Jim Wiggins, Ph.D., joined Syracuse University’s Department of Religion after completing his graduate work in 1963. He served on virtually all departmental committees, including director of graduate studies in religion (1975-80), and was elected by his colleagues as chair of the Department for five four-year terms (1980-2000). His academic field is Western religion and culture, with interests in the history of Christianity and Christian thought, religious/cultural diversity, death and dying, interpretive theory, mysticism, and narrative and religion. His book Religion as Story appeared in 1975; he is co-author of Foundations of Christianity (1972), Christianity: A Cultural Approach (1987), and In Praise of Religious Diversity (1996). From 1983 until 1992 he served as executive director of the American Academy of Religion. From 2002 until 2010 he was executive director of InterFaith Works of Central New York, a multi-purpose agency with a staff of two dozen. Jim is a trustee of North American Interfaith Network.
Betsy Wiggins
Betsy Wiggins is a practicing speech-language pathologist living in Syracuse, New York. She is co-founder of Women Transcending Boundaries (WTB), a women’s interfaith organization formed immediately after September 11, 2001. WTB developed the model for “Acts of Kindness Weekend,” a community-wide weekend of volunteerism during the weekend of 9/11 not only in Syracuse, NY, and also in Detroit and other sites. Prior to her marriage to Jim Wiggins, she was a professional meeting manager for the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as for the Carter Center of Emory University in Atlanta.
Sandy Westin
Sandy Westin became regional coordinator of United Religions Initiative in North America after leading the planning and producing of URI-NA’s second regional summit in 2008, an event which brought URI North America new growth and vitality. For a quarter century Sandy has been a ‘make it happen’ person on effective communications, nonprofit administration, and event management. Along the way she picked up skills in data management, data management, focused nonfiction writing, and administrative systems, all of which she uses in her nonprofit work and consulting. In managing a national conference on eco-spirituality at the University of Colorado in 1995, she managed an event with 50 speakers, 70 volunteers, and 500 attendees. Recently she has been studying storytelling as another way to support community and collaboration. She is also active in building collaborative support for the “11 Days of Global Unity” global celebrations scheduled for September 2011.
Terry Weller
Reverend Terry Weller was ordained in 1998 and holds standing from the interfaith New Seminary in New York and the Christian ABBA Ministries of Canada, with special interests in liturgy and spiritual counseling. For seven years he worked for the Toronto Star and has edited various newsletters. He is the publisher and editor of Interfaith Unity News. This nine-year-old electronic monthly carries listings, links, book reviews and articles about upcoming interfaith activities across Canada and, for major events, the world. He is a founding member of the Newmarket & Area Interfaith Council, sits on the Toronto Area Interfaith Council, and is active in the North American Interfaith Network and United Religions Initiative. He is also actively engaged as a teacher, spiritual director, and certified addictions counselor. Terry is The Interfaith Observer’s assistant editor.
Matthew Weiner
Matthew Weiner is an associate dean of religious life at Princeton University. He served as program director for the Interfaith Center of New York, where he developed a methodology for engaging religiously diverse communities through civil society, working with over 500 grass roots religious leaders and the New York State Court System, the New York Public Library, Catholic Charities, the New York Board of Rabbis, and the United Nations. He earned a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary, an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and an M.A. from New York University. He writes about public religion, interfaith and civil society, and engaged Buddhism.
Kimberly Weichel
Kimberly Weichel is a passionate advocate for women as well as educator, author and, peacebuilder with extensive global experience. Until recently she was CEO of Peace X Peace, an international women’s peacebuilding and leadership organization that lifts and multiplies women's voices, promotes leadership and gender equity, and nurtures a global network of 30,000 peacebuilders in 125 countries.
Kim is a development, gender, and peacebuilding expert with 30 years' experience directing international projects focusing on conflict resolution, leadership, women, community development, education, and advocacy. She has led training programs on conflict transformation and transformative leadership in various countries.
Kim has extensive experience in Russia, South Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Canada and Australia. She played an instrumental role in the citizen diplomacy movement with the former Soviet Union as well as the transformation of apartheid in South Africa. She is a published author, TV correspondent, public speaker, and radio producer. Learn more by visiting her website www.kimweichel.org.
Mark Waters
Mark Waters serves as associate professor of Servant Leadership and Religion at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas and directs McMurry’s Center for Global Leadership and Servant Leadership Center. Previously, he served as pastor of churches in Texas and Kentucky for 17 years and for another 7 years was the executive director of Just People, Inc., an Abilene nonprofit agency providing empowerment services for youth and adults in poverty. His research interests include interfaith dialogue/reconciliation, religions of the world, theologies of religion, and servant leadership. Mark graduated from Texas Tech University in 1980 and later completed MDiv (1984) and PhD (1991) degrees in theology, homiletics, and pastoral care at Southern Seminary. He completed additional graduate study in church history and world religions at Baylor. Mark has training in servant leadership learning communities through Ann McGee-Cooper and Associates in Dallas and in leadership and organizational learning through the Society for Organizational Learning in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Rachael Watcher
Elder Rachael Watcher has been a practicing Witch all of her adult life and a Wiccan for more than 30 years, the last 20 as an elder. She is an active member and frequent trustee of her own national organization, Covenant of the Goddess. Her primary work is in communications, focused on audio/visual and journal production. She has edited several pagan journals over the years and is currently transferring them and other historical documents onto digital media, making them available for future research. A long-time interfaith activist, Rachael is active in United Religions Initiative through the Think Peace International Cooperation Circle and other URI CCs. She was the technical director of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio’s video team that broadcast 20 live interviews over the web from the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne. She is also a trustee of the North American Interfaith Network.
Annalee Ward
Dr. Annalee Ward directs the Wendt Character Initiative, a campus-wide effort to promote excellent moral character and lives of purpose. She brings a passion for students and a love of learning to the work of guiding the various programs. After a long career as a professor of communication arts, her generalist background, interest in ethics, rhetoric, and popular culture, along with work on the art of preaching inform her work in the Center.
"It's a privilege to work collaboratively with students, faculty, and staff in an environment where a meaning-filled University Mission guides our work all for the glory of God.”
Her research interests are diverse, and currently she facilitates a research team that produces an online journal, "Character and . . ."
Some of her publications include: Mouse Morality: The Rhetoric of Disney Animated Film; “The Tourist Gaze and the Church: Megachurch as Tourist Site;” “Gran Torino and Moral Order;” and “Multi-dimensional Media of Theme Parks and Museums.”
Robert Walter
Robert Walter left a ten-year New York theater career as a director, production manager, and playwright after working on several projects with mythologist Joseph Campbell at Lincoln Center in New York City. The collaboration with Professor Campbell grew to become Bob’s lifework. Three years after Campbell’s death in 1987, he was named president and executive director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and thereby its executive editor and publisher of Campbell’s writing and films. A master teacher and a Taoist, Bob has a long history as an interfaith activist. He has presented papers, seminars, and workshops at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the New York Open Center, the Aspen Institute, Esalen Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and educational settings in the United States and abroad. For six years he served as a United Religions Initiative trustee, and he is closely connected to the Interfaith Center at the Presidio.
Vy Vu
Vy Vu is a Vietnamese artist, educator, and organizer based in Washington, D.C.. They use their arts as a tool to uplift collective voices and shift power to communities. Vy works with a variety of mediums such as painting, printmaking, digital illustration, and sculpture, tailoring their artistry to fit the needs of different communities. They hope to offer a different perspective on art as a communal process that helps communities heal, celebrate and reclaim their identities in the face of injustice. Vy believes in creating and organizing with intention, spiritual groundedness, humbleness and mutual accountability. Vy got a B.A. degree in English and Studio Art from the College of Wooster in Ohio. They currently work full-time as a Sex Educator and Youth Organizer for a local non-profit, do freelance visual art as a side hustle, and serve as a Leader at The Sanctuaries, D.C. Some of Vy's most recent works include: creating mobilization art for 2019 Women's March; live creating and speaking at 2018 Parliament of the World's Religions: Justice Assembly; 2018 Reimagining Interfaith: Keynote Panel; and 2017 PICO Prophetic Resistance Summit: Reorganizing Faith Movements Panel.
Gretta Vosper
Gretta Vosper is the best-selling author of With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe (2010) and Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief (2014). These books are informed and inspired by her pastoral ministry at West Hill United Church and reflect her conviction that it isn't good enough to talk about an abstract belief that has no consequences for living well in community.
Her work at West Hill is about promoting an environment where people, often of widely differing opinions and backgrounds, can come together and work at living well within themselves, with one another, and in right relationship with the whole world. Gretta is committed to ensuring that the language within a church community is non-exclusive, and that people – ALL PEOPLE - have a place to ask tough questions and give free rein to their spiritual yearnings.
Gretta Vosper is founder of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity. To learn more about Gretta, visit her website.
Stein Villumstad
Stein Villumstad, a Norwegian citizen, has been the General Secretary of European Council of Religious Leaders-Religions for Peace since January 2011. He has extensive experience in interreligious dialogue, international development, conflict transformation, and human rights.
Prior to this assignment he was the Deputy Secretary General of Religions for Peace International, based in New York for five years. Mr. Villumstad served in different functions in Norwegian Church Aid for close to twenty years before joining RFP, latest as Regional Representative for Eastern Africa with responsibility for NCA operations in ten countries. Previously he held among others the position as Assistant General Secretary with specific responsibility for policy, peace and human rights. Stein has served on a number of committees in Norway and internationally, and he was the first chair of ACT International, a global umbrella organization for Protestant and Orthodox humanitarian organizations. He has also been a member of the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Commission on International Affairs.
Stein Villumstad has published a number of articles in international and Norwegian periodicals, and he is the author of a book about social reconstruction in Africa.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D., is a Sufi teacher and author. In recent years the focus of his writing and teaching has been on spiritual responsibility in our present time of global crisis, and an awakening global consciousness of oneness. More recently he has written about the feminine and the emerging subject of Spiritual Ecology. Among his books is Spiritual Ecology: the Cry of the Earth (2013). He has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul Sunday and featured on the Global Spirit Series, shown on PBS.
Alison Van Dyk
Alison Van Dyk is chairman of the Board and executive director of the Temple of Understanding, one of the world’s first international interfaith organizations. She grew up under the eye of Juliet Hollister, an interfaith pioneer who founded the Temple. Professionally, Alison holds graduate degrees in clinical psychology and transpersonal psychology and is a specialist in the Lowenfeld Sandplay technique. In 1990 she set up the Early Childhood Project, St. Luke's School, South Bronx, New York, and continues as a consultant there. She provides therapy for kindergarten children at risk. Alison has been involved with Temple activities since 1967, taking her to interfaith projects around the world. In 2010 she organized the Temple of Understanding’s 50th anniversary celebration. She frequently participates in North American Interfaith Network, Parliament of the World’s Religions, and United Religions Initiative activities.
Thomas Uthup
Thomas Uthup is senior research associate, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghamton University (SUNY). He is also founder of Friends UN Alliance of Civilizations (Twitter/@friendsunaoc), which promotes good practices in the governance of cultural diversity, intercultural education, interfaith relations, migrant integration, and youth empowerment. He previously served as research and education manager for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations project where he coordinated research networks and education projects, represented the Alliance at appropriate meetings, and provided inputs for senior UN officials on cultural issues.
Dr. Uthup's academic focus has been on the complex relationships between culture and society, with special attention to religious factors – especially Islam – affecting political behavior. Dr. Uthup has published well over 90 newspaper, journal and reference articles. He has taught at Binghamton University-New York and the College of Wooster-Ohio and been a guest lecturer in classes at Oberlin College-Ohio and Cornell University-New York.
Rick Ulfik
Rick Ulfik is founder and director of We, The World co-chair of The Foundation For Ethics and Meaning, and trustee of the Communications Coordination Committee for the UN. Rick organizes and promotes scores of events and other activities, large and small, every year. An accomplished composer and musician, he has written, produced, arranged, conducted, and performed for ABC, NBC, CBS, the Olympics, radio, feature films, commercials, records, CDs, and major recording artists from Queen Latifah to Judy Collins. For the past ten years he has dedicated more time to social change organizing. We, The World is a non-profit organization that develops global networks of collaboration and organizes large public gatherings to build mass involvement in creating a peaceful, caring, sustainable world. One of its projects is 11 Days of Global Unity September 11-21, with hundreds of events in more than 60 countries participating.
Hans Ucko
Hans Ucko is an ordained minister of the Church of Sweden who writes, speaks, and consults on interreligious dialogue issues. He was president of Religions for Peace International from 2009 to 2011. From 1989 to 2007 he was the program executive for the Office of Interreligious Relations and Dialogue at the World Council of Churches (WCC), where he helped develop the joint WCC-Vatican document “Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World.” Ucko is the author and editor of several books, including Worlds of Memory and Wisdom: Encounters of Jews and African Christians (2005) and The Jubilee Challenge: Utopia or Possibility? (1998). He was the editor of Current Dialogue and a board trustee for Hartford Seminary. He received his doctorate in Theology at the Senate of Serampore College in Calcutta, India; his thesis examined the concepts of “people” and “people of God” as integral elements of the Jewish tradition and to Minjung and Dalit theologies.
Daniel Tutt
Daniel Tutt is an interfaith activist and philosopher. He is associate producer of The Sultan and the Saint, and he led the scholarly development of the story. As a scholar activist, his work addresses Islamophobia and inter-religious dialogue. Daniel is co-editor of a new book entitled, Theologies and Ethics of Justice: New Directions in 21st Century Islamic Thought for IIIT press.
His writing and work has been published in Philosophy Now, The Islamic Monthly, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post and he has essays published in three different books of philosophy. Daniel is professorial lecturer at George Washington University and serves as the director of programs and a producer at Unity Productions Foundation, the filmmaking and educational organization responsible for creating The Sultan and the Saint. At UPF, he has developed and implemented a number of programs, including American Muslims: Facts vs. Fiction, a short film that reached over 10 million people during the 2016 election season, and 20,000 Dialogues, a national interfaith campaign that achieved 20,000 interfaith encounters at the grassroots level.
John Turner
John G. Turner has been teaching at the University of South Alabama since August 2006, after finishing a PhD in history at the University of Notre Dame. Along the way, he also earned a Masters of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Turner's teaching and research center on American culture and politics during the 19th and 20th centuries. He is fascinated by the connections between religion and American national identity, including the perennial debates (dating back to the founding of the republic) over whether the United States was/is/should be a Christian nation. He is also interested in the relationship between religious freedom and religious establishment in nineteenth-century America, especially as it pertains to the experiences of religious and racial minorities.
Turner's first book, Bill Bright & Campus Crusade for Christ (2008) explores the history of American evangelicalism since 1945. Specifically, he uses Campus Crusade as a lens through which to analyze evangelical efforts to restore American politics and education to their "Christian roots."
His second book is Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (2012),is a biography of the second president/prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It emphasizes Young's early religious experiences (such as speaking in tongues), the transformative effect of Joseph Smith's murder on Young's personality and approach to leadership, Young's outsized family, and his 30-year battle with the U.S. government for control of the Utah Territory.