’s work spans the globe.  Diana consults with executives and their teams in support of strategic planning and organization development, organization culture creation and transformation, and leadership capacity building. With over thirty years of experience, her clients include British Airways, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, Merck SA, City of Regina, Calgary Health Region, UVA Health System, Idaho Department of Education, and the Sisters of Good Shepherd. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) recognized her Appreciative Inquiry work at GTE (Verizon) with their award for Best Organization Culture Change.

Diana serves as Distinguished Consulting Faculty with Saybrook University, and a Ph.D. advisor with the Taos Institute. She is Expert Faculty for the NCR Picker Patient Centered Care Institute and a Fellow of the World Business Academy.

Dr. Whitney received her Ph.D. from Temple University in Organizational Communication. Her research on the dissemination of educational innovations was funded by the National Institute of Education and used to create an agenda for the development of educational R&D laboratories in the United States.

Diana Whitney’s legacy is apparent in the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who work, live and lead using Appreciative Inquiry. She is described as one of the top five thought leaders in the field, forging a positive revolution that is radically transforming knowledge, understanding and practices in human organizing, leadership, and management – for the good of the people.

Audrey Kitagawa

Audrey E. Kitagawa, JD, is the President/Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation, the President of the Light of Awareness International Spiritual Family, and the former Advisor to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict at the United Nations.

She is a co-facilitator of the United Religions Initiative UN Cooperation Circle and Chair Emerita of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns.

She has been enstooled into the royal family as the Nekoso Hemaa,  (i.e. Queen Mother of Development), of Ajiyamanti in Ghana, West Africa, and has a school which she helped to build named after her in her African name, the Nana Ode Anyankobea Junior Secondary School.

She wrote the chapter, Crossing World Views, The Power of Perspective in the Hawaii Japanese American Experience, which was published in a book about multiculturalism, communication and Asian women entitled, Learning In The Light. Her chapter, Globalization As The Fuel For Religious And Ethnic Conflict has been published in the book, Globalization And Identity, Cultural Diversity, Religion and Citizenship.  Her article, The Role Of Identity In The Rise And Decline of Buddhism In Hawaii, The 50th State Of The United States Of America, has been published in Sambhodi, a Buddhist Journal. She published articles in World Affairs The Journal Of International Issues, entitled, The Power of Om: Transformation of Consciousness, and Practical Spirituality. She wrote the chapter, The US In Foreign Affairs: Source of Global Security, Or Source of Global Fear? in the book, America & The World The Double Bind.

She has been listed in Who’s Who Of American Law, Who’s Who Of American Women, Who’s Who In America, Who’s Who In The World, and Prominent People of Hawaii.

She is the recipient of the Medal “Pride of Eurasia” and a Diploma from the Republic of Kazakhstan Ministry of Education and Science L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University for her outstanding contribution to the development of spiritual culture and education in Eurasia.

She is the recipient of the Spirit of the UN Award which is given to outstanding individuals who have demonstrated the vision and spirit of the United Nations as expressed through the UN Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

She was conferred an Honorary Interfaith Minister degree by the New Seminary.

David Callaway

David Callaway is the Religious Freedom Specialist for the Freedom Forum, a non-profit fostering First Amendment freedoms for all. David oversees the Freedom Forum’s religious freedom work acting as a resource for educators, journalists, and the general public on the role of religious freedom and religious literacy in a pluralistic democracy. David specializes in religion and public schools and has trained thousands of educators and administrators on how to teach about religion constitutionally and academically.

Hannah Santos

Hannah Santos is the Religious Freedom Program Coordinator at Freedom Forum. She holds a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Bachelors in Religious Studies and History from Brown University.

Emina Frljak

Emina Frljak is a Program Coordinator within Youth for Peace (Bosnia and Herzegovina). She is also a member of the International Youth Committee of Religions for Peace since August 2019. Her academic background is in educational sciences, interreligious studies, and peacebuilding. Her area of work and interest are peace education, interreligious dialogue, and religious literacy. Lately, her interest is focused also on using social media for educational and campaigning purposes, with special emphasis on countering hate speech. She is also a fellow with the KAICIID International Fellows Program, which is focused on equipping religious leaders, civil society actors, and academics in the field of interreligious and intercultural dialogue. She is a member of the GERIS (Global Exchange on Religion in Society) network.

Rabbi Anson Laytner

Rabbi Anson Laytner, a native of Toronto, Canada, was a participant on the first Canada-China Student Exchange Program in 1973-74, and studied in Beijing that academic year.

Today, he is a happily retired rabbi, serving as volunteer president of the Sino-Judaic Institute (www.sinojudaic.org) and editing its journal, Points East.

During his career, he served as program manager of the Interreligious Initiative at Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry and adjunct faculty with Seattle University’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He also worked as the grants and contracts coordinator for the Jewish Family Service of Seattle, a bereavement chaplain with Kline Galland Hospice, interim rabbi at Congregation Kol HaNeshamah in West Seattle, and as executive director of the Seattle chapter of the American Jewish Committee and of Multifaith Works, a Seattle non-profit agency that served people living with AIDS. He also directed the Seattle Jewish Federation’s Community Relations Council.

Laytner has a BA, summa cum laude, from York University in Toronto, a Masters of Hebrew Letters (MAHL) and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, a Masters in Not-for-Profit Leadership (MNPL) from Seattle University, and an honorary Doctorate in Divinity from Hebrew Union College.

Laytner is the author of 4 books: Arguing with God: A Jewish Tradition; The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity, with Dan Bridge; The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng: A Millennium of Adaptation and Endurance, with Jordan Paper; and The Mystery of Suffering and the Meaning of God.

Rabbi Laytner is married to Richelle Harrell. He has two living daughters, three sons-in-law, five grandkids and one cat.

He may be contacted via his website www.ansonlaytner.com

Wendy Goldberg

Wendy Goldberg is a fourth generation Omahan and a founding member of the Tri-Faith Initiative. She served on the Board of Trustees of Temple Israel for 10 years, including a two-year term as President of the congregation and was on the Temple Israel staff for seven years as Program Director. Wendy played a key role in communications, volunteer engagement, and the capital campaign during Temple Israel’s transition to the Tri-Faith Commons in 2013.

In 2016, Wendy earned a Master’s of Art in Communication and graduate certificate in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska at Omaha after which, she joined the staff at Project Harmony as Project Manager where she partnered with agency stakeholders to custom build and implement client management software, identify program goals, measurable outcomes and build the correlating reports.

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are the Directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale. Over the last twenty years, the Forum on Religion and Ecology has been drawing together the research and insights of scholars, theologians, and laity within the world’s religions. They have identified ideas, ethics, and practices regarding ecology and justice from these traditions in books, journals, and films. Now there are environmental statements from the world’s religions, educational programs, and grassroots projects on the ground. 

Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies.  

Her concern for the growing environmental crisis, especially in Asia, led her to organize with John Grim a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard (1995-1998). Together they are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. In this series she co-edited Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard, 1997), Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard, 1998), and Hinduism and Ecology (Harvard, 2000).

Tucker has been involved with the Earth Charter since its inception. She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000 and was a member of the Earth Charter International Council. She also serves on the Advisory Boards of Orion Magazine, the Garrison Institute, and Green Belt Movement U.S.

Grim teaches courses in Native American and Indigenous religions and World religions and ecology. He has undertaken field work with the Crow/Apsaalooke people of Montana and Salish people of Washington state. He is the author of The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) and edited Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community (Harvard, 2001). Grim is co-executive producer of the Emmy award winning film, Journey of the Universe. This film is the center piece of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered by Yale/Coursera.
 

Chris Alexander

Chris Alexander holds a Doctor of Ministry in the area of congregational leadership and mission and is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She was called to serve as the Associate Minister and Director of Center for Faith Studies at Countryside Community Church in Omaha NE in December of 2010. Chris lives in Omaha with her husband, Rev. Dr. Scott Frederickson, their two daughters Rachel and Maddy, and one grandson, Asher. Chris enjoys the conversation between the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam because it is rich in history, tradition, imagination and great respect.

Felipe Zurita

Felipe Zurita has been bringing awareness to the Golden Rule and empathy with his energetic Millennial, Latinx, Immigrant, Queer voice and experiences to the compassionate movement since 2017. He currently is the Marketing Director for the Charter for Compassion and the chair of the North American Leadership Council. He finds power in the intersectionality of interfaith work, social justice, and compassionate leadership as well as delving deeper into oneself to become a more aware and conscious person as we keep learning and evolving, which are all reflected by the simple phrase: Treat others as you want to be treated.

Lauren Zinn

Lauren Zinn is an Interfaith educator, minister, and consultant. Through her custom-designed youth and adult programs, she guides all people in growing spiritually – with, through, or past – religion. She also designs and officiates interfaith ceremonies for special occasions. Her background in business training bolsters her consulting to interfaith and faith-based organizations. She is currently focused on mentoring rookie religious school teachers and functionaries of any tradition in moving from a Sunday School to a Spiritual School experience with their students through her Ten Principles of Responsible Religion. Lauren earned a Ph.D. in Educational Planning, a Masters in Philosophy, and a Certificate in Gaming-Simulation from The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), studied at The Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (Montclair State University, NJ) and is a seminary-ordained Interfaith Minister (All Faiths Seminary, NYC). She is uniquely positioned to shift the paradigm underlying religious education to a spiritual one benefitting all humanity. She is available to speak on her work including her forthcoming book, Responsible Religion: From Sunday School to Spiritual School.

Michael Zimmerman

Michael Zimmerman is the founder and director of The Clergy Letter Project, an international organization of more than 15,500 religious leaders and scientists created to demonstrate that religion and science need not be in conflict. Through The Clergy Letter Project, Zimmerman created Evolution Weekend and has nurtured its expansion around the world. Evolution Weekend is an opportunity for congregations around the globe to elevate the level of discourse about the compatibility of religion and science, thousands of congregations in 20 countries have participated.

Dr. Zimmerman, a biologist, is vice president for Academic Affairs / provost at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is the author of Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense: Approaching Environmental Literacy, published in 1995 by Johns Hopkins University Press. Additionally, he has published scores of scientific papers and hundreds of opinion pieces and book reviews in the popular press. He currently writes for The Huffington Post.

Andre Van Zijl

As an award-winning artist of international merit, Zimbabwean born artist Andre van Zijl’s work has historically been an artistic commentary on socio-political and global culture from a holistic spiritual standpoint. In his ancestral and adopted homeland, South Africa, he was a victim himself of the political secret police, which has deeply motivated him to give voice to those without a voice. Art to him “is a creative sword for peace.” His work from this era challenged the institutionalized inequities between the privileged wealthy few and the exploited dis-empowered masses, structured as a system of government called apartheid – “apart-hate”. This included other forms of oppressive political power that deny challenging art, cross cultural communication, and democratic spiritual growth. Andre’s art was instrumental as a historical voice of progress and change in this tumultuous period and is represented in many important international museums, public and private collections and numerous publications worldwide. Most recently he was published in the 4 volume series – “100 Years of South African Art “ – by Wits University for the South African National Gallery, 2012. 

Andre's most recent one-person exhibition was at the 2015 World Parliament of Religions in USA entitled "I AM: An Archaeology of the Future". This exhibition is ongoing as he continues to add to the tableaux of images illustrating artifacts gathered from a future spiritually based civilization. Currently, the artwork is 10 ft. high and 40 ft. wide. These themes exploring the impact of mystical identity are shared through his ecstatic poetry "Emptied of Myself".
Andre is currently writing a memoir on his spiritual journey. He is a board member of the Southern California Parliament of World Religions (SCCWPR), as well as co-founder, co-director of All Paths Divinity School