Leslie Gabriel Mezei

Leslie Gabriel Mezei is a writer, editor, speaker, and an activist organizer for Peace, Unity and Pluralism. He founded the Interfaith Unity News ten years ago. As an interspiritual minister, Rev. Mezei conducts the Universal Worship Service. He has been on a universal Sufi spiritual path for many years and spent a month at a Himalayan Yoga Meditation Society Ashram in India, most of it in silence. He practices Buddhist mindfulness meditation and follows creation spirituality and the teachings of the Hassids of Eastern Europe. 

Leslie is a Holocaust survivor of the Second World War. He has responded to the current crises of our world by facilitating Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream symposiums, offering outstanding video material and interactive experiences to bring about a human presence on Earth that is environmentally sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling. With his wife Kathy, he enjoys five children and ten grandchildren.

Franz Metcalf

Franz Metcalf’s career combines the spiritual and the scholarly. He received his MA from the Graduate Theological Union, earning a doctoral fellowship from the University of Chicago to pursue his abiding personal interest in Zen, receiving his PhD in 1997 for a dissertation on the question “Why do Americans practice Zen Buddhism?”

In the ivory tower, Franz has been president of the American Academy of Religion, Western Region and chair of the Psychology, Culture and Religion Group, both regionally and nationally. He has published numerous articles and chapters on contemporary Buddhism and is book review editor of the Journal of Global Buddhism. Franz teaches religious studies at California State University, Los Angeles.

Down from the tower, Franz is director of the Forge Guild for Spirituality and Social Change. He has written five books applying Buddhism to everyday life, most recently, Being Buddha at Work (2012). He continues to inquire into Buddhism and psychology and says “Hi!” to his daughter, Pearl. Franz is currently working on a historical-spiritual-detective novel. Prayers might be in order.

Fr. Gary Meier

Father Gary Meier is a Catholic priest and co-founder of North Grand Neighborhood Services (NGNS). It was begun in June 2005 by area residents, parishioners, and business leaders voicing their need for affordable housing and community programs. Our mission is to develop low income housing and community programs for the stabilization of the North Grand neighborhood. Solomon Project was created to build affordable housing in the North St. Louis community. There have been a total of 28 developments. The percentage of abandoned and neglected homes in the area has decreased from 42 percent in 2005 to less than 10 percent in 2013. Every house that is renovated or built helps another family realize their dream of home ownership. 

Angel Baked Cookies, another project of NGNS, was created in 2007 with the goal to empower area youth with the skills necessary to own and operate a small business. We currently employ 16 youth and two leaders. In 2008, the St. Charles Lwanga Center, an agency of the Archdiocese, awarded Fr. Meier, a lifetime achievement award for the work he does in North St. Louis through North Grand Neighborhood Services and Angel Baked Cookies. Father Gary served as dean of North City from February 2010 through June 2012, working as the Archbishop’s representative in the North City Deanery.

Akash Mehta

Akash Mehta lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is on the Editorial Board of KidSpirit Magazine.

Brian McLaren

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former teacher and pastor, he is an ecumenical global networker among innovative Christian leaders. From 1978 to 1986, McLaren taught college English, and in 1982, he helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative, nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region (crcc.org). His books include The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix (1998), Finding Faith (1999), A New Kind of Christian (2001), The Story We Find Ourselves In (2003), The Last Word and the Word After That (2005), Finding Our Own Way Again (2008), and A New Kind of Christianity (2010). His most recent book is Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road? – Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World (2012). In conferences around the world, on TV, and in the press, Brian McLaren is a champion for a Christianity grounded in discernment, compassion, and inclusiveness.

Paul McKenna

Paul McKenna is coordinator of the Scarboro Missions Interfaith Department in Toronto, Canada. His work has included creating the Golden Rule Poster featuring the Golden Rule scripturally and symbolically in 13 religions. This multifaith poster, now translated into seven languages, has achieved international renown as an educational and interfaith resource. With graduate degrees in theology and religion, he has created a number of do-it-yourself, educational, and curriculum resources supporting the Golden Rule and interfaith dialogue. The poster and its supportive material is available for free at the Scarboro Missions website. Paul has been an activist in Toronto’s interfaith community and served as a trustee of the North American Interfaith Network.

Nancy McKay

Nancy McKay, M.Div., is a minister and spiritual director in the United Church of Christ and spent ten years in parish ministry. Today she provides one-on-one spiritual direction and teaches a laying-on-of-hands and prayer healing process in churches. “Love heals,” she says, “and we get to cooperate with the source of love!” She is one of the founders of the Chaplaincy Institute-An Interfaith Seminary and Community in Berkeley, where she taught spirituality. Nancy attended the first Healing Journeys conference in 1994, in Monterey, California, while she was still in treatment with an experimental vaccine for metastatic melanoma. What she learned and felt there supported her hope for a full recovery. She is now cancer free. 

Fr. Patrick McInerney

Patrick McInerney is a Columban missionary priest. He was assigned to Pakistan for more than 20 years. He has a licentiate from the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Arabic and Islamics in Rome (1986), a Masters in Theology from the Melbourne College of Divinity (2003), and a PhD from the Australian Catholic University (2009). 

Father McInerney is director of the Columban Mission Institute, coordinator of its Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations and a staff member of its Centre for Mission Studies.  He offers courses on Interreligious Dialogue and Islam at the Catholic Institute of Sydney and the Broken Bay Institute’s Centre for Mission and Culture.

He is a member of the Australian Catholic Council for Ecumenism and Interreligious Relations (ACCEIR), a board member of the Australian Catholic University’s Centre for Inter-religious Dialogue (CID), and on the executive of the New South Wales state meetings of Religions for Peace (RfP).  In 2011 he was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University.  He attends interfaith and multi-faith conferences and gives talks on Islam, Christian-Muslim Relations and Interreligious Relations to a wide variety of audiences.

Janet McGarry

Janet McGarry lives in San Francisco where she writes about environmental and agricultural issues. She studied at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies after a career as a lawyer.

Rory McEntee

Rory McEntee is a contemplative rooted in the tradition of interspirituality and new monasticism who works at an intersection of spirituality, education, and culture. As a close friend and mentee of the late Brother Wayne Teasdale, he was part of the founding of the interspiritual movement. He is currently the administrator for the Snowmass InterSpiritual Dialogue, founded in 1984 by Father Thomas Keating. Rory works and collaborates with spiritual leaders from many different traditions and is particularly interested in deep, contemplative formation processes for young people that can emerge from collaborative and intergenerational friendships among contemplatives. He is the coauthor of New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century (2015).

Yona Zeldis McDonough

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the award-winning author of five novels, twenty-one books for children and the editor of two essay collections.  Her essays, articles and short fiction have been published widely in numerous national and literary publications.  She is also the Fiction Editor at Lilith Magazine. Visit Yona at her website.

P.K. McCary

P.K. McCary is an interfaith activist, storyteller, and writer. Her books include Black Bible Chronicles: from Genesis to the Promised Land (1993) and Rappin with Jesus: The Good News According to the Four Brothers (1993). PK, a much loved speaker, was included by Bill Moyers in a PBS series on storytelling in scripture. She has worked as a print and broadcast journalist and a playwright. PK founded and hosts Think Peace Radio, a web-based program. Long an ecumenical and interfaith activist in Houston, Texas, and globally, she has been a trustee and secretary of United Religion Initiative’s Global Council and remains active in URI Multi-Region. Her blog can be found at thepeacehour.blogspot.com. 

Michael J. McCallion

Michael J. McCallion received his Ph.D. in sociology from Wayne State University in Detroit and his M.A. in liturgy/theology from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.  He is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary where he holds the Fr. Cunningham Chair in Catholic Social Analysis.  He is also director of the Institute for Research on the New Evangelization.  He is primarily interested in the sociology of religion, spending whatever time he can studying the relationship between Christian service and local religious congregations as well as the relationship between Christian service and the New Evangelization.  In all of his research, the relationship between youth and religion is a primary focus.

Marian Van Eyk McCain

Marian Van Eyk McCain, a retired psychotherapist and wellness educator, is the author of eight books, including The Lilypad List: 7 steps to the simple life (Findhorn Press, 2004), and Downshifting Made Easy: How to plan for your planet-friendly future (Earth Books, 2010), both of which are about living simply and lightly on the planet. She also edited the anthology GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness (Earth Books, 2002) and has helped to produce a series of ebooks on green spirituality, which is one of her primary interests, along with wellness – both personal and planetary – the evolution of consciousness and conscious aging. Her latest book is Self-Therapy Made Easy (Psyche Books, 2012). Visit her on http://www.marianvaneykmccain.com  

Dorothy J. Maver

Dorothy J. Maver, Ph.D., is an educator and peacebuilder whose keynote is inspiring cooperation on behalf of the common good. Dot is president and CEO of the National Peace Academy in the USA, executive director of the River Phoenix Center for Peacebuilding, coordinator of Push4Peace, and a founder and Governance Member of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace. She formerly served as president and CEO of Peace Partnership International. Her career as an educator includes teaching at Norwich University, the oldest private military academy in the USA; appearing as a 2011 World Affairs Guest Lecturer at Iowa State University; co-authoring Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom (1992); and serving as a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at conferences worldwide. From 2005-2007 Dot served as executive director of The Peace Alliance and Campaign for a US Department of Peace, and prior to that was the National Campaign Manager for Kucinich for President in 2004. In the world of fast-pitch softball, Dr. Dot is known for her revolutionary fast-pitch hitting technique, The Maver Method: Secrets of Hitting Success.

Avon Mattison

Avon Mattison traces her commitment to peacebuilding to her childhood years during World War II, hearing her parents talk of war, and being utterly captured by the notion of spending her life promoting world peace. She is founder and president of Pathways to Peace (PTP), an international peacebuilding, education, and consulting nonprofit holding consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. PTP was instrumental in supporting efforts by Robert Muller and John McDonald to establish a UN International Day of Peace, celebrated today by more than 4000 NGOs around the world. PTP remains the Day of Peace’s strongest supporter. Avon serves on the advisory councils/boards of several international organizations, including the Global Commission to Fund the United Nations, the Center For Visionary Leadership, Ehama Institute, Foundation for the Healing Among Nations, Radio For Peace International, World Peace Prayer Society, the World Centers of Compassion for Children, and the World Fund for the Dignity of Children.

Sarah Masters

Sarah Masters is managing director of Hartley Film Foundation in Westport, Connecticut.  Sarah oversees granting and fiscal sponsorship programs at the Foundation, attends pitching forums for documentary filmmakers seeking funding, serves on a jury at Full Frame Film Festival where Hartley sponsors the Full Frame Inspiration Award, and works with filmmakers on fundraising and outreach strategies.  She also screens documentaries at national and international film festivals for potential candidates for the annual Elda and Irving Hartley Award.

Sarah comes to Hartley with a background in radio and television production and editorial oversight.  Prior to joining Hartley Film Foundation, she helped launch and was editorial director of an international online news service for physicians. 

Johnny Martin

Johnny Martin is a student at Arizona State University studying Religion, Public Life, & Conflict. He is the founder of Sun Devils Are Better Together (SunDABT), ASU’s premiere interfaith student organization, and is currently working as the Youth Director for the Arizona Interfaith Movement. Johnny has previously been a North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) Young Adult Scholar and a Better Together Coach with the national Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC). He serves on the Leadership Council for the North American region of the global United Religions Initiative (URI) and as a Board Member of the Arizona Faith Network (AFN).

Katherine Marshall

Katherine Marshall has worked for four decades in international development focusing on the world’s poorest countries. She is a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and visiting professor in the School of Foreign Service. She spent 35 years at the World Bank, in many assignments focused on Africa, Latin America, and East Asia. From 2000 to 2006, she was counselor to the Bank’s president on ethics, values, and faith in development. She holds various board positions including the World Bank Community Connections Fund, AVINA Americas, the Opus Prize Foundation, and the Washington National Cathedral Foundation, and she served recently as a trustee of Princeton University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a visiting professor at the University of Cambodia. She is the author of several books and many articles, most recently Global Institutions of Religion: Ancient Movers, Modern Shakers, published by Routledge in 2013.

Matt Mardis-LeCroy

Matt Mardis-LeCroy became senior minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Des Moines, Iowa in November of 2014. Plymouth is a progressive church of more than 3,000 members in the heart of the Midwest. He had served Plymouth in various pastoral roles since 2005. Before making the move to Iowa, Matt was pastor at The Community Church of Little Neck, New York.

An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, Matt holds a Bachelor of Religion degree from Messiah College and a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2013 he completed his Doctor of Ministry degree in preaching at Chicago Theological Seminary. Matt is married to Mary Beth Mardis-LeCroy, an ordained Presbyterian minister. They have one daughter, Ellie, one son, Wil, and two cats