Berkley Center

Dena Merriam is Vice Chairman and partner in public relations firm Ruder Finn, Inc., and the founder and convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW). Her work at GPIW aims to create a global platform for women religious and spiritual leaders, and to engage Hindu and Buddhist leadership more actively on the world stage. Merriam began working in the interfaith movement in the late 1990s, when she served as Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations in New York. She previously served as executive editor of Sculpture Review. Merriam holds a MA from Columbia University.