Cassandra Lawrence

Rev. Cassandra Lawrence has worked in interfaith spaces for over ten years as a researcher, community organizer, trainer, and writer. She is currently the Director of Strategic Communications with the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, a multifaith coalition addressing anti-Muslim discrimination through engaging faith communities. She is a commissioned Deacon in the United Methodist Church, serving as the Gender Equity Co-Chair for the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. Cassandra teaches negotiation and conflict resilience as a mediator, community trust builder, and interfaith and racial justice community organizer.

Previously, she worked with the diplomatic community to identify and address training gaps to improve engagement with religious and community peacebuilders. She has a BA in Religious Studies from the University of British Columbia and a master’s degree in comparative ethnic conflict from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has a master of divinity at Wesley Theological Seminary with honors and received the Excellence in Public Theology Award.

Rabbi Anson Laytner

Rabbi Anson Laytner, a native of Toronto, Canada, was a participant on the first Canada-China Student Exchange Program in 1973-74, and studied in Beijing that academic year.

Today, he is a happily retired rabbi, serving as volunteer president of the Sino-Judaic Institute (www.sinojudaic.org) and editing its journal, Points East.

During his career, he served as program manager of the Interreligious Initiative at Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry and adjunct faculty with Seattle University’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He also worked as the grants and contracts coordinator for the Jewish Family Service of Seattle, a bereavement chaplain with Kline Galland Hospice, interim rabbi at Congregation Kol HaNeshamah in West Seattle, and as executive director of the Seattle chapter of the American Jewish Committee and of Multifaith Works, a Seattle non-profit agency that served people living with AIDS. He also directed the Seattle Jewish Federation’s Community Relations Council.

Laytner has a BA, summa cum laude, from York University in Toronto, a Masters of Hebrew Letters (MAHL) and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, a Masters in Not-for-Profit Leadership (MNPL) from Seattle University, and an honorary Doctorate in Divinity from Hebrew Union College.

Laytner is the author of 4 books: Arguing with God: A Jewish Tradition; The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity, with Dan Bridge; The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng: A Millennium of Adaptation and Endurance, with Jordan Paper; and The Mystery of Suffering and the Meaning of God.

Rabbi Laytner is married to Richelle Harrell. He has two living daughters, three sons-in-law, five grandkids and one cat.

He may be contacted via his website www.ansonlaytner.com

Oren Lyons

Oren Lyons is a Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga and Seneca Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy), as well as a member of the Council of Chiefs of the Haudenosaunee, professor, author, publisher, advocate of Indigenous and environmental causes, and honorary chairman of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team.

Lyons was given the name Joagquisho, Bright Sun with a Strong Wind, at birth and grew up on the Seneca and Onondoga reservations where he was raised in the Iroquois traditional ways of thinking, being, and knowing. In 8th grade, he dropped out of school and later became a talented amateur boxer. In 1950, at age 20 he was drafted into the US Army where he continued to excel in boxing. He returned to the reservation in 1953 where he was recruited by the coach of the Syracuse University lacrosse team. Lyons once again proved an outstanding athlete and was named an All-American lacrosse goalie while at Syracuse and his post-college lacrosse activities helped get him elected to the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in the US and Canada. He was named 'Man of the Year in Lacrosse' by the NCAA in 1989. Lyons maintains his close connections to lacrosse and continues to be an inspiring role model to both Native and non-Native lacrosse athletes. Lyons graduated from Syracuse in 1958 with a degree in Fine Arts and then lived and worked as a commercial artist in New York City. 

In 1970, Lyons returned to the Onondoga Nation during which time he accepted the role of Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga and Seneca Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) and began his advocacy work on Indigenous and environmental issues. In addition to his duties as Faithkeeper, Lyons is a professor at SUNY - Buffalo where he directs the Native American Studies program within the department of American Studies. Lyons also co-founded Daybreak, a national Indian newspaper, with John Mohawk, a Seneca teacher and journalist. Lyons actively participates in many national and international forums including the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations. Lyons has received many awards and honors, including an honorary law degree from Syracuse University, the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, the National Audubon Society's Audubon Medal for service to the cause of conservation, and the first International Earth Day Award from the United Nations. In 1992, Lyons became the first Indigenous individual to address the U.N. General Assembly. Lyons serves on the board of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and has been a Native American representative to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting since 1974.

David Loy

David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism, and one of the founding members of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado.

His essays and books have been translated into many languages. His articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist magazines including Tricycle, Turning Wheel, Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma, as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. He is on the editorial or advisory boards of the journals Cultural Dynamics, Worldviews, Contemporary Buddhism, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, and World Fellowship of Buddhists Review. He is also on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View Project, Zen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation.

David lectures nationally and internationally on various topics, focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn from the other. He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues.

Brie Loskota

Brie Loskota is the executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her research focuses on how religions change and make change in the world. She is co-founder and senior advisor to the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and a trainer-facilitator with the United State Institute of Peace’s Generation Change program, where she has trained young leaders from across the Middle East and Africa.

Her writing have been published by Religion Dispatches, Los Angeles Magazine, Huffington Post, Trans-Missions, the Brookings Institute, the Aspen Institute and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Her commentary has also been featured in the Los Angeles Time, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Public Broadcasting, Voice of America and Take Part Live.

She is actively involved in several community and non-profit groups that work at the intersection of religion and the public square, including NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, Religion Dispatches, the Guibord Center: Religion Inside Out, L.A. Voice, L.A. Emergency Preparedness Foundation and Jewish World Watch, where she also chaired the Solar Cooker Project, an initiative that supplies solar cookers to Darfuri Refugees living in Chad. She also serves as the faith sector liaison for the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation, which coordinates private sector disaster response with the city’s Emergency Operations Center.

The World Economic Forum selected Loskota as a member of their 2017 Young Global Leaders class. She is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Truman National Security Fellow, and a Homegrown Violent Extremism Study Group associate at USC.

Kristen Looney

Kristen Looney is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Maryland, and project director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute. As a religious leader and educator, Kristen specializes in developing partnerships, training, and equipping leaders with dialogue skills. Kristen is formerly the Head of Programs and Partnerships for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) in the United States, where she led the strategy and expansion of its Face to Faith global schools program in the U.S. As a trained facilitator, Kristen facilitated over 130 global video conferences with students around the world. Before working at TBFF, Kristen spent eighteen years as an educator in both parish and independent schools.

Jeffery D. Long

Jeffery D. Long is professor of Religion and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College, in Pennsylvania. His graduate degrees are from the University of Chicago Divinity School and his undergraduate degree is from the University of Notre Dame. He also studied for two years at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. He is the author of A Vision for Hinduism (2007), Jainism: An Introduction (2009), The Historical Dictionary of Hinduism (2011), and the forthcoming Indian Philosophy: An Introduction. His articles have appeared in Prabuddha Bharata, The Journal of Religion, Science and Spirit, and Creative Transformation, among others. 

Dr. Long is associated with the Vedanta Society, DĀNAM (the Dharma Academy of North America), and the Hindu American Foundation. A major theme of Long’s work is religious pluralism, a topic he approaches from a perspective informed by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and which he refers to as a “Hindu process theology.”

Kathryn M. Lohre

Kathryn Mary Lohre is the president of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and director of ecumenical and inter-religious relations for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Prior to that, she served as assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, Dr. Diana Eck’s premier research project on religious diversity in the United States. 

Kathryn received her BA in psychology, religion and women’s studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1999. She earned her Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School in 2003. In 2011, the Graduate Theological Foundation in Mishawaka, Indiana conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity to Kathryn, "in recognition of her election as president-elect of the National Council of Churches and also in recognition of her contributions to women's interfaith issues and pluralism." 

Susan L. Lipson

Susan L. Lipson is an author, independent writing teacher, and free-lance book editor, as well as a speaker, program creator, and volunteer in the Interfaithcommunity and in her own Jewish faith community. She serves on the board of the Poway Interfaith Team (POINT). She has taught religious school, as well as creative writing workshops and tutorials. In addition to writing about faith-related topics, she writes poetry, songs, and  fiction for both adults and children. She occasionally serves as a cantorial soloist, too. Susan has a passion for making connections with others and erasing social boundaries. Her publications and blog posts can be found online by searching “Susan L. Lipson, Author & Teacher.” 

Cynthia Lindner

Cynthia Lindner (DMin’99), is Director of Ministry Studies and Clinical Faculty for Preaching and Pastoral Care at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Ian Linden

Ian Linden is a senior advisor at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, formerly director of the Social Action Programme, Faiths Act, and an associate professor in the Study of Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London. He has published a number of books on religion in Africa and, recently, two major studies on faith and globalization, “A New Map of the World and Global Catholicism.” He was, for fifteen years, director of the Catholic Institute for International Relations and was awarded the CMG for work for human rights in 2000. He is a member of the Christian-Muslim Forum of the UK, worked in interfaith dialogue with Shi’a leaders in Iran, and has acted as a DfID (UK government Department for International Development) consultant on matters of faith and development.

Kay Lindahl

Kay Lindahl, founder of The Listening Center, is a skilled presenter and workshop leader who teaches that listening is a sacred art and a spiritual practice. She is the author of the award winning book, The Sacred Art of Listening. Kay is also a dedicated spokesperson for the interfaith movement and is on the Board of Directors for Women of Spirit and Faith, an Ambassador for the Parliament of the World's Religions, a past trustee of the Global Council for the United Religions Initiative, and is Past Chair of the North American Interfaith Network. Lindahl has presented her work in diverse settings – local, regional, national and international. Locally she has created programs, board retreats, training for spiritual directors, in-service training for non-profit organizations and lectures on college campuses. She is the founding president of the The Interfaith Observer (TIO) Board of Directors.

Rev. Dr. William Lesher

Rev. Dr. William E. Lesher has a long and distinguished career in promoting global interreligious dialogue. Before becoming an interfaith activist, he spent 20 years as president of Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where he helped establish the Chicago Center for Religion and Science. As a Chicago religious leader, he was active in the centennial celebration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993 and has been closely connected ever since. He served as an ambassador for the Council in preparation for the 1999 Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, was convener of the 2004 Parliament in Barcelona, Spain, and stepped down as chair at the end of 2009 Melbourne Parliament. Along the way, Bill Lesher has been an adviser, trustee, consultant, and chair to numerous international educational, ecumenical, interfaith, and human rights organizations. 

Kyle Lemle

Kyle Lemle is a community forester, with experience working for international and grassroots NGOs on participatory natural resource management projects across the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, and California. Working with forest communities around the world, he has witnessed the power of tree planting to build ecological resilience while preserving culture.

Kyle is an inaugural recipient of the Spiritual Ecology Fellowship, through which he is working with leading practitioners from South Dakota to Northern India to empower diverse moral imperatives for conservation. In partnership with another SE Fellow, Brontë Velez, he co-designed and launched the project LeadtoLife.org which is transforming guns into shovels to use in ceremonial tree plantings at sites of violence and sacred sites across Oakland and Atlanta.

Kyle is also a recipient of the Princeton in Asia Fellowship to conduct research with RECOFTC – the Center for People and Forests on community forestry and climate change adaptation across Southeast Asia. After returning to the USA, he served as Community Project Manager with Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF), where he organized and implemented 30 neighborhood-level greening campaigns and the planting of over 2000 trees across the streets of San Francisco.

When he is not planting trees, Kyle serves as founder and co-director of the Choir for ThriveEastBay.org, where he is writing and performing original gospel-for-social-change music in a growing, purpose-driven community-based in Oakland. He is a former resident of Green Gulch Farm, and continues to draw inspiration and energy from his practice in the Soto Zen tradition.

Deborah Lee

Deborah Lee is the director of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition for Immigrant Rights. Founded in 1993, it is a program of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, which believes that all people are sacred across all borders. Lee is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and a long time peace educator and activist working on a range of different, intersecting social justice issues.  

John Paul Lederach

Widely known for his pioneering work in conflict transformation, John Paul Lederach is involved in conciliation work in Colombia, the Philippines, and Nepal, plus countries in East and West Africa. He has helped design and conduct training programs in 25 countries across five continents. In August 2013, Lederach was appointed director of the Peace Accords Matrix, the Kroc Institute's unique source of comparable data on all comprehensive peace agreements that have been signed since 1989.

Lederach is the author of 22 books, including When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation, (University of Queensland Press, 2010), The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005), The Journey Toward Reconciliation (Herald Press, 1999), Building Peace: Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies (USIP, 1997), and Preparing for Peace: Confliction Transformation Across Cultures (Syracuse University Press, 1995).

Lederach holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado (1988).

Robyn Lebron

Robyn Lebron's most recent books, "20 World Religions & Faith Practices --The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos-- Vol 1 & 2" have been Awarded the prestigious DeRose-Hinkhouse Award for Excellence in Religious Communication for 2017, by Religion Communicator Council. 

Robyn was recently a presenter at the NAIN Convention for 2017 at a Workshop titled "Is Interfaith becoming just another Religion?" 

She is Manager and Moderator for LinkedIn's "Interfaith Professionals" group, which supports over 4700 members of all faiths and creeds. A place where all can talk about their faith openly and freely in an effort to find common ground.

In an effort to create more understanding and peaceful discourse between different faith practices, she starting researching for her books in 2008. She currently resides in Harshaw, WI with her dogs and cats.

Leslie Leasure

Leslie Leasure is Program Director of the Ignite Institute. She recieved an M.Div. from the Pacific School of Religion and an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University. Prior to seminary, Leslie worked as a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations.

Joseph P. Laycock

Joseph P. Laycock is an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University.  He teaches courses on world religions, religion in America, new religious movements, and the intersection of religion and popular culture.

He is the author of several books including Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds (2015) and The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism (2014).  He is also a blogger for Religion Dispatches.

Dorianne Laux

Dorianne Laux’s fifth collection, The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux is also the author of Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition, The Book of Women. She is the co-author of the celebrated text The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Laux teaches poetry in the Program in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University and is a founding faculty member of Pacific University's Low Residency MFA Program. Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected, was released by W.W. Norton in early 2019.