Andrea Hodos

Andrea Hodos

After five years as program co-director at NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, Andrea Hodos recently became associate director. She co-facilitates NewGround’s MAJIC high school leadership council as well as its Professional Fellowship. Andrea has trained as a facilitator with Resetting the Table and is a member of the Jews of Color & Allies Leadership cohort of Dimensions Education Consulting.  Andrea is also the creator of Moving Torah, a method for exploring Jewish text and Jewish story using movement, theater, and writing. Her creative project, Sinai and Sunna: Women Covering, Uncovering and Recovering, initially brought her into the realm of Muslim-Jewish engagement.

Andrea has a BA in English Literature from Yale University and a MEd from Temple University in Dance Education. She is married to Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, and they have raised their two children, Shachar and Oryah, in Los Angeles. She is grateful to live in the City of Angels where her family can be part of vibrant Jewish community-building and strong multi-faith coalitions.

Storyteller, Inspiring Stories: Healing Our World

Kandee Lewis

Kandee Lewis

Kandee Rochelle Lewis is the award-winning Executive Director of the Positive Results Corporation (PRC). Her spiritual belief in Father/Mother God, Mother Earth and our ancestors, and her lifelong sense of being greatly blessed, have allowed Kandee in turn to share her blessings and skills with the world. A master trainer and certified domestic violence and sexual assault prevention advocate, she works with youth, families, and community stakeholders and partners, offering tools and strategies to form and maintain healthy, consensual, respectful relationships.

Kandee has led PRC to create a broader support system for youth. She trains the Los Angeles Police Department, Department of Mental Health and L.A. County Probation to recognize and address trauma. PRC addresses homelessness with community agencies and facilitates partnerships with schools, colleges, businesses, and other organizations to better safeguard and inspire youth.

She has received numerous honors including the 2019 Champion of Peace & Non-Violence Award; 2018 Black Business Women Rock; 2017 100 Most Influential African American ‘Movers & Shakers’ in L.A.; 2017 L.A. County Woman of the Year, Education; 2016 Humanitarian Award from National Action Network; 2016 Civic Pride Award for Eastside Boys & Girls Club; 2016 DangerMan Hero Award; 2015 Woman of the Year Award from Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Alpha Psi Zeta Chapter; and 2014 Johnnie L. Cochran Violence Prevention. Learn more at www.prc123.org.

Storyteller, Inspiring Stories: Healing Our World​

Dr. Jennifer Noble

Dr. Jennifer Noble

Jennifer Noble, PhD, or “Dr. Jenn,” is a licensed psychologist with a doctorate in clinical psychology who specializes in adolescents. She is also a teen parent coach as well as an associate professor of psychology. Dr. Jenn has a private practice in Los Angeles where she works with mixed race teens and adults, parents of mixed race teens, women of color and other marginalized groups. She is excited to have created an online coaching program for parents of mixed race teens in order to reach parents across the nation who want to learn how to show up for their mixed race teens.

As an advisory board member and former past president of Multiracial Americans of Southern California, Dr. Jenn has been advocating for the mixed race community for many years. Dr. Jenn uses psychology for social justice – her passion is to work toward equality for all marginalized and oppressed people.

www.drjennpsych.com

Speaker, The Leading Edge: Interfaith Multicultural Families​

Susan Katz Miller

Susan Katz Miller

Susan Katz Miller

Susan Katz Miller is a journalist and author of The Interfaith Family Journal (2019) and Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family (2013). She is also founder of the Network of Interfaith Family Groups, a Facebook group for families practicing more than one religion. She has spoken on multiple religious practices at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly and the Parliament of the World’s Religions, on the Today Show and multiple NPR shows, and at universities, seminaries, churches, and synagogues across the country. 

Speaker, The Leading Edge: Interfaith Multicultural Families

Website susankatzmiller.com

Twitter @susankatzmiller

Blog onbeingboth.com

On Facebook

Duncan Ryūken Williams, PhD

Duncan Ryūken Williams, PhD

In addition to serving as Professor of Religion and East Asian Languages and Cultures at USC, Duncan Ryūken Williams, PhD is director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. Formerly chair of USC’s School of Religion, he earlier held the Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair of Japanese Buddhism at UC Berkeley and directed Berkeley’s Center for Japanese Studies. Dr. Williams was ordained as a priest in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition in 1993 and served as Harvard University’s Buddhist chaplain from 1994-96. 

Born to a Japanese mother and British father, he grew up in Japan and England and moved to the U.S. at age 17 to attend Reed College. He received his PhD in religion from Harvard University. Dr. Williams has authored and edited numerous books on Buddhism in Japan and the U.S. He has also translated four books from Japanese into English including Putting Buddhism to Work: A New Theory of Economics and Business Management (Kodansha, 1997). His latest book is American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War (Harvard University Press, 2019), which reached #3 on the Los Angeles Times nonfiction bestseller list.

Storyteller, Inspiring Stories for Uncertain Times: Healing Our Hearts

Speaker, Resilience and Freedom: How Enduring Lessons from the WWII Japanese American Buddhist Experience Can Heal Us Today