Berkley Center

Dr. Amnon Albeck is a professor of chemistry and head of the Julius Spokojny Bioorganic Chemistry Laboratory at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He also serves as the rector of the university. His research focuses on enzyme catalytic mechanisms and inhibition and organic synthesis of peptides and peptidomimetics.

Sheikh Ra’ed Bader is a senior Islamic authority (mufti) of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement. In addition to serving as a leading religious authority and founding member of the Institute for Rulings on Sharia Law and Islamic Studies, Sheikh Ra’ed is also the director of the Adam Center for Interreligious Dialogue and serves as a senior insider religious mediator advancing the Religious Peace Initiative in the Middle East.

Dr. Gil Diesendruck is a professor of psychology, head of Interdisciplinary Studies, and director of the Language and Cognitive Development Lab at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. His research interests include the origins of racism, the development of morality, and the acquisition of cultural norms. He has published over 70 articles and has served as co-editor for several journals.

Dr. Jumanah Essa-Hadad is a research associate in the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in Israel. Her fields of research include lifestyle medicine, medical education, child injury prevention, and health of minority and disadvantaged populations. She has previously worked for several civil society and non-governmental organizations at the grassroots level to promote public health programs.

Sarah Hess is a public health expert skilled in global public health policy, health emergency preparedness, infectious diseases, community engagement, and communication. She currently serves as a World Health Organization technical officer with the Health Emergencies Program on High Impact Events Preparedness. Sarah also works in the “Infodemic Management” pillar of the COVID-19 response, leading work on partnerships and community empowerment.

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.

His Excellency Fr. Youssef Matta is the Melkite Greek Archbishop of Acre, Haifa, Nazareth, and the Galilee. He formerly served in several other administrative positions in the Archparchy of Acre and was also previously a teacher at the seminary of the Greek Catholic Patriarchate in Lebanon.

Rabbi Michael Melchior is the founder and president of the Mosaica, an organization in Israel that works to cultivate a culture of conflict resolution, dialogue, and consensus building. Rabbi Melchior is also an activist who has helped to establish several other civil society organizations in Israel, a former Knesset member, the honorary chief rabbi of Norway, and the rabbi of a synagogue in south Jerusalem.