Imam Jihad Turk is the founding president of Bayan Islamic Graduate School in Claremont, California, and a nationally known leader and public speaker. Previously, Jihad served for many years as Religious Director of the Islamic Center of Southern California, the oldest and largest mosque in the Los Angeles area.

Born to a Palestinian Muslim father and an American Christian mother, Jihad spent his college years exploring his Islamic roots. He studied at the Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia, and the University of Tehran, earning his BA in history and Arabic at the University of California, Berkeley. Jihad also holds an MA in Arabic and Islamic law and jurisprudence from the University of Texas, Austin. Currently earning his doctorate, he is focusing his research on Islamic law with an emphasis on usul al-fiqh (jurisprudence) and theology.

Speaker, Islamic Sacred Texts 101
Speaker, Decoding Rituals and Symbols of Islam
Speaker, Iftar: Breaking of the Fast
Storyteller, Inspiring Stories: Acknowledging Anger

Dr. Beth Ribet is the director and cofounder of Repair, a nonprofit that engages in research, education, and advocacy regarding health challenges, health disparities and disabilities resulting from systemic violence, exploitation and inequity. A lecturer in gender studies and disability studies at UCLA, she previously taught at UCLA Law, Columbia University Law, and other institutions. 

Virtually all of Dr. Ribet’s research and teaching includes a focus on the role of subordination, violence and inequity in creating new disabilities, injuries and illnesses among vulnerable populations. She also speaks publicly as a survivor of violence and a person with disabilities. Dr. Ribet earned her doctorate in social relations (sociology and anthropology) from the University of California, Irvine in 2005, and her JD, with a concentration in critical race studies, from UCLA Law in 2009. She based her doctoral dissertation on interviews with Jewish daughters of Holocaust survivors in the United States.

Storyteller, Inspiring Stories: Acknowledging Anger

The Right Reverend John Harvey Taylor began ministry as seventh bishop of the six-county Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Dec. 1, 2017. He invites the diocese’s 65,000 parishioners, 400 clergy, 130 congregations, 30 schools, and affiliated social-service agencies to join him in the mission of “feeding hungry hearts.” 

A lifelong Episcopalian, Bishop Taylor previously had served since 2004 as vicar of St. John Chrysostom Church and School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. Chief of staff to former President Richard M. Nixon from 1984 to 1990, he was thereafter executive director of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and a master of divinity from the Claremont School of Theology and Bloy House.

Storyteller, Inspiring Stories: Acknowledging Anger​

Jennifer Ortiz is a teacher and writer whose work and spiritual practice are informed by principles of equity, justice, and the power of the personal narrative. A homebred Angelena, at age 17 she moved to Oakland, California, to attend Mills College. “Attending an all-women’s college was life changing,” Jennifer says, “and it’s where I honed my leadership skills and the deeply seated belief that education creates transformative growth, generational change and opportunity.”

After working in the anti-proliferation and labor movements, Jennifer moved back into academia with new life experiences. She always comes back to Los Angeles – “the best city” – and as she writes her first novel, IN SOUTH CENTRAL WE KILL VAMPIRES, she is “excited to showcase my beautiful city and all the richness she has to offer.”

Storyteller, Inspiring Stories: Acknowledging Anger