Born and raised in Mosul, Iraq, Majid is the founder of Alta Management,
LLC, which oversees design and construction of major capital projects in the public and private sectors such as the Judicial Center in Harrisburg, the Pittsburgh Penguins arena, and the new Family Court in Philadelphia, PA. Majid chairs the Board of Delaware Valley University, and chairs the Board ofthe Dialogue Institute, a non-profit that teaches the skills of dialogue and critical thinking,empowering leaders from around the world to sustain transformative relationships across lines of religion and culture.

Majid also serves on the national Muslim Jewish Advisory Council, a bi-partisan group of business, political and religious leaders who are working to address hate crimes and protect religious freedom. He is a co-founder, and chairman emeritus of Intercultural Journeys, and Vice Chair, and Treasurer of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Majid lives on a farm outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he raises Arabian horses.

Back to the top

Father Peter graduated from St. Vladimir's Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree in 1985 and wrote his thesis on the development of North African Ecclesiology. He also holds a Master of Theology degree from General Theological Seminary, New York City, and a Master in Strategic Studies degree from The United States Army War College, Carlisle, PA.

The grandson of Belarusian and Lithuanian immigrants, Fr. Peter grew up in Brooklyn, NY. He and his family were members of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, East Meadow, NY. It was while serving as an altar boy that Fr. Peter first felt the call to the priesthood.

Father Peter entered the Army Chaplain Corps in 1990. He was deployed as an active duty chaplain in Kosovo, Iraq, Kuwait, and Bosnia and also served at installations in the United States, Germany, and South Korea. His most recent assignment was as Intelligent and Security Command Chaplain at Fort Belvoir, VA. Immediately prior to that he served as Chief Chaplain at Fort Bliss, TX.

Back to the top

Ann Schroeder is founder of GlobalSource Partners, Inc. and serves as the company's Chief Executive Officer. The company, founded in 1994 as LatinSource, later merged into GlobalSource Partners, Inc. to service the growing needs for investment analysis across emerging markets globally. The company currently provides coverage on 24 developing countries. 

Ann has been involved in the financial services industry since 1984, initially working as a financial consultant with Shearson Lehman Brothers, and later with Institutional Analysts Agency, a company providing management and publishing services for independent economists and political analysts. 

She received a B.A. from Trinity University, an M.B.A. from Fordham University, and a certificate in Political Psychology from George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Dialogue Institute and Global Americans, and is a past board member of the Women’s President’s Organization, and Pro Mujer, a microfinance entity providing loans, business training and healthcare support in Latin America.

Back to the top

Gity Banan-Etemad is a professor of Pediatrics at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and Attending Physician at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Temple University Hospital, with long-standing teaching experience in pediatrics. She has published books, articles, and an entry in Encyclopedia Iranica. Her other interest is in “Health Development” in developing countries through NGO organizations, namely “Health for Humanity.” Through this organization, she has traveled around the world numerous times giving lectures on health issues, continuing medical education in medical schools, hospitals, and public health institutions. In Philadelphia, Gity is a co-founder of the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia, a founder of Mainline Interfaith Women's Group, and is a member of Devon Interfaith Gathering; these groups serve to promote dialogue between religious leaders, high school students, and diverse faith groups for the advancement of world peace. She is a fourth-generation Baha’i and an active member of national and local Baha’i communities. Gity is married and has three adult children. She and her husband reside in Villanova, PA.

Back to the top

Fahad Alhomoudi is the founder and president of the Western Studies Institute. In the past he served as Head of Research Accreditation and Quality Assurance, Vice-Dean for Academic Research and Publication, and professor at the School of Law of Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University. He works as a consultant for Princess Norah bint Abdulrahman University.

Through his role as Fulbright Scholar, Fahad has engaged many in extensive intercultural/interfaith dialogue initiatives, including the establishment of the Western Studies Institute. He has been a visiting professor and lecturer at McGill University, Loyola University, and Melbourne University. He was awarded a B.A. in Principals of Religion and an M.A. in Islamic Studies from Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University. Fahad's academic research has focused on Prophetic Tradition, Islamic Law and Environmental Law, and Methodology of Muslim Scholars.

William Cullinan studied religion at the University of Hawaii and Temple University, where he also taught Asian Religions. Prior to that he taught business and economics for 10 years at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. He also studied Chinese and taught English for four years at Fu Jen University in Taiwan.

William received his B.B.A. in management and his M.S. in economics from Texas A&M University. His interest in different religions came from traveling to various countries, especially Asia. He continues to advance his learning through international travel, conference, and classes. William is particularly interested in interreligious dialogue and hopes to see more dialogue with African nations and various religious groups in the United States.

Back to the top

University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, John Esposito is Founding Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, he was Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies, College of the Holy Cross.

Past President of the American Academy of Religion and Middle East Studies Association of North America, John has served as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, European and Asian governments, corporations, universities, and media worldwide and ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and E. C. European Network of Experts on De-Radicalisation. He has received honorary doctorates from St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, the University of Sarajevo, University of Florida and Immaculata University as well as the American Academy of Religion’s Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion, Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service Outstanding Teacher Award and Georgetown’s Career Research Achievement Award.

His more than 45 books include: The Future of Islam, Islamophobia and the Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century; Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (with Dalia Mogahed); Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam; The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?; Islam and Politics; Makers of Contemporary Islam and Islam and Democracy (with John O. Voll); What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam; Asian Islam in the 21st Century (John Voll & Osman Bakar); World Religions Today and Religion and Globalization (with D. Fasching & T. Lewis); Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk (with S. Hitchcock); Islam: The Straight Path; Islam and Democracy and Makers of Contemporary Islam (with J. Voll); Modernizing Islam (with F. Burgat); Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism or Reform?; Religion and Global Order (with M. Watson); Islam and Secularism in the Middle East (with A. Tamimi); Iran at the Crossroads (with R.K. Ramazani); Islam, Gender, and Social Change and Muslims on the Americanization Path and Daughters of Abraham (with Y. Haddad); and Women in Muslim Family Law. John's books and articles have been translated into more than 35 languages.

Back to the top

Abdullah Antepli is Associate Professor of the Practice of Interfaith Relations; Associate Professor of the Practice, Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke Divinity School. He has a B.A. from Mayis University, Turkey and a M.A. and G.C. from Hartford Seminary (now Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. Professor Antepli is a globally acknowledged scholar and leader of cross-religious and cross-cultural dialogue in American higher education and in non-profit world. He has built multiple organizations and initiatives to facilitate religious and spiritual life across America’s college campuses, sowing seeds of understanding between religions while upholding their cultural integrity and dignity.

From 1996-2003 he worked on a variety of faith-based humanitarian and relief projects in Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia with the Association of Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Countries. From 2003 to 2005 he served as the first Muslim chaplain at Wesleyan University. He then moved to Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where he was the associate director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program & Interfaith Relations, as well as an adjunct faculty member. At Duke University, he served as the university's first Muslim chaplain also served as the associate director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center.

Imam Antepli is also a senior fellow on Jewish-Muslim Relations at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he founded and co-directs the widely recognized Muslim Leadership Initiative. The NonProfit Times recognized Imam Antepli as one of their Power & Influence Top 50 leaders of 2019, calling him one of the most prominent Muslim leaders in higher education today. As a Muslim-American imam and one of the very few scholars bridging faith, ethics, and public policy, and as someone who was born in Turkey and lived in three different countries, Antepli offers the academy an important element of intellectual, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity.

Back to the top

Amid I. Ismail, BDS, MPH, DrPH, MBA, is the Dean and the Laura H. Carnell Professor at the Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University.  He has been an actively funded researcher for over 30 years with expertise in population-based studies, caries research, and interventions to reduce health disparities. His work focuses on the fields of measurement, outcomes assessment, design and planning for complex statistical analyses, survey methods, and organizational management. Amid played a significant role in developing the field of evidence-based dentistry and was a key consultant to the American Dental Association in this area. He also played a leadership role in developing the Community Dental Health Coordinator project for the American Dental Association. Amid has established new innovative programs such as the Advanced Dental Education Residency and Public Health (ADREACH) program, which offers a master's degree in public health and advanced training in general dentistry in community clinics.

As Dean, he has developed strong local and global networks between the dental school and other organizations and universities. He has renovated the dental clinics and pre-clinical laboratories and implemented lean management at the dental school that resulted in a $6M increase in non-tuition-based revenues in five years. He has established educational programs with Kuwait and China, implemented community-based dental residency programs, and developed a novel post-baccalaureate program. Amid also founded Temple University's Bridge to Peace program between Israeli and Palestinian academics and the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders.  He has received awards from the International Association for Dental Research (H. Trendley Dean Award), the Regents’ of the University of Michigan (Community Service), American Dental Association, and community organizations. He is a member of the International College of Dentistry and the Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity.  Amid received his dental training at the College of Dentistry, Baghdad University and completed a master's degree and doctorate in public health at the University of Michigan. He also graduated with distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan where he received his M.B.A. Heis a Diplomat of the American Board of Dental Public Health. 

Back to the top

Leonard Swidler is a Professor of Catholic Thought and Interreligious Dialogue in the Religion Department of Temple University, where he has taught since 1966. At Temple, and as a visiting professor at universities around the world – including Graz, Austria; Tübingen, Germany; Fudan University, Shanghai; and the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur – he has mentored a generation of U.S. and international scholars in the work of interreligious dialogue. He has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the University of Tübingen and received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin; he also holds honorary doctorates from St. Norbert’s College and LaSalle University.

Leonard has published/edited more than 200 articles and 75 books, including: Jewish‑Christian‑Muslim Dialogue (1978); Religious Liberty and Human Rights (1986); After the Absolute: The Dialogical Future of Religious Reflection (1990); A Bridge to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue (1990); Muslims in Dialogue: The Evolution of a Dialogue over a Generation (1992); and Jesus Was a Feminist (2007).

Back to the top

Kay Kyungsun Yu is an award-winning legal scholar. In 2018, the Philadelphia Bar Association recognized Kay as a recipient of its acclaimed Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award and was named Attorney of the Year by the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania.

She was brought to the United States by her mother when she was just a child, shortly thereafter, her family faced deportation. However, Kay made her own case and became a U.S. citizen the same year she graduated from law school. Since that day, Kay has fought for civil rights, stronger communities, and equal opportunity.

Within her firm Kay specializes in complex civil litigation, employment matters, and the representation of government entities. Specifically, she helps employers address concerns regarding civil rights, employment discrimination, and constitutional law to foster positive workplace relationships to efficiently resolve conflict.

Kay has also had the distinct honor of serving as the Chairperson of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations under former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. In this position, Kay was responsible for overseeing the implementation and maintenance of civil rights and anti-discrimination laws for the City of Philadelphia. During this time she also worked with the City Council to update these laws and ensure they were contemporary with modern social issue.

Back to the top

Reverend Dr.  Mark Tyler joined the Dialogue Institute Board in May of 2019. He is senior pastor at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the United States. Rev. Dr. Tyler earned his Masters of Divinity at Payne Theological Seminary and went on to obtain his PhD at The University of Dayton in Educational Leadership.

He has taught at Payne Theological Seminary, New Brunswick Theological Seminary as well as at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio: MTSO. Rev. Dr. Tyler became the pastor for Mother Bethel in 2008. Rev. Dr. Tyler is a social justice advocate and is a member of POWER, Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower, and Rebuild. For over a decade, Rev. Dr. Tyler has welcomed the Dialogue Institute’s international students to worship and dialogue at Mother Bethel, A.M.E Church. Rev. Dr. Tyler discusses topics such as power, race, inclusion, and social justice with our students which always makes for a rich conversation. The Dialogue Institute is delighted to welcome Rev. Dr. Mark Tyler as a new board member.

Back to the top

Sergio Mazza is the CEO of SurgInsite, Inc. a developer and manager of outpatient surgical facilities. Before purchasing SurgInsite, Inc. in 2010, he founded SenSound in 2003, LLC, a privately held software company that developed and marketed noise diagnostic and quality control software and served as its CEO. From 1993 to 1999 he served as President and CEO of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and prior to that he had an extensive career in the Information technology Industry which included the position of President of Memorex USA, a $300 million mainframe peripherals sales and service organization, and later Memorex Computer Supplies, a $200 million autonomous division of Memorex Telex that manufactured and sold magnetic media and other supplies around the world. He later became a founder of and the managing partner of an Italian software company ATD Srl.

Mr. Mazza has taught International Management, and Business Ethics at the W. A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University. He served on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Advisory Council on Agriculture, Small Business and Labor. He is a past chairman of the board of the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, MI, has been a board member of Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT, the Dialogue Institute, and St. LukesLifeworks, a “wrap around” social service agency for people who are homeless and people with special needs in Stamford, CT. He is currently a member of the advisory board of the Martin Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University.

Mr. Mazza has lived in seven different countries, worked in five of those, traveled to over 40 countries and speaks four languages. He has a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MA in Religion from Hartford Seminary.

Back to the top

Moving to Philadelphia, she spent nine years working as a secretary in the national setting of the United Church of Christ and joined a local UCC congregation in the mid-'60's because of its justice and ecumenical stances, leaving the American Baptist Church of her birth. She was the first woman elder and consistory president of the congregation and has been involved with the UCC at regional and national levels subsequently. From 1973 through 2018, she was on the staff of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies at Temple University, now serving pro bono as copy editor of J.E.S. She currently serves on the Board of the North American Academy of Ecumenists, the Advisory Board of the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, and as treasurer and registrar of the Philadelphia Association of the UCC.

Back to the top

Rabbi Eli Freedman has proudly served Congregation Rodeph Shalom for the past 13 years. His major areas of work include social justice initiatives, multi-faith dialogue, and building community among young adults and young families. Prior to joining the clergy team at Rodeph Shalom, Rabbi Freedman studied at Leo Baeck College in London, was ordained at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and interned at NYU Hillel and Columbia/Barnard Hillel. Rabbi Freedman, his wife, Laurel, and their daughters, Josephine and Nora, live in Philadelphia, where they enjoy dining out, live music, and creating community.

Back to the top

Anita Sharif-Hyder is Dean of Students and Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Student Life at Yale’s School of Management and the Associate Head of Trumbull College, one of the 14 undergraduate residential colleges at Yale University.   Residing in Connecticut since 2000, Anita has an international background and is multilingual.  She is of Bangladeshi origin, was born in Thailand, and lived in Venezuela, Kuwait, Egypt, and India during her formative years.

With advanced degrees in psychology, she has deployed her cross-cultural counseling skills throughout her professional career in higher education administration, initially at the International House of Philadelphia and Kaplan Inc., and for the past 17 years at Yale University with the Yale World Fellows Program and Provost’s Office.  She is the recipient of several awards and honors at Yale, including the Linda Lorimer Award for Distinguished Service, Emerge at Yale, and the Extraordinary Leader Program.  Within her institution, she has built extensive partnerships across many units and departments and brings a deep knowledge of campus-wide policies ranging from student affairs and legal procedures to curricular development and crisis management.  Anita also brings expertise in restorative practices and is a certified restorative justice facilitator and mediator.  Beyond Yale, Anita has been an active member of the New Haven community, with service on several boards of directors including Connecticut Storytelling Center and the Long Wharf Theatre. On a personal note, Anita indulges in radical hospitality, interfaith collaborations, adventurous travel, creative writing, and volunteering at local organizations.  Her partner in life (her husband Fahmeed) and college aged children (Arman and Leila) keep her grounded and grateful.

Back to the top