Berkley Center

Sharif Aly has been the CEO of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) since 2018, have previously served as IRUSA advocacy counsel. Prior to IRUSA, Aly served as the executive director and general counsel of Oaktree Institute, Inc., a leadership and educational nonprofit organization that aims to develop value-driven, action-focused, and results-oriented leaders. He holds a J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law.

Abbas Barzegar is founder and director of the Horizon Forum and academic director of the Zakat Foundation Institute. He has applied research experience covering transnational Muslim civil society at the intersection of Islamic revival and geopolitics. He also teaches at Indiana University, Emory University, and George Mason University. Barzegar holds a Ph.D. from Emory University.

Anwar Khan is president of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA). Khan has helped expand IRUSA from a small office in Los Angeles to nine offices around the country that assist over 11 million people in over 40 countries worldwide. He has more than 25 years of experience working in the field of humanitarian and development assistance.

Joanna Kretzer Chun is the director of program quality at World Relief, coordinating technical support in health and nutrition, family strengthening, child development and protection, agriculture, and savings. She also supports World Relief initiatives to improve program monitoring and evaluation and advances World Relief’s gender mainstreaming strategy. She holds an M.A. in intercultural studies and an M.A. in family studies, both from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Peter Mandaville is a professor of international affairs at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he also serves as the director of the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies. He was a Berkley Center senior research fellow from April 2018 to April 2024 and from 2022 to 2024 served as a senior advisor on religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace. Previous government experience includes serving as a member of the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning Staff (2011-2012) and as a senior advisor in the department’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs (2015-2016). He has also been a visiting senior fellow at the Pew Research Center. His research focuses on the intersection of religion and international affairs, with a primary focus on Islam and the Muslim world. His publications include, among others, The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power: How States Use Religion in Foreign Policy (2023),  Wahhabism and the World (2022), Islam and Politics (2014, 2020), Global Political Islam (2007), and Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001). He holds degrees from the University of St. Andrews and the University of Kent and has studied at the American University in Cairo.

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.

Christina Tobias-Nahi is the director of public affairs, research and advocacy at Islamic Relief USA. She is also the advisory council liaison for the Refugees, Displacement, and Migration Workgroup for the G20 Interfaith Forum Association. Tobias-Nahi has led international programs at the Joint Council on International Children’s Services and managed the U.S. State Department program Tech Girls.