endawnis recounts her journey of uncovering a hidden chapter of her family’s history, shedding light on her grandmother’s past—one muted for decades. Her story delves into the painful legacy of Native American boarding schools, where children were forcibly removed from their families, leading to the systematic suppression of culture, language, and identity.
Jaimie D. Crumley, PhD is an assistant professor of Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. She is a Black feminist public historian and intellectual historian who is currently pursuing two research projects. Her public history project examines the social and historical construction of race and religious identity in colonial Boston, Massachusetts. Her monograph-in-progress, We Will Live, is about the theological underpinnings of proto-Black feminist political organizing in eighteenth and nineteenth-century New England.
Before pursuing her career as an academic, Jaimie served in ordained ministry in the American Baptist tradition. Jaimie holds a Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, a Master of Divinity and a Master of Sacred Theology degree from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Speaker: Take Heart Now Online Series
Maia Ferdman is a skilled facilitator, educator, and consultant with a passion for community development, peace-building, and education. She is the founding Principal of Bridges Intergroup Relations Consulting, a firm that supports organizations and communities to build vibrant spaces of belonging – celebrating our complex identities, proactively exploring our differences, and fostering resilient relationships between groups.
She has worked with and consulted for agencies and organizations including the California State Water Boards, the City of Los Angeles, Pepperdine University, the Western Justice Center, Abrahamic House, and NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change. She has trained government and nonprofit groups in cultural competency, and facilitated conversations across differences about policing, homelessness, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and more.
She develops training for the UCLA Dialogue Across Differences Initiative, is the Program Manager of the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, and is the former Assistant Director of the University of California Los Angeles Luskin Center for History and Policy. Maia loves studying and is a product of globalization; she is a Jewish Argentinian Southern Californian who has lived in Bulgaria and Argentina and has spent extensive time in India and Israel. She received her B.A. in Global Studies and M.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA.
Speaker: Take Heart Now Series
Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos is Associate General Secretary at the National Council of Churches USA, where, as director of both Faith & Order and Interreligious Relations & Collaboration, he is responsible for theological dialogue among both ecumenical and interfaith partners. This includes intra-Christian dialogue, as well as Jewish-Christian, Muslim-Christian, Buddhist-Christian, Hindu-Christian, and Sikh-Christian dialogue. An Orthodox Christian theologian, he previously directed, and continues to contribute to, the Council’s work in international affairs and its advocacy on US foreign policy issues.
Formerly, Dr. Kireopoulos was the Executive Director of Religions for Peace – USA, where he promoted interfaith collaboration to address common domestic social concerns. Before that he was Special Assistant to the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, in the area of external affairs, and Assistant to the Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, in communications.
Among his affiliations, Dr. Kireopoulos is on the executive committee of Shoulder-to-Shoulder, an organization dedicated to fighting Islamophobia in the US, and Churches for Middle East Peace. He has served as chair of United to End Genocide and as a founding board member of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and its Religious Advisory Committee, as well as a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Orthodox Theological Society in America. He serves as a member of The Advisory Council of The Guibord Center founded by The Late Rev. Dr. Gwynne M. Guibord for whom one of the NCCC’s highest honors – The Gwynne Guibord Award for Excellence in Interreligious Leadership – is given annually.
Dr. Kireopoulos has particular expertise in the areas of religious freedom and genocide.
The Guibord Center under the late Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord and now under the current president, Dr. Lo Sprague, is a co-convener with Dr. Kireopoulos of NCCC for both The Buddhist – Christian Dialogue and The Hindu-Christian Dialogue.
Speaker: Take Heart Now Series
This conversation features three high school students from Interfaith Youth Alliance (IYA). Each young storyteller, Rabina, Atousa and Leah, gives us a glimpse into their experience in the world as teenagers and why they are part of the IYA.
IYA equips youth with the tools necessary to make positive changes in the local communities and future places of work. Through providing leadership opportunities and educational forums, students learn about different cultures, beliefs, and traditions in experiential ways.