Professor Priyankar Upadhyaya is widely regarded as the pioneer of peace studies in India and holds the UNESCO Chair for Peace and Intercultural Understanding at Banaras Hindu University, in addition to over thirty years teaching international relations and peace studies as well as managing the M...

Susan Hayward is a senior advisor for religion and inclusive societies at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Hayward directs the Institute’s efforts to advance conflict prevention, resolution and reconciliation projects engaging the religious sector. Since joining the Institute in 2007, her field work h...

Born in upper Burma in 1948 to ethnic Chinese parents, Master Hsin Tao was left orphaned and impoverished at an early age. Having been taken in by the remnants of ROC military units operating along the border of Yunnan, China, he was brought to Taiwan in 1961. At the age of 15, he was deeply moved b...

Dr. Nayla Tabbara is director of the Institute of Citizenship and Diversity Management at Adyan, Foundation for Diversity, Solidarity and Human Dignity. She holds a PhD in Science of Religions from École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris and Saint Joseph University, Beirut. She is also a muslim wo...

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit was elected general secretary of the World Council of Churches in August 2009 and installed in January 2010. An ordained minister in the Church of Norway, Dr Tveit has led the 350-member fellowship of Christian churches from 110 countries, representing about 550 million Chri...

Father Ameer Jaje is a Dominican priest and Advisor to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and Professor at the Catholic Institute for Theology in Paris.  He is a Founding Member of the Iraqi Council for Interfaith Dialogue since 2013 and Member of the Dominican Institute of Orienta...

Dishani Jayaweera is the directress, programme designer and strategist of the Centre for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation(CPBR). Recognizing her work in peace-building, she received the Peacemaker in Action award by Tanenbaum Network- USA in 2012, and became the 2nd runner-up of the Annual ‘Coexi...

Born in 1947, in Beirut, Lebanon, His Holiness Catholicos Aram I studied at the Armenian Theological Seminary, Antelias, Lebanon and the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Geneva, Switzerland. He received his M.Div. from the Near East School of Theology, his S.T.M. jointly from the American University ...

Sister Emily (Emeline) Tannous is a member of the religious order dedicated to Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, founded in Lebanon in 1853 and currently coordinator of the Theological and Ecumenical Department in MECC. Committed to the pastoral life in the church and to ecumenical, interfaith and in...

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed is the National Director of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), heading up its Office for Interfaith and Community Alliances in Washington, DC. He served for 12 years (1994-2006) as Secretary General of the Indiana-based national umbrella organization, which has more tha...