Berkley Center

Crystal Corman was the program manager at WFDD from November 2013 through September 2016. Prior to joining WFDD, Corman consulted at the World Bank on issues related to fragility, violence prevention, and gender. In 2010 she was a Boren Fellow in Malaysia, where she researched Muslim women’s agency within Islam. She also served as a volunteer English teacher in Thailand from 2003 to 2004 through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s young adult in global mission program. Before graduate school, Corman worked in campus ministry for the Lutheran Student Center from 2005 to 2008 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is interested in working with religious leaders and communities on development issues related to gender equality, women’s agency, and peacebuilding. Corman holds a B.J. in advertising from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, an M.A. in international peace and conflict resolution from American University, and an M.T.S. from Wesley Theological Seminary.

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.

Gina Messina-Dysert is Assistant Professor of Religion and Gender Studies of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at Ursuline College. She is also co-founder of Feminism and Religion, the global project that explores the “F-word” in religion and the intersection between scholarship, activism, and community. As the author of multiple articles, the book Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence (2014), and co-editor of Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay (2015) and Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century (2014), Messina-Dysert has given serious attention to issues faced by women in relation to religion and social justice. She earned her doctorate degree at Claremont Graduate University with a dual focus in women studies in religion and theology, ethics, and culture and completed a M.A. in religious studies at John Carroll University. She also earned a M.B.A. at the University of Findlay and completed her undergraduate degree at Cleveland State University.

Ruth W. Messinger is the global ambassador of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the world’s leading Jewish organization working to end poverty and realize human rights in the developing world. She previously served as AJWS president from 1998 to July 2016, coming to the organization following a 20-year career in public service in New York City. Messinger 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.

Fulata L. Moyo  is a gender justice activist and academic working for the World Council of Church as Programme Executive for Women in Church and Society. For the 2016-2017 academic year she will be a visiting lecturer on Women's Studies and African Religions at Harvard Divinity School. She has been a guest editor for the International Review of Mission (April 2015) and Ecumenical Review (October 2012), and she co-edited Women Writing Africa: Eastern African Region (2007). She received her doctorate from the School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with additional study at Yale University’s Divinity School and Department of Public Health.

Zahra Vieneuve is a program officer for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the Global Fund for Women, one of the world’s leading foundations for women's human rights. Vieneuve is a feminist activist whose work on issues of gender equality, human rights, and interfaith peace has taken her to Switzerland, Kenya, Egypt, and the United States. Prior to joining the Global Fund, Vieneuve collaborated with civil society organizations across MENA in her capacity as a human rights advocate and educator. She holds two master's degrees: one in political science from the University of Geneva and one in international and comparative education from the American University in Cairo. She was awarded the 25th of January Award for Scholarly Excellence for her thesis on gender and religious diversity in Egyptian history textbooks.