Imam Ahmed Abbadi

Dr. Ahmed Abaddi is Secretary-General of the Rabita Mohammadia of Ulema. He heads committees within the Higher Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research and the Morocco-USA Strategic Dialogue. He is also a Member of the Higher Council of the Mohammed VI Foundation of African Ulema and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council. Dr. Abaddi also teaches at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Sciences Po Paris.

He was previously Director of Islamic Affairs at the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, and served as a Member of the National Council for Human Rights and the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication.

Dr. Abaddi is Emeritus Professor of Comparative History of Religions and Islamic Thought at Cadi Ayyad University, where he obtained his PhD in Islamic Studies. Having pursued his postdoctoral studies in the history of religions at Paris-Sorbonne University, he has also taught at the University of Chicago and DePaul University. He has published several books and is the author of a number of articles in Moroccan and foreign journals.

Chungliang Al Huang

Chungliang Al Huang (黃忠良) is a notable philosopher, dancer, performing artist, author, calligrapher and internationally acclaimed educator and Tai Ji master.

“A master in the arts of living” (Alan Watts) and “a sage for the modern age” (New Age Magazine), Master Chungliang Huang is the founder of the Living Tao Foundation, an international cultural arts network for lifelong learning, and director of the International Lan Ting Institute, a cross-cultural study and conference center at the sacred and historic Wu Yi Mountain, now a UNESCO World Triple Heritage Site in the People’s Republic of China rich with historic, religious, and cultural arts traditions; and at Gold Beach on the Oregon Coast in the USA.

The basis of the Living Tao practice is Master Huang’s lifelong philosophy and East / West synthesis of the “Three Pillars of Asian Wisdom: Taoism-Buddhism-Confucianism”, made easily applicable to ‘Every-Day Living’ as a joyful daily practice.

Mirabai Bush

Mirabai is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and served as Executive Director until 2008. Under her direction, The Center introduced contemplative practices into education, law, business, environment leadership, the military, technology companies, and activism.

She has been teaching workshops and courses on meditation and contemplative practice in life and work for many years. She co-developed the curriculum for Search Inside Yourself for Google, the first program in mindfulness-based emotional intelligence; it has been attended by tens of thousands of Google employees. A founding board member of the Seva Foundation, an international public health organization, she directed the Seva Guatemala Project, supporting sustainable agriculture and integrated community development.

She is the author, with Ram Dass, of Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying and Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service. She is co-author with Daniel Barbezat of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning and editor of Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices Are Changing the Way We Live.

Roshi Joan Halifax

Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D., Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist and pioneer in the field of end-of-life care. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Institute and Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D. in medical anthropology in 1973 and has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions and medical centers around the world. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University, and was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library of Congress.

From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center with dying cancer patients. She has continued to work with dying people and their families, and to teach health care professionals and family caregivers the psycho-social, ethical and spiritual aspects of care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying, and Founder of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. She is also founder of the Nomads Clinic in Nepal.

She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman.

A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order and founder of Prajna Mountain Buddhist Order, her work and practice for more than four decades has focused on engaged Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); The Fruitful Darkness, A Journey Through Buddhist Practice; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Wisdom in the Presence of Death; and Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet which was released on May 1, 2018.

Brother David Steindl-Rast

Brother David Steindl-Rast — 96 year-old author, scholar, and Benedictine monk — is beloved the world over for his enduring message about gratefulness as the true source of lasting happiness. Known to many as the “grandfather of gratitude,” Br. David has been a source of inspiration and spiritual friendship to countless leaders and luminaries around the world including Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, and more.

 He has been one of the most important figures in the modern interfaith dialogue movement, and has taught with thought-leaders such as Eckhart Tolle, Jack Kornfield, and Roshi Joan Halifax. His wisdom has been featured in recent interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Krista Tippett, and Tami Simon and his TED talk has been viewed almost 10,000,000 times. 

Rabbi David Rosen

Rabbi David Rosen has taken leave from his position as  AJC’s International Director of Interreligious Affairs in order to serve as Special Advisor to the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Rosen has been advancing understanding and good relations between religious communities for more than forty years – from the time he served as rabbi of the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in South Africa, during his tenure as Chief Rabbi of Ireland; and throughout the last more than thirty years based in Jerusalem.

In addition to interreligious representation and education, his work involves mediation and peace building and he is heavily involved in multi-religious engagement on ecological issues. Among the various awards and recognition he has received, Rabbi Rosen was granted a papal Knighthood in 2005 for his contribution to Jewish-Catholic reconciliation and in 2010 he was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II for his work promoting interfaith understanding and cooperation.

Father Timothy Radcliffe

Timothy Radcliffe OP joined the English Province of the Dominican Order in 1965, and was ordained a priest in 1971. He studied in Oxford University, and Paris. He was a chaplain to the University of London in 1974 – 76, before returning to Oxford, where he taught for twelve years. In 1992 he was elected Master of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), finishing his term in 2001. He is now an itinerant preacher and lecturer, based in, Oxford, spending half the year traveling until covid! He was a Trustee of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development for fourteen years and is a patron of ‘Embrace the Middle East’.

He is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, and Doctor of Divinity hon. causa of Oxford University, and also from Fribourg University and ten other universities in Italy, France and the United States. He has written several books, which have been translated into 24 languages, the most of which is ‘Alive in God: a Christian imagination’ (2019). He was awarded the Michael Ramsey Prize for theological writing in 2007. He is a Sarum Canon of Salisbury Cathedral and has the freedom of the city of London.

Parker Palmer

Parker J. Palmer is a world-renowned writer, speaker, activist, and Quaker elder who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality, and social change. Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as thirteen honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. Founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal, he has reached millions worldwide through his ten books, including Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, On the Brink of Everything, and Healing the Heart of Democracy.

Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her forthcoming release, Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom, is set for release in April of 2023 from Flatiron Books. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed six million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond.