Berkley Center

Dr. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana is an affiliate researcher at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. She previously served as associate director and assistant professor of the practice at Georgetown University’s M.A. Program in Conflict Resolution. Her work has addressed Muslim women’s peacebuilding initiatives, religion and conflict resolution, Islamic approaches to war and peace, and Islam and nonviolence.

Elisabet le Roux is a research director at the unit for religion and development research at Stellenbosch University. As a faith and development expert, she does research across the globe, focusing particularly on gender and gender-based violence as well as faith communities in conflict-affected settings, patriarchy within faith communities, and interfaith peace and conflict.

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.

Philip McDonagh is adjunct professor and director of the Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations at Dublin City University. He previously served as Irish ambassador to India, the Holy See, Finland, Russia, and the OSCE.

Ruby Quantson Davis is the senior learning and impact adviser at Peace Direct. She is a development practitioner with global experience in public policy research and dialogue, electoral politics, deliberative conversations and communication, citizens’ advocacy, community and institutional development. Ruby Quantson Davis was previously a long serving staff member of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), a leading think tank in Ghana.

Christine Schliesser is a senior lecturer at Zurich University and Fribourg University and a research fellow at Stellenbosch University. Her research interests include public theology, peace and reconciliation studies, and religion and the SDGs. She is author of On the Significance of Religion for the SDGs. An Introduction (Routledge) and co-editor of the interreligious book series Religion Matters (Routledge).