Berkley Center

Dr. Samia Huq is a research fellow at the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University as well as an associate professor and interim dean of humanities and social sciences at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She obtained her Ph.D. from Brandeis University, where her research explored women’s religious discussion groups in urban Bangladesh. Her current research includes cultural activism of Bengali Muslims of East Pakistan and the impact of secondary secular and madrasa education on gendered norms and practices. Dr. Huq has worked on the Global Life Stories Project with Musawah: For Equality in the Muslim Family, and is one of Musawah’s global advocates. In addition, she coordinates the BRAC University-Georgetown University Speakers' Forum series on faith and development.

Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, leads the center’s work on religion and global development. She is also a professor of the practice of development, conflict, and religion in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, teaching diverse courses on the ethics of development work and mentoring students at many levels. She helped to create and now serves as the executive director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue, an NGO that works to enhance bridges between different sectors and institutions. In September 2022, she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Marshall has five decades of experience on a variety of development issues in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and the Middle East, particularly those facing the world’s poorest countries; one way she shares her expertise is through her blog Faith in Action. She was a World Bank officer from 1971 to 2006, and she led the World Bank’s faith and ethics initiative between 2000 and 2006. Marshall is a member of the Working Group on Child Rights and Family Values and the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, both part of the Culture of Encounter Project.

Mokhlesur Rahman is a senior operations officer for education in the World Bank's office in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He supports various projects and programs of the education sector in South Asia, including non-formal, primary, secondary, and tertiary education and skills development.

Sarah Thompson was a Project Manager for Bangladesh at WFDD from 2020 to May 2022. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Gender Studies from Roanoke College and a master’s degree in International Development with Migration from the University of Kent's Brussels School of International Studies. Prior to joining the WFDD team, Sarah worked in the education and NGO space in both China and Cambodia and recently at Georgetown’s Institute for Reproductive Health focusing on family planning interventions in Nepal. Sarah has a strong interest in the intersection of religion, development, and gender equity in South Asia.