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.
Libby Byrne
Libby Byrne works as an artist, art therapist, theologian, writer and researcher as she follows the invitation and discovery of art into new ways of being with people in liminal spaces. Within her studio practice Libby works with ideas, images and experiences to extend the way we think, perceive and respond to questions of meaning and existence.
Having worked as an Art Therapist in palliative care and trauma recovery her current research addresses the nature and significance of art, both made and received, in the process of healing that is required for human beings to flourish and live well with illness and in health.
Libby teaches in the Master of Art Therapy Program at La Trobe University whilst developing a growing body of research in the emerging field of Practice-led Theological Inquiry. She works as an Adjunct Lecturer, Honorary Research Associate with the University of Divinity and member of the Centre for Research in Religion and Social Policy (RASP). Her most recent project, a Practice-led Inquiry into the experience of joy the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, was part of Miroslav Volf’s Joy and the Good Life Project at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
Angela Butel
Angela Butel lives in New York City and studies Public and Urban Policy at The New School. Her commitment to building more inclusive, equitable communities grows out of her grounding in Catholic social teaching, which she developed through 16 years of Catholic school in Kansas City, Missouri and through working for Catholic Charities in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology, with concentrations in in human rights and humanitarianism and African studies and a minor in French from Macalester College.
While pursing her Bachelor’s, Angela was involved in interfaith work on and off campus including being a member of the Macalester Multifaith Council, co-chair of Mac Catholics, and an emerging organizer for the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition of Minnesota. In addition to these responsibilities, Angela worked for Amicus, which provides transitional services to ex-offenders, and was involved in her campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Tarunjit Singh Butalia
Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia is a board trustee of Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations, Parliament of the World's Religions, and North American Interfaith Network and serves as Special Advisor with Religions for Peace – USA. He has served on board of National Religious Coalition Against Torture and World Sikh Council – America Region. Locally he has worked with Interfaith Association for Central Ohio for over 20 years and currently is Moderator of its Program Committee. He is co-editor of landmark book Religion in Ohio: Profiles of Faith Communities and received the 2016 Luminosa Award for Unity from Focolare Movement.
Jim Burklo
Jim Burklo is the associate dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California and teaches at USC’s School of Social Work. An ordained United Church of Christ pastor, he is the author of two books on progressive Christianity: Open Christianity – Home by Another Road (2000) and Birdlike and Barnless: Meditations, Prayers and Songs for Progressive Christians (2008). His blog is called Musings, and he edits the monthly INgage interfaith e-newsletter for southern California. He pastored California churches in Sausalito, San Mateo, and Palo Alto, served eight years on the campus ministry staff at Stanford University, and organized and led the Urban Ministry of Palo Alto, a homeless services agency. Jim served on the executive council of The Center for Progressive Christianity.
Adam Bucko
Adam Bucko is an activist and spiritual director to many of New York City’s homeless youth and the co-author of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. He grew up in Poland during the totalitarian regime and spent his early years exploring the anarchist youth movement as a force for social and political change. At 17, Adam immigrated to America where his desire to find his path towards a meaningful life led him to monasteries in the U.S. and India, where he began working with homeless youth at the “Ashram of the Poor.” Returning to the US, he worked on the streets of various American cities with young people struggling against homelessness and prostitution, eventually co-founded The Reciprocity Foundation, an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of New York City’s homeless youth. Adam has also established HAB, an ecumenical and inter-spiritual “new monastic” fellowship for young people which offers formation in radical spirituality and sacred activism. Adam’s work has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, New York Daily News, National Catholic Reporter, Ode Magazine, Yoga International Magazine and Sojourner Magazine.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat have been covering contemporary culture and the spiritual renaissance for four decades. They are the authors of Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life (1998). In that book, they introduced the Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy — 37 spiritual practices that are common in the world’s religions. Their book Spiritual Rx: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life (2001) recommends resources and exercises for exploring those practices. They are also the authors of two gift paperbacks, 100 Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive (1994) and its sequel 100 More Ways to Keep Your Soul Alive (1997).
In 2006, they launched on SpiritualityandPractice.com, which has 27,000 pages of content. Each year the Brussats identify spiritual themes in more than 300 books, 50 audios, and 300 films.
Frederic is a United Church of Christ clergyman with a journalism ministry, and Mary Ann is an interfaith minister, ordained by the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. The Brussats are members of Judson Memorial Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in Greenwich Village, New York City. They are also initiates of the Mevlevi Sufi Order that traces its inspiration to Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. They live in a loft in New York City with their cats.
Joanna Brooks
Joanna Brooks is a writer, strategist, and advocate for knowledge builders and change makers. An award-winning author or editor of ten books on race, religion, gender, social movements, and American culture, she has appeared in global media outlets including the BBC, NPR, the Daily Show, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post and helped lead organizations serving progressive people of faith. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a proud fourth-generation Southern Californian.
Patrice Brodeur
With over thirty years of experience in the area of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, primarily as an academic researcher and educator, the highlights of Professor Patrice C. Brodeur’s career include the development of an interdisciplinary research team on Islam, pluralism and globalization at the University of Montreal (Canada), focusing on past and present intra- and inter-religious, as well as inter-civilizational and inter-worldview forms of dialogue. His research includes using video conferencing to network interdisciplinary research teams in 13 predominantly Muslim countries studying the intersection of Islam, pluralism, and globalization. An earlier project mapped interfaith dialogue in the Balkans from 1990 to 2006.
An esteemed author and multilinguist, Prof. Brodeur has received numerous prestigious awards, including fellowships, scholarships, research grants and prizes during his distinguished career. He won 1st Prize for the Social entrepreneurship venture plan competition at the University of Notre Dame Mendoza Business School (2005) and received an "Interfaith Visionary Award" from the Temple of Understanding (2010). Prof. Brodeur’s books include Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: From Dialogue to Action (2006), co-authored with Eboo Patel, and The Pluralist Paradigm: Democracy and Religion in the 21st Century (2006), co-authored with Sondra Myers.
Rev. Thomas Bonacci, C.P.
Rev. Thomas Bonacci, C.P., is the founder and director of the Interfaith Peace Project (IPP) which encourages interfaith peace and mutual respect through small discussion, study, prayer, ritual, and practice. Located in Antioch, California, the Project sponsors hundreds of workshops that open the door to better interfaith relations. A Roman Catholic priest, Tom is a scriptural scholar who has developed adult education and deacon formation programs for San Francisco, Atlanta, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Sacramento. He taught sacred scripture and was campus minister at Carlow University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he founded The Interfaith Sanctuary for students. Along with his interfaith ministry, Tom is dedicated to serving victims of poverty, people dealing with HIV/AIDS, and those recovering from drugs and alcohol. IPP is The Interfaith Observer’s fiscal sponsor.
Dr. David Brockman
Dr. David R. Brockman, Ph.D., is a nonresident scholar for the Baker Institute’s Religion and Public Policy Program. He is also an adjunct professor at both Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University, where he teaches various courses in religion and religious studies.
From 2010 to 2012, Brockman served as the project director for the World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions. He is the author several books, including Dialectical Democracy through Christian Thought: Individualism, Relationalism, and American Politics (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013) and No Longer the Same: Religious Others and the Liberation of Christian Theology (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011). His forthcoming publication, Educating For Pluralism, or Against It? Lessons from Texas and Quebec on Teaching Religion in Public Schools, will appear in Religion & Education.
Brockman holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Southern Methodist University. He received a Master of Theological Studies degree from the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University and his bachelor’s degree in English and education from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Marcus Braybrooke
Rev. Dr. Marcus Braybrooke is a retired Anglican parish priest, living near Oxford, England. He has been involved in interfaith work for nearly fifty years. He joined the World Congress of Faiths in 1964 and is now president. He served as executive director of the Council of Christians and Jews from 1984 to 1988, is a co-founder of the Three Faiths Forum and patron of the International Interfaith Centre at Oxford. He has travelled widely to attend interfaith conferences and to lecture. Professor Braybrooke is author of over forty books on world religions, including Pilgrimage of Hope: One Hundred Years of Global Interfaith Dialogue (1992), the history of the interfaith movement’s first century. A number of his books address shared worship, prayer, and meditation. In September 2004 the Archbishop of Canterbury awarded him with the Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity “in recognition of his contribution to the development of interreligious cooperation and understanding throughout the world.”
Vanessa Gomez Brake
Vanessa Gomez Brake is the Associate Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. She is the first humanist chaplain to serve in this capacity at any American university. In her role, she works to support and promote university religious and spiritual life broadly conceived, and helps oversee more than 90 student religious groups and 50 religious directors on campus.
By the recommendation of Provost Quick’s Advisory Task Force on Immigration, Vanessa also provides confidential counseling and support to immigrant and international students. In this capacity, she assists members of the university community in navigating and facilitating support resources at USC’s cultural centers, Division of Student Affairs, Office of International Students, Office of Campus Wellness and Crisis Intervention, Student Counseling Center, Office of Financial Aid, Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, the Pullias Center for Higher Education, and the Gould Immigration Clinic.
Vanessa received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies and Psychology from Arizona State University. She received her Master of Science degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University. She is currently completing her Master of Divinity degree at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS), where she also received the 2018 Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman Interreligious Leadership Award. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Association – Person of the Year Award. She holds a Certificate in Humanist Studies & Leadership from the Humanist Institute, and is endorsed as a humanist chaplain by the Humanist Society.
Karen Boyett
Karen Boyett is an interfaith leader working locally and internationally since 1999. She is committed to improving religious literacy and to improving community through genuine understanding and inter-personal connections. Since 2005, Karen has been the Executive Director of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas as well as Camp Anytown, a youth empowerment program focused on leadership in a multicultural society. Karen was elected to the Board of Directors of the North American Interfaith Network in 2008 where she continues to serve, making important contributions in developing young adult interfaith leaders. Also, Karen contributes to the international group, Women of Spirit and Faith where she supports the voices and initiatives of young women. Karen teaches Religious Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology at Regis University and the College of Southern Nevada.
Ben Bowler
Ben Bowler is the Executive Director of UNITY EARTH, a global network building a worldwide movement for unity and peace. In 2006 he and his wife Jildou moved to Thailand to volunteer along the Thai-Burma border. In 2008 they founded Blood Foundation together, a NGO focusing on education projects. In 2008 Ben founded Monk for a Month in Chiang Mai offering men and women the opportunity to experience Thai temple life and temporary ordination.
In 2010, Ben launched Muslim for a Month in Turkey offering guests a first-hand experience of Turkish Islam and Sufism, underneath the spiritually inclusive banner of Rumi. A year later, he launched World Weavers, offering spiritual immersion programs in Tibetan India, Nepal, Cambodia and Ethiopia.
In October 2015, at the Parliament of World’ Religions, Ben launched 1GOD.com, an online platform aimed at countering religious fundamentalism, relativism and western materialism. Since then he has worked to build UNITY EARTH into a global platform that can support and empower the many grassroots movements working towards unity and peace in the world.
Cynthia Bourgeault
Modern day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader, Cynthia Bourgeault divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom path.
She has been a long-time advocate of the meditative practice of Centering Prayer and has worked closely with fellow teachers and colleagues including Thomas Keating, Bruno Barnhart, and Richard Rohr. Cynthia has actively participated in numerous inter-spiritual dialogues and events with luminaries and leaders such as A.H. Almaas, Kabir Helminski, Swami Atmarupananda, and Rami Shapiro.
Cynthia is a member of the GPIW (Global Peace Initiative for Women) Contemplative Council and recipient of the 2014 Contemplative Voices award from Shalem Institute. She is a founding director of both The Contemplative Society and the Aspen Wisdom School. She continues to contribute to The Contemplative Society in her role as Principal Teacher and advisor.
Cynthia is the author of eight books: The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, The Wisdom Jesus, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Chanting the Psalms, and Love is Stronger than Death. She has also authored or contributed to numerous articles on the Christian Wisdom path in publications such as Parabola Magazine, Gnosis Magazine, and Sewanee Theological Review.
Cynthia Bourgeault is currently one of the core faculty members at The Living School for Action and Contemplation.
Julian Bond
Julian Bond has been director of the Christian Muslim Forum since its launch in 2006.
Before joining the Forum, Julian studied Theology and Education at the Universities of Wales and Gloucestershire. After a very brief spell as a Prep School teacher he joined HM Revenue & Customs, with positions in audit, information systems and management consultancy. However, a Civil Service career was excitingly and unexpectedly interrupted by a two year secondment to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Initiative in Christian-Muslim Relations in 2002. Many years of Civil Service training and experience came into their own as he planned and organized conversations and reflections with Christians and Muslims around the country. He was co-author of the inspiring report of these ‘Listening Exercises’ which proposed, in July 2004, that the Archbishop support the creation of a national Christian Muslim Forum.
Julian is passionate about improving relations between Christians and Muslims in the UK and beyond. “Our religions do not encourage us to be negative about each other. I am excited by the track record and future potential of the Christian Muslim Forum in creating opportunities to meet, understand, and find new ways of living and working together, inspired by a vision of radical friendship.”
William Bole
William Bole is an American journalist who writes about ideas, particularly as they stir in social movements and take shape in the lives of extraordinary people. Much of his writing is situated on the borders between religion, ethics, politics, and intellectual life. He also crosses regularly into other fields of interest, especially education and management.
He writes about theology and politics at TheoPol.com, and about leadership (with Andy Boynton) at Forbes.com. His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times to Commonweal, America, Christian Century, and Utne Reader.
Aside from his journalism, Bole has served as an editorial consultant, producing books and other publications on behalf of institutions. These have been mostly educational and other nonprofit institutions such as Boston College, including its Center for Corporate Citizenship, Georgetown University, the Educational Broadcasting Corporation(Thirteen/WNET), and the U.S. Jesuit Conference. Since the fall 2006 semester he has served as Editorial Consultant at Boston College.
Bole has also produced studies on religion and American public life for the Pew Charitable Trusts and Commonweal Foundation; he has done other research and writing for the Lilly Endowment, the Church in the 21st Century Center at Boston College, and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown, along with several other foundations and research centers.
His website is williambole.com
Habīb Todd Boerger
Habīb Todd Boerger is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Claremont School of Theology where he is studying spiritual formation in Christianity and Islam. Habīb holds a Master's of Divinity from the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism where he is also faculty. Additionally, Habīb has a Certificate of Islamic Studies from Bayan Claremont Islamic Graduate School, a master's degree from Texas State University, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas. Habīb's Ph.D. studies focus on neuroscientific understandings of spiritual practice and cross-religious commonalities. He is passionate about promoting a position of religious pluralism and building interfaith bridges.
Ethan Bodnaruk
Ethan Bodnaruk is an Environmental Engineer working in the Syracuse, NY area. He holds an M.S. in both Nuclear Engineering (North Carolina State) and Ecological Engineering (SUNY-ESF).
Broadly interested in subjects of science, spirituality, and ethics he has also spent nine months living at contemplative Trappist monasteries practicing meditation. He is a young adult leader in the organization Religions for Peace, currently holding the position of Co-moderator of its North American young adult organization and Coordinator of the International Youth Committee. His combination of rational analytic thinking and drive for broad understanding, meaning, and spirituality make him an ideal communicator and bridge between science, religion, and spirituality.
Someday he’ll finish that book he’s working on, tentatively titled Beyond Religion: Science and Spirituality Aligned. In the meantime, his website keeps him writing and thinking on these topics.