Wm. Andrew Schwartz is a PhD. student in Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. He received a B.A. in Religion and a B.A. in Missions from Northwest Nazarene University, an M.A. in Theological Studies from Nazarene Theological Seminary, and an MA in Philosophy from Claremont Graduate University. Andrew’s academic interests include: Religious Pluralism; Truth and Contradictions; Comparative Philosophy, Religion, and Theology; Process Philosophy; and Wesleyan Theology. He is the Communications Director and editor of Process Perspectives for the Center for Process Studies (a faculty research center of Claremont Lincoln University in association with Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University).
Bruce Schuman
Bruce Schuman is an internet programmer and developer with an academic background in epistemology and cognitive science. In 1993, his “Bridge Across Consciousness” project brought scholars and believers together and began identifying the common ground in world spirituality and religion. In 1995, his “United Communities of Spirit” project extended that work to the web and includes the complete text of “World Scripture”. His Interspirit network system currently supports the Interfaith Center at the Presidio and has provided support for North American Interfaith Network, United Religions Initiative, and the Parliament of World Religions. His “Global Resonance” and “Shared Purpose” networks are exploring emerging concepts in collaboration and intercultural understanding.
Stephen Shashoua
Stephen Shashoua, born in Canada and of Iraqi Jewish descent, has lived in London for the past seven years. With a professional background in education, he joined the Three Faiths Forum in 2004 and has been its Director since 2008.
Under Stephen’s leadership, the organization has become one of England’s largest interfaith organizations. He initiated the Forum’s award-winning programs targeting schools, university students and young professionals.
Through his work on the ground, his writing and lectures, Stephen continues to promote cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue.
Stephen is a Freeman of the City of London, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Co-Founder of Iraq in Common. The Jewish News recently named him one of the 40 individuals under the age of 40 who are making an impact on the UK Jewish Community.
Sofia Sayabalian
Sofia Sayabalian (she/her) is a graduate student at the University of Washington working toward a Master of Communication in Communication Leadership (MCCL) degree. She received her B.A. in Communication and Media with a minor in Psychology from Seattle University.
Sofia’s current portfolio of work is focused on exploring storytelling techniques to enhance diverse narratives. Just how language brings people together, our visceral reactions are ever more important today–accentuating our need as humans to experience emotional and social experiences.
Sofia additionally has a passion for the intersection between professional communication, leadership processes and the ways in which individuals can leverage the various fountains of opportunity found in the digital media field. Sofia's website can be found on sofiasayabalian.com. In her free time, Sofia enjoys dancing.
Kathe Schaaf
Kathe Schaaf is a founding member of Women of Spirit and Faith, organized in 2010 with the intention of exploring, nurturing and celebrating women’s spiritual leadership. She is also one of the co-founders of Gather the Women and has anchored numerous ‘collaborative conversations’ connecting women and women’s organizations internationally since 2003. She is one of the editors of Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power, an anthology of women’s wisdom published by SkyLight Paths in November 2011, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.
David Sassoon
David Sassoon is the founder and publisher of InsideClimate News, the non-partisan and non-profit news organization that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2013. He has been a writer, editor and publisher for 25 years, involved with public interest issues: human rights, cultural preservation, healthcare, education and the environment. In 2003 he began researching the business case for climate action for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Business Week used that research to help it rank the Top Ten Companies of the Decade for emissions reductions and to produce a multi-part project that examined how leading U.S. corporations were responding to climate change.
As an outgrowth of his research, Sassoon founded a blog in 2007 which has grown and evolved into InsideClimate News. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is the author of Tiny Specks in a Hurry: The Story of a Journey to Mustang.
You can reach him by email at david.sassoon@insideclimatenews.org.
Ani Sarkissian
Ani Sarkissian is an associate professor of political science at Michigan State University (MSU) and an associate scholar with the Berkley Center's Religious Freedom Project. A core faculty member of MSU’s Muslim Studies Program and Center for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, her research focuses on comparing and investigating the role of religion in politics in countries around the world. Her book The Varieties of Religious Repression: Why Governments Restrict Religion (2015) examines how and why authoritarian regimes use religious restrictions as an instrument of their rule. With Robert Dowd and Paul Kollman she is drafting a book manuscript investigating the political consequences of Roman Catholic charismatic renewal in Sub-Saharan Africa, based on their research in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Sarkissian received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2006, where she received grants from the National Science Foundation and IREX to develop her dissertation on religion and democratization.
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji, Ph.D, was raised in an American family in Hollywood, California and graduated from Stanford University. She was completing her Ph.D. when she left America in 1996 to come and live permanently at Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India. She has been living there for the last 22 years, engaged in spiritual practice and dedicated service.
She was officially initiated into the order of Sanyas (monastic renunciation) in the year 2000, by her Guru, His Holiness Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji.
Sadhviji is a renowned speaker who gives keynote addresses at large forums, on a wide variety of topics ranging from conscious business to science and spirituality to sustainable development to the keys of happiness and peace in life to all aspects of yoga. She has also been a speaker at the United Nations, Parliament of World Religions and many international conferences and summits. Her talks blend the knowledge and logic of the West with the insights, spirituality and wisdom of the East, and she is renowned as a spiritual bridge between the two cultures.
Nathan Samwini
Rev. Dr. Nathan Iddrisu Samwini is head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. Following divinity studies and Methodist ordination, he did his doctoral work in Islamic studies at the University of Birmingham, England. For eleven years he was interfaith coordinator and director of programs for the Christian Council of Ghana and serves today on the Programme for Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Professor Samwini’s research interests include Islamic Resurgence in Ghana, Christian-Muslim relations in Africa, Africa indigenous religions, and comparative religions. He has two books and many articles to his credit.
Stephanie Saldana
Stephanie Saldana is the author of the memoir The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith (2011), about the year she spent in Damascus, Syria. She lives in Jerusalem, where she teachers at Bard/Al-Quds University.
Estrella Sainburg
Estrella Sainburg is Organizing Director at GreenFaith and local organizer in California. Estrella oversees training and development of GreenFaith Organizers, the GreenFaith Organizing Community, and GreenFaith Circles. Estrella initiated with GreenFaith as New Jersey Organizer and is now leading the organization’s faith- based, environmental efforts in her home county of Los Angeles. As a Christian and Mexican-American, Estrella hopes to contribute to the growing uprising of Latinos in the US ensuring the health and opportunities for our communities and the natural environment around us.
Sohaib Saeed
Sohaib Saeed is a Scottish Muslim writer, translator and occasional imam. Among his primary interests are Quranic studies (quranica.com) and interfaith dialogue. After attaining a Masters in Philosophy from Edinburgh University, he moved to Cairo with his wife to pursue a degree at the renowned Al-Azhar University. Sohaib has a strong background in youth, education and interfaith work, and has volunteered for a number of organizations and spoken on diverse platforms. He believes in sharing values based on an appreciation of our shared humanity.
Sana Saeed
Sana Saeed is coordinator of LEADD (Leadership Education Advancing Democracy & Diversity), the Interfaith Alliance’s national youth program promoting active citizenship in a multi-faith society to high-schoolers. Previously, she directed youth programs at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (UUCA) for 200 high-school and middle-school youth. She simultaneously served as consulting program manager for the Interfaith Youth Action Group, an initiative training youth to become interfaith leaders through service. Her work was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article she co-authored on Muslim students on East Coast college campuses. In 2008, she completed her M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.
Sana currently is co-authoring a national high-school curriculum introducing anti-racism and social justice to teens called Building a Beloved Community for the Unitarian Universalist Association. In June 2012 she was elected an at-large Board Member of the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, DC. She has been featured on Voice of America radio stations and is a frequent presenter regarding young adult peacemakers.
Caitlin Ryan
Caitlin Ryan is a clinical social worker, researcher and policy expert. She has made groundbreaking contributions to LGBT health and mental health through early community development, program implementation, research, policy and systems change. Caitlin has an undergraduate degree with a concentration in human sexuality from Hunter College, a master’s degree in clinical social work from Smith College School for Social Work, and a doctorate in public policy with a focus on health policy from Virginia Commonwealth University. She directs the Family Acceptance Project at San Fransisco State University.
Rosemary R. Ruether
Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether, Visiting Professor of Feminist Theology at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, is a renowned Roman Catholic feminist scholar. She formerly was Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union, and also taught at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Ruether is the author of The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1989) and America, Amerikkka: Elect Nation and Imperial Violence (2007). Her many books on feminism, the Bible and Christianity include Sexism and God-Talk and Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of American Women’s Religious Writing (1993).
Jerald P. Ross
Jerald P. Ross serves as treasurer of the Board of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, is an active member of the Massachusetts Peace Action Nuclear Disarmament Working Group, and is the Peace and Disarmament lead for the First Parish Bedford Unitarian Universalist Peace and Justice Committee. Jerry has also worked on nuclear disarmament issues with the Unitarian Universalist Office of the United Nations and serves as his congregation’s UN Envoy. Retired from a career as executive director of a community mental health center and private consulting practice, Jerry now devotes considerable energy to the goal of nuclear disarmament. He began his personal peace advocacy efforts as a conscientious objector during the Viet Nam War.
Seán Rose
Seán Rose is an experienced and award-winning educator, trainer, and writer specializing in interfaith and intercultural relations. Seán has extensive experience developing and managing projects in North America and Europe, including as Director of Training and Outreach for Project Interfaith, Schools Officer and Training Associate for 3FF, and Dialogue Facilitator for Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Generation Global program. He was an inaugural Interfaith Youth Core Faiths Act Fellow, is a Fellow of the RSA, and is a Soliya Connect Program facilitator. Seán consults for schools and non-profit organizations and is on the Board of Directors of Young Spirit Foundation. He has presented at national and international conferences, and writes for online publications including The Interfaith Observer. Seán holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Geography and International Development from the University of East Anglia, and lives in California.
Rabbi Or Rose
Rabbi Or Rose is associate dean and director of Informal Education at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. He also serves as co-director of CIRCLE (Center for Inter-Religious and Communal Leadership Education), a joint venture of Andover Newton Theological School and Hebrew College. Rabbi Rose is the author or editor of several books and articles on Jewish spirituality, interfaith cooperation, and social justice. He is the co-editor and contributor to Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice (2008), Jewish Mysticism and Spiritual Life: Classical Texts, Contemporary Reflections (2010), and Border-Crossings: Stories of Inter-Religious Encounter (2012). Professor Or is often found in the grassroots vineyard, has presented at North American Interfaith Network, and is active in the effort to enlarge the role of interfaith dialogue in theology schools and their offerings.
Jonathan Rose
Jonathan Rose was born in the United States and has been living and working in Mexico City for many years. He served as a publishing executive for the Addison Wesley Publishing Company until 1998, when he retired as Latin American Divisional President. He is a founding member of the Mexican Interfaith Council and became involved in United Religions Initiative (URI) in 1997. Mr. Rose was elected as a URI trustee from Latin America in 2002 and served on the Executive Committee of the Global Council as secretary from 2002 to 2005. From 2005 to 2007, he was regional coordinator for the URI’s Multi-Region sector and served on URI’s Finance Committee. Currently, he is working closely with the Multi-Region leaders to plan and implement their new vision and conclude the search for a permanent regional coordinator.
Catriona Robertson
Catriona Robertson convenes the London Boroughs Faiths Network and the London Peace Network. She has been part of the European Network on Religion and Belief from its inception. Born and raised in the highlands of Scotland, Catriona has lived and worked with local community groups in India, the South Pacific, and London, UK. A long time ago she spent a summer in Fresno, California.
Catriona facilitates an inter-convictional women’s group on gender justice and recently chaired the Women and Faith session at the Women of the World Festival. She works on the community coproduction of public services at Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network.
Holding an MA in Psychology from St Andrews University, Catriona’s writing on social justice, intercultural issues, and public policy appears in books, including Together and Different(2008), and journals, including “What did the Moors do for us?” about the Islamic history of Europe, in Arches Quarterly.
She lives in London, UK, with her family and blogs and tweets @multifaith.