NEWS
Meet an innoFaither: Stephen Lewis
Meet Stephen Lewis, President of the Forum for Theological Exploration, co-founder of DO GOOD X, and co-author of A Way Out of No Way: An Approach to Christian Innovation, and Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose. Stephen is a committed and thoughtful leader and developer of leaders, always thinking deeply about, and helping cultivate, the types of innovative, changemaking leadership that the challenges of our time require. We are grateful to have him as a friend and advisor to innoFaith.
Meet an innoFaither: Esther Lederman
Meet Rabbi Esther Lederman, Director of Congregational Innovation & Leadership at the Union for Reform Judaism. As a former congregational rabbi herself, Esther helps Jewish communities re-imagine their congregational life so they can adapt and thrive in an era of significant change and contribute to creating a better world.
Meet an innoFaither: Nikhil Mandalaparthy
Meet Nikhil Mandalaparthy, Deputy Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights, and a committed advocate for pluralism and human rights. All over the world, we’ve seen how when religion and nationalism intertwine, it can drive hate, violence, and injustice. Inspired by his own faith, other traditions, and bhakti poets, Nikhil works to foster inclusive expressions of Hindu identity.
Meet an innoFaither: Nikole Lim
Meet Nikole Lim, Founder of Freely in Hope, which works to end the cycle of sexual violence through the leadership and advocacy of survivors. Nikole is a filmmaker, storyteller, and dedicated advocate. Her innovative work centers the leadership of sexual violence survivors in Kenya and Zambia, highlighting the power of survivors to lead us to a violence-free world.
Meet an innoFaither: Ambereen Khan
Meet Ambereen Khan, executive producer and host of Inspired, a production of Interfaith Voices, an award-winning independent public radio show that fosters interfaith understanding through exploring how faith intersects with news, politics, and culture. Ambereen is a beautiful interviewer and also a longtime interfaith advocate and innovator. Among many other things, she was co-founder of Muslim Advocates and the first Muslim to chair the Interfaith Alliance Foundation. We are honored to count her as an ally and advisor to innoFaith.
Meet an innoFaither: Sandy Hong
Meet Sandy Hong, Assistant Director at Glean Network and Steering Committee Member of KQTx. Sandy is a wise and skilled innovator and community-builder who we’ve had the privilege to get to know through an innoFaith partnership with Glean Network.
Meet an innoFaither: Allyson McKinney Timm
Meet Ally McKinney Timm, passionate human rights advocate and founder of Justice Revival. As a lawyer and person of faith, Ally saw a need for Christian communities to understand their role in human rights. She started Justice Revival to engage these communities in helping safeguard human rights for all through education, advocacy, and collaboration. This work includes exciting interfaith collaboration to advance human rights goals, such as passing the Equal Rights Amendment.
Meet an innoFaither: Amy Butler
Meet Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, current pastor at National City Christian Church in Washington, DC, and founder of Invested Faith. Amy helps churches give new life to their assets—especially at what can be an otherwise painful stage of winding down—by investing in faith-rooted social entrepreneurs. Amy and Invested Faith remind us that God is always at work in the world if we are open to seeing that work in new ways.
Meet an innoFaither: Sara Abdel
Meet Sara Abdel, passionate and collaborative interfaith advocate for women, refugees, and economic justice. Originally from Egypt, Sara’s search for knowledge and justice and commitment to putting her faith into action has taken her to Capitol Hill and numerous local and global organizations and companies. Founder of Thrivers on the Move, she now directs her energies toward supporting immigrants and refugees to find jobs and careers where they can thrive.
Meet an innoFaither: Cynthia Johnson-Oliver
Meet Rev. Cynthia Johnson-Oliver, preacher, poet, and public servant. Cynthia is founder of the FaithJustice Foundation, as well as the Bishop Joseph Johnson History Project, which she created to tell the story of her grandfather, the first African American to graduate from Vanderbilt University, and his role in civil rights history. Cynthia carries on her grandfather’s legacy not just by sharing his story but through her deep dedication to social justice in our time.
Meet an innoFaither: Lawrence Whitney
Meet Brother Lawrence Whitney, priest in the Lindisfarne community, former university chaplain, and innovator working on de-institutionalizing chaplaincy so that all people and communities have access to spiritual health resources. Larry envisions chaplaincy tapping into a variety of religious traditions to help individuals and communities connect to meaning and purpose. He’s piloting this vision in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, MA.
Meet an innoFaither: Brie Loskota
Meet Brie Loskota, new Executive Director of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, former Executive Director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC, co-founder of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Incubator, and many other things. She is a curious and creative champion of pluralism, a deep thinker, and a prolific doer.
Meet an innoFaither: Sid Schwarz
Meet Rabbi Sid Schwarz, interfaith leader and serial entrepreneur. Rabbi Sid is a Senior Fellow at Hazon and has birthed and led numerous initiatives in the field of Jewish life, leadership, education, and community, including PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, the Clergy Leadership Incubator, Kenissa: Communities of Meaning, and many more. Sid is a relentless visionary, perpetually pushing the boundaries of what faithful leadership can and must be in a changing world, always with humility, grace, and humor.
Meet an innoFaither: Sadaf Taimur
Meet Sadaf Taimur, mother, PhD student, Dalai Lama Fellow, and passionate advocate, educator, and innovator. Sadaf previously developed a project to address gender discrimination in education in her native Pakistan. Now, she is engaged in action-oriented research on transformative sustainability education, which recently won her a Green Talents Award from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Meet an innoFaither: Yasmine Arrington
Meet Yasmine Arrington, social entrepreneur and so much more. Yasmine started her organization ScholarCHIPS as a junior in high school, turning her own experience into a way to support many other young people. She has won tons of awards and been featured in TeenVogue, Essence, Forbes, the Washington Post, and more. Through university and divinity school, she continued to grow her organization and now runs it full-time. And if that weren’t enough, she also models and hosts a podcast, Millennial Minds.
Meet an innoFaither: Chris Davies
Meet Rev. Chris Davies, one of our favorite “intrapreneurs,” using her innovation mindset and talents to help renew a faith institution from within. She also created Queer Clergy Trading Cards to celebrate the gifts of queer clergy and support queer and trans youth organizations.
Meet an innoFaither: Reem Rahman
Meet Reem Rahman, passionate mom and systems change expert, one of the folks behind the beautiful changemaking.net resource from Ashoka in our resource library. Reem brings her deep faith, curiosity, and commitment to everything she does, which now includes creating the most compelling homeschool we’ve ever heard of and writing a children’s book.
Meet an innoFaither: Ian Schiffer
Meet Ian Schiffer, Community Weaver for the Nefesh community, a Dalai Lama Fellow, community organizer, connector, spiritual wrestler, and committed seeker of justice for all people.
Meet an innoFaither: Mark Basnage
Meet Mark Basnage, educator, innovator, and founder of MakeKnowledge. Mark is perpetually pushing the boundaries of what education can and should be. He inspires us to imagine education that is more inclusive and relevant, and where learning means being engaged in positive change.
Meet an innoFaither: Vipin Thekk
Meet Vipin Thekk, Senior Director at Ashoka and amazingly curious, spiritual, reflective, and energetic human. From Krishna to Integral Theory to evolution to the Bodhisattva vow, buckle up for this one, folks. We can always count on Vipin to take us on a stimulating ride through head, heart, and spirit.