Sammer Aboelela is a photographer, writer, and activist. He organizes the New York Community of Muslim Progressives which has over 800 members and meets weekly. His work has appeared in the NYC publications ARAMICA and The Brooklyn Rail, the online journals LOGOS and altmuslim. In September 2006 he traveled with a peace delegation to Sudan in an effort to promote dialogue as a means to help resolve, and promote awareness of, the Darfurian humanitarian crisis.

Rev. Khader El Yateem is the Palestinian Christian Minister of the Salaam Arabic Church in Bay Ridge Brooklyn. He serves the Lutheran Church Council on special missions throughout the world and is particularly involved in poverty and hunger issues. Father El-Yateem participates in a Brooklyn Dialogue Circle, hosted by the Arabic Church. Rev El-Yateem grew up in Beit Jala, Palestine.

Helen Engelhardt has been active in peace, justice and environmental causes for over thirty years. She is an educator and writer, concerned with building better relationships between peoples of different backgrounds in her beloved borough of Brooklyn. She sings alto with the Brooklyn Jewish Community Chorus and is a Brooklyn Dialogue Circle participant.

Marcia Kannry is a Jewish American who lived in Israel for six years. A former Executive Director of The Jewish National Fund, Marcia traveled throughout Israel and the occupied territories during the first intifadah. Her own experience with dialogue at that time began the journey that has led to the creation of The Dialogue Project. Marcia earned her B.A. in religious studies from the University of Pittsburgh and has pursued master studies at New York University. She has created inter-group/interfaith organizations for more than 20 years. (President of the Board)

Paula Pace is a mediator/attorney and facilitator in private practice. She has a family mediation practice and mediates EEO cases for the US Postal Service and the Transportation Security Administration. A former public interest lawyer, Paula served as an Assistant Attorney General and as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society. Paula is an Associate of the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Executive Service Corps. (Chairperson of the Board).

Judith Scheuer is a teacher by training and has worked in special and standard education as a reading teacher as well as a teaching conflict resolution. Before becoming an educator, Judith worked in community organizing.  Inspired by the Dialogue Project, Judith also created a reading/discussion group in her home on the subject of Israeli and Palestinian issues, for parents at the Jewish school that her children formerly attended.   

Rev. Charles "Chick" Straut is a retired member of the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. A tireless organizer, he has worn many hats throughout his long career of social justice and ministry. Rev. Straut has served as the Consultant to Mission and Social Justice Ministries of The Riverside Church in the City of New York, and as the New York Annual Conference Disaster Response Staff Coordinator. He is considered a good friend to all the city's residents, and through his work has had opportunities to work with many of the city's diverse immigrant communities. He has served as Pastor for congregations from New Jersey to Connecticut to upstate New York. Rev. Straut has also devoted his energy to the city's homeless population through his involvement with the Interfaith Assembly of Homelessness and Housing. Rev. Straut received his Masters of Divinity and Doctorate of Ministry from Drew University.

DIRECTOR AND BOARD MEMBER

Marcia Kannry (see Board bio)

FACILITATORS

MINO AKHTAR facilitates our Yonkers dialogue. Mino is an independent consultant specializing in organization team building, strategic planning and other tools to leverage the human potential in the non-profit and private sectors. She is the Director of Public Relations for American Muslim Alliance, NJ, and a group that educates Muslims on participation in the political process and serves as consultant to the ASMA Society. An American Muslim of Pakistani decent, Mino grew up in the Middle East and Europe.

PAULA PACE (see Board bio)

FACILITATOR-IN-TRAINING (Volunteer)

FAOZIA ALJIBAWI is a Palestinian American Muslim graduate social work student. Faozia works as a patient liason with the Arabic speaking community at Lutheran Medical Hospital Center in Brooklyn. Committed to development of skills that increase empathy and co-existence, Faozia is a dialogue participant and co-teacher in our York College and Public Dialogue Forum programs. She also serves on the Interfaith Teach-In Committee.

INTERFAITH EVENTS COMMITTEE (Volunteers)

RABBI SIMKA WEINTRAUB is a founding member of Brownstone Brooklyn’s Speaking Across Differences interfaith/inter- ethnic neighbor to neighbor dialogue program, representing the Kane Street synagogue. A resident of Cobble Hill, Simkha hosts small intimate dialogues in his own home around texts and traditions and has served as an Interfaith Teach-In leader for several years. Rabbi Simkha is a licensed social worker and is the Director of the National Center for Jewish Healing in New York.

JULIE LEWIS is a member of Speaking Across Differences in Brownstone Brooklyn and represents Pax Christi and St. Boniface Church on the planning committee. Julie is a retired school social worker and utilizes these skills to help create direct links between The Dialogue Project and other diversity and interfaith program committees. She represents The Dialogue Project on the Children of Abraham Walk Committee.

LINDA SARSOUR is a Palestinian American activist, and a dialogue project participant. Linda first came to a Dialogue Interfaith Teach In with a Palestinian Dabke dance troupe and has stayed on the Interfaith Committee since that time. A mother of three, Linda is the Muslim community outreach liaison for the Third Avenue YMCA. Linda also serves as acting Director of the Arab American Association.

DIALOGUE WEBSITE MANAGER

ARLENE KRIV is a Bay Ridge resident and mom. A former nonprofit communications director, she has worked for The Public Theater and for numerous publishing efforts. Arlene has brought her talent for integrating public relations and technology to the Dialogue Project’s website, an important component of our public face. She holds an M.A. and M.Phil from Rutgers University in American History/Women’s History.

DIALOGUE PROJECT COORDINATOR

DANIELLE PESHKIN is a student at NYU, studying political identity, Middle East, and media. Over the past 2 years, she lived both in Israel and in the Palestine, where she studied at universities on both sides of the green line and taught English as a second language. Through this experience, and through her previous work as assistant news producer for the radio/television program Democracy Now, Danielle witnessed the power of personal narrative to bridge political, geographical, and psychological divides. She joined the Dialogue Project based on a belief that change stems from honestly engaging the humanity of the other.

DIALOGUE PROJECT ASSOCIATE

SARAH CHAUDRY graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2007, with Honors in her English major and High Honors in Creative Writing. She has worked as a Site Coordinator at LIFT (Legal Information for Families Today) and interned at both the East Harlem School and the Correctional Association of New York. She was drawn to the Dialogue Project not only because she is a Pakistani-American Muslim, but also because she believes that dialogue is indispensable to communities that grapple to understand their relationships to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.