Ruthie Howard is a passionate newcomer to the interfaith world. Growing up in Northern California without a formal religious or spiritual upbringing, a series of unexpected events brought her to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2009 where she began a life changing position with the AmeriCorps Program at the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. AmeriCorps recruits and trains full-time volunteers to nonprofit, faith-based, and other community organizations needing to create and expand their programs. Through AmeriCorps, Ruthie served for two years with the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada, learning about interfaith culture and the importance of interfaith dialogue. In 2011 the Council hired her officially as it program manager. Ruthie is driven to include youth in interfaith work. She serves on the Young Adult Committee of the North American Interfaith Network.
Miranda Hovemeyer
Miranda Hovemeyer currently serves as the Administrative Director of the Interfaith Families Project of Greater Washington, D.C. She is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, but she has lived all over the world and most recently, in Australia. She completed her undergraduate degree in English Literature at Colorado State University and has recently earned her M.A. in Religion from Meadville Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago. Miranda’s work and studies focus on interfaith theology and community building, specifically through using humor. For her Master’s Thesis, Miranda planned and executed an interfaith comedy show in Chicago. The show hosted Christian, Muslim, and Jewish comedians and ended with a community Q&A on comedy and interfaith dialogue.
She is an alumna of Interfaith America (formerly Interfaith Youth Core), where she worked as a Community Ambassador in the “One Chicago: One Nation” program, which “brings together Chicagoans of diverse faiths and cultures, with an emphasis on the Muslim community, to get to know each other through addressing local needs.”
She is currently one of Interfaith America’s Emerging Leaders. Miranda is also certified in Interfaith Conflict Resolution by the United States Institute of Peace. Miranda lives in Silver Spring with her husband Scott and their two sons. In her spare time, she enjoys making stained glass art, hiking, and reading cheesy mysteries.
Jonathan Homrighausen
Jonathan Homrighausen is an MA student in Biblical Studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, where he focuses on Abrahamic scriptures and interreligious dialogue, particularly conversations between Bible and Qur’an. He is co-author, with J. David Pleins, of the forthcoming Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary by Conceptual Categories: A Student’s Guide to Nouns in the Old Testament (Zondervan).
Zachary Hoover
Zachary Hoover is the executive director of LA Voice, part of the PICO National Network, a coalition of 55 community organizations in 19 states representing over one million families. He holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard and a ministry license in the American Baptist Churches of the USA. Zach has been organizing in PICO for seven years. He has extensive experience in cultivating congregational leadership in diverse religious communities, speaks Spanish fluently, and has co-led national trainings for clergy and professional organizers. The record for organizing campaigns he has led includes winning millions in parks improvements, creating fairer impound policies for immigrant drivers, saving citizens millions each year, increasing access to groceries for low-income residents in food deserts, and bridging gaps between communities often divided by race, class, and freeway. Zach brings his faith, discipline, and commitment to building a powerful, multicultural LA Voice, currently organizing 25 churches, synagogues, and mosques in six city council districts of Los Angeles. Zach is married to Saskia Pallais and lives in Los Angeles.
Elizabeth Dabney Hochman
Elizabeth Dabney Hochman is the founding editor of KidSpirit Online and KidSpirit Magazine, a nonprofit web community and magazine that empowers teens to explore life’s big questions in a spirit of openness. A graduate of Princeton University, with a Masters in Music from the Mannes College of Music in New York City, she has over fifteen years’ experience as an opera singer. From her experience working with adolescents through KidSpirit, Ms. Dabney Hochman has published a number of articles on spiritual development in youth, including “KidSpirit Magazine: Youth in dialogue about life’s big questions,” in New Directions for Youth Development (Jossey-Bass, 2008); and “Six Steps to Nurturing the Spirit in Adolescents,” in Good Things to Do: Expert Suggestions for Fostering Goodness in Kids (Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education, 2009).
Ibrahim Hirsi
Ibrahim Hirsi covers workforce and immigration issues for MinnPost. He can be reached at ihirsi@minnpost.com or follow him on Twitter at @IHirsi.
J. Andreas Hipple
J. Andreas Hipple is senior program advisor with Arbor Philanthropy, working primarily with the GHR Foundation on its Inter-Religious Action initiative and with the Better Way Foundation on early childhood development in Tanzania and the United States. Prior joining Arbor in 2011, he was the director of programs for the Washington, DC-based Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty, where he directed a multi-million dollar program – including significant support from GHR – that mobilized thousands of Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Nigeria to teach their congregations about malaria prevention and treatment. Previous experience includes consulting on international development, evaluation, and program design for a range of clients.
Andreas was a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin for two years and began his career as an analyst for an investment consultancy in Minneapolis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Carleton College and earned his master’s degree in international relations with honors from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), concentrating on conflict management and African studies. He has completed all but the dissertation for his Ph.D. from SAIS.
Fadi Hindi
Fadi Hindi is United Religion Initiative’s Consultant for Marketing and External Outreach as part of the Global Support Office Team. Fadi comes to URI with extensive experience in the technology sector as a global minded Talent and Operations leader skilled in developing human capital strategies and solutions for early stage SaaS companies. His strengths are grounded in systems design, data analytics, and organizational effectiveness practices, which allow him to influence at all levels of the organization. Furthermore, his passions for creating a bespoke employee experience across the organization comes from his ability to collaborate with diverse groups of global stakeholders, to diagnose and analyze business problems and opportunities to scale.
Fadi's focus for URI is digital transformation and creating an external marketing strategy that has a vibrant outreach program enlivening URI’s existing network, enlisting new members, and forging new partnerships through innovative approaches to online learning, media, social media, and marketing.
Fadi has a degree in International Relations and Peace & Justice Studies, and is experienced and committed to all forms of peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Fadi's passion for interfaith engagement in peacebuilding flows from his history as a refugee from the Iraq war and encounters with the diversity of people of all beliefs across the world.
Chris Highland
Chris Highland has a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy from Seattle Pacific University and an M.Div. from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He served as a Parish Associate and Interfaith Chaplain for many years in the SF Bay Area. Formerly a Presbyterian Minister, he is now a Humanist Celebrant. Chris writes a weekly "Highland Views" column for the Religion pages of the Asheville Citizen-Times (in the USA Today network) and he's the author of many books. He and his wife, the Rev. Carol Hovis, live in Asheville, NC. His website is "Friendly Freethinker" (www.chighland.com).
John Hewko
John Hewko is the General Secretary of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, leading a staff of nearly 800 at Rotary’s World Headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and seven international offices. Before joining Rotary in 2011, he was vice president of operations and compact development at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government agency established in 2004 to deliver foreign assistance in a new and innovative manner.
Karen Hernandez
Karen Leslie Hernandez is a Theologian with a focus in Christian-Muslim understanding, as well as religious fundamentalism and extremism. She has a Master of Sacred Theology in Philosophy, Theology and Ethics with a focus in religion and conflict transformation from Boston University School of Theology, ‘11; a Master of Theological Research in Christian-Muslim Understanding from Andover Newton Theological School, ‘07; and a BA in Peace and Justice Studies with a concentration in Islam from Wellesley College, ‘05. Karen has published with Feminism and Religion, the Women’s United Nations Report Network, State of Formation, The American Muslim, the Journal for Inter-Religious Dialogue, and is the only Christian woman to write a bi-weekly column with OnIslam out of Egypt. Karen currently lives in San Francisco where she is consulting with United Religions Initiative and is an Ambassador with the Council on the Parliament of the World Religions.
Shaikh Kabir Helminski
Shaikh Kabir Helminski is a translator of the works of Rumi and others, a Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order (which traces back to Jalaluddin Rumi), co-director of The Threshold Society (Sufism.org), and director/founder of the Baraka Institute (barakainstitute.org). In 2009 and subsequent years Kabir was named as one of the "500 Most Influential Muslims in the World" by Georgetown University and the Royal Strategic Studies Center (Jordan). He has toured North America as Shaikh with the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey bringing Sufi culture to more than 100,000 people.
The focus of his work has been developing an “applied spirituality,” based in classical Islamic Sufism, that can meet the needs of our time. The Threshold Society offers spiritual training to small groups throughout North America, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
In March 2017 Holistic Islam: Sufism, Consciousness, and The Needs of Our Time will be published by White Cloud Press. His books on spirituality, Living Presence and The Knowing Heart, have been published in at least eight languages. In 2017 Living Presence is being published in a commemorative 25th anniversary edition in the Spiritual Cornerstones series by Penguin Books. Among his recent publications are: Love’s Ripening, Rumi on the Heart’s Journey (Shambhala 2010); and The Rumi Daybook (Shambhala 2012). In total, his books have sold about 250,000 copies.
He regularly writes and blogs for The Huffington Post, Tikkun, Patheos.com, and The Times of India.
Shaikha Camille Adams Helminski
Shaikha Camille Adams Helminski, who has been within the Mevlevi tradition of Sufism for more than 35 years, is Co-Director of The Threshold Society, a non-profit organization rooted within the traditions of Sufism and dedicated to facilitating the direct personal experience of the Divine. She has helped to increase awareness of the integral contribution of women to the spiritual path of Islam with her book, Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure. As co-founder of Threshold Books she helped to bring into English many classic Sufi texts, and has co-translated a number of volumes of Sufi literature, including Jewels of Remembrance (excerpts of the Mathnawi of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi) and The Rumi Daybook, with her husband, Kabir. Camille is the first woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur’an into English: The Light of Dawn: Daily Readings from the Holy Qur’an. She has authored two anthologies, The Book of Character, and The Book of Nature: A Sourcebook on Nature and the Environment, as part of a new curriculum for Islamic education. Her most recent publications are Rumi’s Sun: The Teachings of Shams of Tabriz, and Rumi and His Friends, and Words from the East, poetic reflections.
Camille has been a core faculty member of the Spiritual Paths Foundation, which promotes peace, respect, and mutual understanding between peoples of diverse religious and spiritual traditions through programs in Interspirituality rooted in contemplative practice. She has, also, been designated as one of the spiritual leaders of WISE (Women’s Initiative in Islamic Spirituality and Equality).
Frederica Helmiere
Frederica Helmiere is a member of the United Religion Initiative’s Global Staff, serving as the Regional Coordinator of the Multiregion community. She has spent the past fifteen years studying and working at the intersection of religion, social justice, and ecology in the U.S. and abroad, seeking to empower people and organizations to work more effectively for social change and peace. Most recently this work has taken the form of teaching and designing courses for undergraduate and graduate students on religion, power and privilege, and global concerns of social and environmental justice at the University of Washington and Seattle University. Frederica holds two masters degrees from a joint-degree program between the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale Divinity School, and a BA from Dartmouth College in Religion & Environmental studies. She served as an environmental education volunteer with the Peace Corps in the Philippines, and has lived or traveled in 35 countries. Frederica lives in Seattle where she enjoys backpacking, reading fiction, and introducing her two daughters to the wonders of the natural world.
Sari Heidenreich
Sari Heidenreich is the Regional Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative in North America, where her primary role is to connect and empower the more than 100 URI Cooperation Circles across the U.S. and Canada. Sari has previously worked as a journalist and social media manager.
Rev. Bud Heckman
Rev. Bud Heckman is the convener of the Interfaith Funders Group, as well as an independent consultant in the field of interfaith relations. Rev. Heckman served on the Interreligious Cooperation Task Force for President Obama through the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. An ordained Christian minister who has long been appointed in the field of interfaith relations, Rev. Heckman has served formerly as: executive director of the International Shinto Foundation, director of outreach and the Mosaic Initiative at El-Hibri Foundation; senior advisor to Religions for Peace USA; executive director of Religions for Peace USA; director for external relations for Religions for Peace International; and chief development officer of Hartford Seminary. He has served in leadership and consulting positions with the Religion Communicators Council and the Religion News Foundation. A frequent speaker and writer on interfaith relations, Rev. Heckman is editor of an award-winning reference book for the field called InterActive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community-Building Handbook (2008).
Rachel Heath
Rachel Heath lives in Chicago where she works for the Spiritual Life Office and Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago and serves on the Peace and Justice Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago. She graduated from Yale in 2011 with a Master of Divinity and a certificate in Religion and the Arts from the Institute of Sacred Music. In 2013 Rachel was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Association for Episcopal Deacons. She is interested in building communities through interfaith dialogue and collective action rooted in social justice.
Nicholas Hayes
Nicholas Hayes is the engagement manager at Criterion Institute. Raised a Liberation Theology Catholic by a Costa Rican mother in the unlikely setting of rural Michigan, Nicholas understands his Christian faith as the source of his lifelong commitment to transforming the economy, caring for Creation, and enabling ordinary people to discover their own power.
Nicholas’s vocation and developing career center on the transformative potential of faith communities for social change. Graduating summa cum laude from Harvard in 2008, Nicholas spent two years as a Fellow with Life Together, the Boston Episcopal Service Corps program. From 2011-2014, he completed an M.Div. at Harvard Divinity School, focusing his studies on social ethics, political theology, and the history of faith-based organizing. Along the way, he began his continuing engagement as a coach and trainer for the Leading Change Network and the Leadership Development Initiative. Through teaching public narrative and community organizing to both grassroots congregations and experienced leaders from across many sectors, he works to further unlock their potential as change agents.
From 2013-2014, Nicholas was Faith Community Partnerships organizer at the New Economy Coalition, a collaborative network of 130 diverse organizations committed to economic systems change. In 2014, he also opened an ordination process in the Episcopal Church. He begins his time as engagement manager with great excitement about Criterion’s work and eagerness to learn from it.
Henry Karlson
Henry Karlson is a Byzantine Catholic who has long had interest in interfaith dialogue and the comparative theology which develops from it. He first became interested in what Christians can learn from other traditions through his engagement with myth via C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. But then in his academic pursuits, he became interested in the philosophical and theological explorations which are also able to be had through study of many faith traditions. While he finds many faith traditions of interest, including Judaism and Islam, his main focus has been on Buddhist-Christian dialogue with a particular interest in Yogācāra Buddhism. Henry Karlson currently works as an independent scholar writing articles on Patheos and working on several books which he hopes to have published.
Makala Kozo Hattori
Makala Kozo Hattori is a surfer, filmmaker, writer, college English teacher, world traveler – and a proud father of two sons. Having spent time in India with famous gurus, he came to realize that many everyday people, places, and things could be just as powerful as meeting self-realized masters. In July 2015, he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, which put him on a path of reconnecting with his Hawaiian roots. “I am learning to be thankful for all the miracles that occur everyday,” he says. He remains an active volunteer with ServiceSpace, and blogs about his journey at Everydaygurus.com.