Chris Stedman

Chris Stedman is the author of Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious (Beacon Press, November 2012). He is the Assistant Humanist Chaplain and the Values in Action Coordinator for the Humanist Community at Harvard (where he was previously the inaugural Interfaith and Community Service Fellow). He is also the Emeritus Managing Director of State of Formation at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue and founder of the first blog dedicated to exploring atheist-interfaith engagement, NonProphet Status. 

Chris received an MA in Religion from Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago, for which he was awarded the Billings Prize for Most Outstanding Scholastic Achievement. A graduate of Augsburg College with a summa cum laude B.A. in Religion, Chris writes for Huffington Post Gay Voices, Huffington Post Religion, The Washington Post On Faith, Religion Dispatches, Relevant, and more. Previously a Content Developer and Adjunct Trainer for Interfaith Youth Core, Chris is an atheist working to foster positive and productive dialogue and collaborative action between faith communities and the nonreligious. He speaks on this topic across the United States and around the world. 

Chris served on the initial Leadership Team of the Common Ground Campaign, a coalition of young people who stood up in response to the wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence in the U.S. surrounding the Park51 controversy, and continues to advise it in its current form, Groundswell. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the interfaith global development organization World Faith and is an advisor to the Foundation Beyond Belief’s “Challenge the Gap” charitable initiative. In 2011, Religion Dispatches listed Chris at #5 in a list of the Top 10 Peacemakers in the Science-Religion wars and the University of Oregon Alliance of Happy Atheists recognized his work with their first annual Happy Heathen! Award. Portland, Oregon’s GLBT newspaper Just Out called his work “brilliant” and labeled him an “emerging... vibrant and youthful queer voice for the secular humanist movement.”

Aaron Stauffer

Aaron Stauffer most recently was the Executive Director and then Special Advisor of Religions for Peace USA, where he helped launch a national anti-Islamophobia program based in the southeast, along with organizing national senior religious leaders on issues of common concern such as mass incarceration, immigration and climate change. Before starting a doctoral program at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, Aaron was an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation in San Antonio, Tx. His work lies at the intersection of the academy, the Christian church, and community organizing and his dissertation is focused on the political role of sacred value in broad based community organizing. Drawing from a tradition of radical democracy, constructive feminist and anti-racist critiques of liberal political theory, and the rising field of “lived religion,” Aaron’s dissertation argues for the value of religious language in the practice of community organizing. Aaron is active in his denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and has been active participant in international ecumenical and interfaith organizations, such as the World Council of Reformed Churches and the World Council of Churches. Currently, Aaron lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee with his partner, Lauren.

Karimah Stauch

Karimah Stauch holds a MA degree in Economics as well as receiving a MA degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. She currently works for the ICT Department of German Agro Action (a development NGO) in Bonn. At United Religions Initiative she has been the Europe Regional Coordinator since 2003 and is a member of URI’s European Executive Committee (EEC). She also holds the following positions: president of the German Muslim League in Bonn; delegate at the Central Council of Muslims in Germany; member of the Council of the Sufi-order “Tariqah As-Safinah”; member of the advisory board of Baraza e.V.; member of the advisory board and adviser for Islamic questions for the ESWTR Deutschland. Her passion is for Abrahamic dialogue and, in a larger circle, with all members of the human family.

Mirabai Starr

Mirabai Starr is a Jewish Sufi who loves Christ and cultivates a Buddhist mediation practice and a lifelong devotion to a Hindu guru.

She writes fiction, creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. Mirabai teaches Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos and teaches and speaks widely on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She has received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of Dark Night of the Soul (2003) by sixteenth century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, and The Interior Castle (2007) and The Book of My Life (2008), by St. Teresa of Avila. She is the editor and writer of the 6-volume Sounds True series, “Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom,” and contributing author to Living Fully, Dying Well: Reflecting on Death to Find Your Life’s Meaning (2009). Her poetry collection, Mother of God Similar to Fire (2016), is a collaboration with iconographer, William Hart McNichols. Mirabai’s book, GOD OF LOVE: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (2012), positions her at the vanguard of the emerging “interspiritual movement.”

ALisa Starkweather

ALisa Starkweather is the founder of the expanding grassroots global initiative, the Red Tent Temple Movement, one of the ways that she believes we can build a woman-honoring culture together. With three decades of women’s visionary work, ALisa is also the founder of a women’s mystery school in New England, Priestess Path Apprenticeship, as well as her world work, retreats and programs on Women in Power, Initiating Ourselves to the Predator Within, Daughters of the Earth Gatherings, and the Women’s Belly and Womb Conferences.

ALisa is the co-producer of Dr Isadora Leidenfrost’s documentary film, Things We Don’t Talk About: Women’s Stories from the Red Tent (2012) and a contributing author in various anthologies including Where Grace Meets Power: Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership (2011), and Stepping Into Ourselves – An Anthology of Writings on Priestesses (2014). A certified facilitator since 1995 of Shadow Work and student of Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, ALisa’s transformational work involves symbolism, archetypes, dreams, ceremonies, and community building as active skills in healing the wounds of humanity. In Jaipur, India, in 2008 ALisa co-presented “Women’s Visionary Leadership” at the summit, Making Way for the Feminine for the Benefit of the World Community held by the Global Peace Initiative of Women. You can find more information at her website, including her free audio download, “Permission to be Powerful.”

Photograph courtesy of Marsia Shuron Harris.  

Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton is founding co-editor of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, co-director of Religious Freedom USA, and a rabbinical student. A Religious Leadership Fellow at the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, he edits its newsletter. His numerous awards include the Bridge-Builders Leadership Award from the Interfaith Youth Core. Josh is a regular blogger for Rabbis for Human Rights and has had articles and interviews published and broadcast in nine languages. This include pieces for the Washington Post’s On Faith, Patheos, Sojourners, German National Radio, Swedish National Radio, the Pakistan Christian Post, Gulf Times, and the Daily News Egypt. A sought-after speaker, Josh delivered a keynote address at the 2010 Eighth Annual Doha Conference, sponsored by the Foreign Ministry of Qatar and Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue. He is a trustee at World Faith and at Education as Transformation, and on the Editorial Advisory Board of CrossCurrents Magazine. 

Helen Spector

Mrs. Helen Spector joined the Board of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) in 1990 to help plan the 1993 Parliament Centenary Celebration. She has been active with the organization ever since, a leading ‘behind the scenes person’ making the Parliament’s huge global gatherings succeed. She served as co-chair for the site-selection task forces for the 2004, 2009 and 2014 Parliament events. She now lives in Portland, Oregon and continues as a trustee of the Council. As a professional facilitator and organizational development consultant, Mrs. Spector uses her skills to further the values and goals of CPWR, and she enjoys a reputation in religious circles as a transformational change agent specializing in denominational and judicatorial bodies from different traditions.

Roy Speckhardt

Roy Speckhardt has served as executive director of the American Humanist Association since 2005. He is a frequent media commentator, having appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News, and NPR, among others. He also writes a regular column for The Huffington Post and Patheos, and has given speeches at colleges, conferences, and local humanist groups across the country.

Speckhardt also serves on the boards of The Institute for Humanist Studies, the United Coalition of Reason, The Humanist Institute, and the Secular Coalition for America Education Fund. He served as deputy director of The Interfaith Alliance from 1995 to 2001.

Speckhardt holds an M.B.A. from George Mason University and B.A. in sociology from Mary Washington College. He currently lives in Washington.

Timothy K. Snyder

Timothy K. Snyder is a doctoral student at the School of Theology. As both a theologian and a scholar of contemporary American religion, his research explores how theology shapes everyday life and how everyday life shapes theology.

A graduate of Texas Lutheran University and Luther Seminary, he was a 2013 Coolidge Fellow at Union Theological Seminary and is currently a Doctoral Fellow in the Louisville Institute’s Vocation of the Theological Educator program.

An advocate for public scholarship, his writing has appeared in Religion Dispatches, Religion News Service, and the Washington Post.

He teaches theology and spirituality at Wartburg Theological Seminary (adjunct) and serves as Director of Education at Faith Lutheran Church, Cambridge.

Bowie Snodgrass

Bowie Snodgrass is executive director of Faith House Manhattan, an inter-religious community which encourages people to “experience your neighbor’s faith, deepen your own.” She is co-founder of Transmission, an emerging house church, and was a member of the Task Group that produced a new liturgy for same-gender blessings for the Episcopal Church. She was Web Content Editor of EpiscopalChurch.org from 2004-2007 and before that worked in the Episcopal Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. She majored in Religious Studies at Vassar College, received her M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and has been published in Discovering the Spirit in the City (Continuum, 2010), The Huffington Post, The Anglican Theological Review and Episcopal Life Online. She is a member of the Congregation of Saint Savior at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and lives in Harlem with her husband, George Mathew, and son, Jacob.

Martin J. Smith

Martin J. Smith is a veteran journalist and magazine editor has won more than fifty newspaper and magazine writing awards. He is best known, however for his crime novels, which have been nominated for three of the publishing industry’s most prestigious honors, including the Edgar Award, the Anthony Award, and the Barry Award. 

Andrew Smith

Canon Dr. Andrew Smith is the Director of Interfaith Relations for the Anglican Bishop of Birmingham a post he has held since 2011. He has over 25 years’ experience of interfaith engagement and in 2000 pioneered a model of work with Christian and Muslim teenagers. In 2009 he founded The Feast, a youth project working with young people of different faiths which works in three areas of England and has inspired work in Lebanon, Sudan, Egypt, USA and Switzerland. He is chair of the Advisory Forum for KAICIID and a member of the Church of England ‘Presence and Engagement’ task group supporting Anglican churches in multi-faith parishes. He is a regular speaker and writer on inter-faith issues, his most recent publication being ‘Vibrant Christianity in Multi-faith Britain’ published by BRF in 2018. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham Edward Cadbury Centre and in 2018 was awarded the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Calvin Skaggs

Calvin Skaggs, founder and president of Lumiere Productions, has produced or directed over 30 dramas and documentaries for television and theatrical exhibition. His first theatrical feature, On Valentine’s Day, was the official American entry in the Venice Film Festival; his hip-hop drama Fly By Night won the Sundance Filmmakers’ Trophy in 1993. He has executive produced two major documentary series for PBS—With God On Our Side and Local News—and produced numerous films for Discovery, PBS, HBO and Channel 4 UK. Before founding Lumiere, Skaggs earned a Ph.D. from Duke University, and served as Professor of English and Cinema at Drew University.

Harish Singhal

Harish Singhal earned his master’s degree in English from Allahabad University in India. He was selected to work at the Indian Revenue Service, which he left to earn his law degree from the the University of California, Berkeley. Singhal was also invited to spend a year at Harvard and was published in the Harvard International Law Journal. He went on to work as a tax lawyer for Fortune 500 companies before leaving the law in 1999 to pursue writing full time. Asoka: A Love Story (2010) is his first novel. First published in India, Asoka earned high praise and was described as “a magical story of love” and “an epic [that] reclaims the grandeur of storytelling” in The Asian Age and The Hindu. Singhal is married with two daughters and resides in California.

Satpal Singh

Dr. Satpal Singh is a founding trustee of the Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations, and is the immediate past chairperson of the World Sikh Council - America Region. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Religions For Peace, USA, and is actively involved in Catholic-Sikh dialogue. He frequently speaks on Sikh philosophy and the Sikh way of life in various forums, and participates in interfaith dialogues on diversity, religion, and peace. He is one of the principal organizers of the annual Sikh Youth Symposium held across U.S. and Canada. He speaks and writes on human rights issues, particularly on the issue of violence against women. He has contributed to the Huffington Post, the Washington Post, the PBS Newshour, Sacred Journey and other media.

Dr. Singh is a professor in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University at New York in Buffalo, where he teaches and conducts research in neuroscience and pharmacology. He conducts an annual summer-long program at the University of Cambridge (UK), engaging U.S. students in biomedical research.

Ralph Singh

Ralph Singh is the chair of the Wisdom Thinker Network. Known for his efforts in building interfaith relations, he helped launch and served as vice-chair of the North American Interfaith Network, the Interfaith Education Committee, and is an honorary lifetime board member. He was the founding president of Gobind Sadan, USA, currently serves as director of Publications and Public Relations for Gobind Sadan, and heads Gobind Sadan Publications. where he also writes his original works while editing, and overseeing much of the translations of Babaji’s talks. 

He has worked in education developing and teaching a course called “Exploring Spirituality” and helped design and name the “Schools of Character” project for the Central NY Education Consortium. His current curriculum, “Stories to Light Our Way," employs an award-winning audio CD and accompanying study guide for use in public, private, and parochial schools, religious educators, and parents, to honor diversity, nurture character, and deter bullying. He also helped pioneer educational programs for first-generation Sikh youth in America and championed the rights of Sikhs following the Indian government’s attack on the Akal Takhat in India in 1984.

As long as Babaji was on this earth, Ralph served as His translator in international gatherings and as his representative at major conferences, including the Millennium Peace Summit. He has lectured and written on the importance of values and spirituality in modern society, and has represented the teachings of the Sikh Gurus to national and international audiences from the Smithsonian Institution to local interfaith dialogues. He is a graduate of The Gunnery, received his degree in Japanese Area Studies from the University of Rochester, and maintains a lifelong study/practice of prayer and meditation and spiritual traditions.

Meji Singh

R.K. Janmeja Singh, known to his many friends as Meji, was born in 1931 to a Sikh family in India’s Punjab. He came to the United States in 1958 for graduate school and received his Ph.D. from Boston University. His passion as a clinical psychologist has been conflict resolution and community mental health, focused on a consultee-based approach. His pioneering work has taken him to dozens of countries as a professor, practitioner, and consultant, serving corporations and youth centers, prisons and medical schools. He taught psychology at the University of California Berkeley for 16 years and was dean of Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology for 12. At San Francisco’s Letterman Army Medical Center he was a mental health consultant for 17 years. In 1993 he founded the Hume Behavioral Health and Training Center, a post-graduate training institute in what Meji called “consultee-based community health” in a 1964 publication.

Meji has been a revered faith leader in the Sikh community of the Bay Area. For decades he has taught Gurbani (Sikh sacred texts) to children and young adults, largely within the context of different gurdwaras, the sanctuaries where Sikhs gather to worship, study, and eat together. He was a founder and later the chair of the Sikh Center of San Francisco-Bay Area and of the Sikh Foundation of North America. Since childhood, Meji’s faith and practice has been interfaith affirming. As a local/global interfaith activist he has been engaged with United Religions Initiative, the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, and the Ik Onkar Peace Foundation, an interfaith organization he founded.

Kevin Singer

Kevin Singer is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Neighborly Faith, an organization focused on helping evangelical Christians become good neighbors to people of other faiths. He holds degrees in media and theology from N. Illinois University (BA), Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MA) and Wheaton College (MA). Kevin is currently completing a PhD in Higher Education at North Carolina State University, where he is a Research Associate for the IDEALS project, which explores how college students are engaging with religious diversity.

Kevin can be found on Twitter @kevinsinger0.

Kamran Shezad

Kamran Shezad is a qualified environmental specialist with practical field and managerial experience in sustainable development extending over 15 years. A strong advocate of empowering communities to guide behavioral change amongst their peers and using the power of digital media to spread the message of sustainability. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sustainability (Strategy & Management), is a chartered environmentalist, and a full member of the Institute for Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA). Kamran is also the director of training at the Islamic Foundation for Environmental and Ecological Sciences (IFEES/EcoIslam).

Jacob Holsinger Sherman

Jacob Holsinger Sherman is assistant professor and core faculty in Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CISS) (ciis.edu) and co-director of the Chaudhuri Center for Contemplative Practice, Interreligious Dialogue, and Social Justice at CIIS. He received his PhD in Philosophical Theology from the University of Cambridge and was previously a visiting lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at King's College London. Jacob is author of Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy (2014) and the editor, with Jorge Ferrer, of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies (2008), and his writings have appeared in journals such as Religious Studies, Modern Theology, and The Heythrop Journal.