Caroljean Willie is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, a Master’s Degree in Reading and a Ph.D. in Multicultural Education. She has extensive experience working cross-culturally throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America as a teacher, teacher-trainer, cultural diversity consultant, and retreat director. She is the author of Praying All Ways: A Multiple Intelligences Approach to Prayer (2007) as well as numerous articles in professional journals. She is a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences and has also given presentations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America. She currently resides in the greater New York area where she serves as the NGO representative at the United Nations for the Sisters of Charity Federation and also works with microfinancing projects in Africa.
Audri Scott Williams
Audri Scott Williams is a global trustee for the United Religions Initiative, former dean of Continuing Education and Community Service at Charles County Community College, former U.S. Army Reservist, author, and human rights activist. She is especially known for her 12 years spent walking the world for peace and for the Red Flame of Freedom, a movement dedicated to ending modern forms of slavery. She has been a servant of the people at a grassroots level locally, nationally, and internationally for over three decades, receiving numerous awards for her service to humanity. Recently she declared her intention to be a Democratic candidate for the 2018 elections for Congress in the state of Alabama.
Monica Willard
Monica Willard helped organize the first United Religions Initiative gathering in New York in 1997 and signed the URI Charter in June 2000 at the United Nations garden. She has been at the UN since 1991, representing The Ribbon International and Pathways to Peace before representing URI, starting in 2002. Ms. Willard chaired the annual UN Department of Public Information NGO Conference in 1996. Since 2005, she has worked with member states and UN system agencies to promote interfaith dialogue and cooperation for peace. As URI’s NGO representative to the United Nation, her portfolio includes the International Day of Peace on Sept. 21 and the Tripartite Forum, a partnership with member states, UN system agencies, and religious non-government organizations (NGOs) to promote interfaith cooperation for peace. “Representing the URI at the UN affords me the wonderful opportunity to share the work of the URI with member states,” she says.
Janessa Gans Wilder
Janessa Gans Wilder is a former CIA officer turned peacebuilder, social entrepreneur, and nonprofit executive. She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Euphrates Institute, an organization that builds peace and understanding about critical Middle East issues. She founded Euphrates after five years at the CIA focused on the Middle East, including serving 21 months in Iraq from 2003-2005. Janessa is a frequent speaker in interfaith, community, government, international, and educational settings. She has written dozens of articles and been interviewed by major news outlets, including CBS, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Democracy Now, and many more.
For over a decade, Janessa has provided the vision and leadership to grow Euphrates Institute into a global network of peacebuilders and changemakers, now comprising 22 Chapters worldwide. She created and leads transformative Travel Study programs to Israel, Palestinian Territories, and Jordan, focused on listening to the ‘Other’. She conceived of the Visionary of the Year program to honor, support, and increase the visibility of groundbreaking changemakers. In the fall of 2015, she organized a coast to coast speaking tour for the year’s visionary, which included speaking at the United Nations on the International Day of Peace, an NPR interview, and a speech to officers of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
Previously, Janessa taught political science at her undergraduate alma mater, Principia College, and was a consultant to the State Department. She has a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University and a bachelor’s in International Relations from Principia College.
When not traveling to the Middle East, she enjoys spending time in nature with her family.
“I’ve experienced the impact of healing the divide between Middle East and West through the power of personal relationships. I’m so grateful to be part of a community that understands how timely, imperative, and, indeed–possible, is change in our relations with the Middle East. And that the best way to accomplish this is to begin with ourselves and our perceptions.”
Justin Wilbur
Justin Wilbur is a senior facilitator, project manager, and trainer at Youth LEAD, a leadership program based out of Sharon, Massachusetts that actively puts “youth in the driver’s seat" by putting them in charge of facilitation and management. Through his four years of work with Youth LEAD (formerly Interfaith Action), he has facilitated heated discussions, engaged in community building work, and planned the annual Teenage Interfaith Diversity Conference.
Jim Wiggins
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.