Meet Mat Cotton, Race Discourse Officer with the Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs, where he advances racial justice and unity and cultivates a shared vision for the future of the U.S. Deeply rooted in the Bahá’í concept of unity, Mat builds dialogue and collaboration across lines of difference in pursuit of social progress. Mat spends a lot of time in Washington, DC, where his office is based, but he was raised and resides in Chicago, which is also home to the beautiful Bahá’í House of Worship for North America.

Meet Brittany Koteles, Co-Founder and Director of Land Justice Futures, where she accompanies religious communities to discern choices for their land that promote racial and ecological healing. Brittany, who lives two blocks away from Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI, thoughtfully embraces tradition and innovation in her quest to live out love and support others to do the same. A community of Catholic sisters that Brittany and her team accompanied recently returned land to a Native nation, the first land transfer of its kind from a Catholic order.

Meet Dr. Reggie Blount, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Oikos Institute for Social Impact, educator at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, former pastor, and champion of faithful imagination. In his roles at Oikos, Garrett, and beyond, Reggie supports faith leaders to see abundance and possibility in the resources of their communities and uplifts the role of congregations as anchor institutions driving social impact. Reggie resides in the Chicago area, a place he credits with greatly supporting his ministry, teaching, and innovation efforts.

Meet Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, Presbyterian minister, eco-theologian, and Coordinator of the Spanish Climate Justice & Faith online Certification program at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. In addition to teaching eco-theology to people throughout the US and Latin America, Neddy has deployed her passion for faith-rooted environmental justice in a number of ways, including pastoring, community organizing, and co-founding a farm-based organizing and educational non-profit. Neddy currently lives in Florida.

Meet Eunice Lin Nichols, Co-CEO of CoGenerate, where as part of an intergenerational leadership team, she champions and supports the coming together of generations to co-create a better world. But it’s more than just a job for Eunice, who lives into the power and potential of intergenerational engagement in all aspects of her life, including her spiritual practice and even when delighting in her personal passion for music. As innoFaith has partnered with Eunice and CoGenerate, we’ve witnessed how her deep curiosity and authenticity are gifts to her personal and professional communities.

Meet Ibrahim Anli, Executive Director of the Rumi Forum, writer, teacher, convener, and interfaith champion and innovator. Ibrahim brings a deep curiosity, robust spirituality, strong intellect, and joyful openness to shaping interfaith engagement that engages all and cultivates a better world. Originally from Turkey, Ibrahim now lives in Haymarket, VA, and works in Washington, DC.

Meet Rev. Abi Foerster, Pastor of Community of Faith United Methodist Church in Herndon, VA. Shaped by her faith and own experiences as a child, and then as minister and parent, Pastor Abi brings an expansive ethic of inclusion to her work. Deeply committed to young people, she is currently launching a new initiative to engage young people across faith lines to develop their own capacities as inclusive leaders.

Meet Seedy Njie, community health professional, bridge-builder, and interfaith leader. Originally from the Gambia, Seedy has made Charlotte, NC, home, though he is currently sojourning in Washington, DC, as a Fellow at the Abrahamic House, a multi-faith incubator for social change. Seedy is also an Interfaith America Innovation Fellow.

Meet Jonathan Hayden, Vice President of Operations at Leadership Foundations, a faith-based network that drives spiritual and social change in cities throughout the world through the unique lens of envisioning cities as playgrounds. With Jonathan’s leadership at their Colangelo Carpenter Innovation Center, Leadership Foundations supports churches to, among other things, move from charity-based models to systemic change. They are also working to equip young people as social and spiritual leaders for their cities. After 17 years in Washington, DC, Jonathan and his family are now enjoying a slower pace of life in Chapel Hill, NC.

Meet Scott Rechler and Sarah Beller, partners in life and, as enshrined in their Jewish marriage contract, in cultivating a more just world. Bringing about social change is never a solo endeavor, so we are thrilled to introduce Scott and Sarah in our first joint feature. Both Scott and Sarah live out their Jewish values with deep passion and commitment in their personal and professional lives.

Meet Chelsea Spyres, Pastor and Executive Director of Riverfront Ministries and the associated Wilmington Kitchen Collective in Wilmington, Delaware, which she has called home for five years now since returning to her native Delaware. Although Riverfront Ministries has a unique model without a physical church of its own, when a local organization wanted to start an incubator for small culinary businesses, Chelsea saw an opportunity. Realizing that industrial kitchens in traditional churches sit empty most of the time, Chelsea and partners innovated the Collective to put those kitchens, and various other supports, at the disposal of culinary entrepreneurs. Overcoming a lot of doubt and skepticism from churches about sharing space in this way, the Collective has grown into a successful model of faith communities partnering with other community organizations to use church assets to meet a need and drive economic development.

Meet Sepi Djavaheri, Director, Community Mobilizers at the UJA Federation of New York. Having fled the Iranian revolution at an early age with her family, landing in Germany and eventually the U.S., Sepi has channeled her Jewish faith and the experience of being “other” into a focus on building connection and community to combat the social isolation and loneliness that so many in our communities experience.

Meet Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes, Inaugural Director of the Technology, Innovation & Digital Engagement Lab (TIDEL) Fellowship at Union Theological Seminary, as well as pastor, author, public theologian, coach, brand strategist, and more. Faith, leadership, and innovation have been threads through Dr. Gabby’s numerous and impressive endeavors, and continue to guide her in her latest role supporting faith sector leaders to creatively use technology to help address critical challenges.

Meet Dr. Rucha Kaur, Managing Director of Education and Community Development for the Sikh Coalition and social justice champion. Rooted in her Sikh values, Rucha really puts the community in community organizing, connecting with people across the country who are tapping into their own faith values to create change. Rucha lives in New Jersey but feels at home in many places thanks to all the relationships she has nurtured through her work.

Meet Nate Harding, founder of the Global Flourishing Catalyst Coalition. Nate, who is currently starting his MBA at Oxford University, has been a social impact strategy consultant with Bridgespan, an international education and exchange program leader with World Learning, a leadership coach, and various other roles, including Contributing Editor at innoFaith. Raised in an interracial Christian family while influenced and nurtured by a diverse religious community in Los Angeles, Nate channels all of these diverse influences toward his vision of a world where everyone flourishes.

Meet Victoria Strang, who holds the first full-time position at Human Rights Watch focused on building faith partnerships. Passionate about helping secular organizations develop authentic relationships with faith communities to advance work to create a more just world, Victoria previously did faith outreach for the Humane Society and organizing for the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty. Victoria, who lives in Rhode Island, is also an innoFaith Contributing Editor.

Meet Kimberly Daniel, Co-founder and Project Director of DO GOOD X and talented Brand and Communications Consultant. Kimberly, who hails from a small city outside of Myrtle Beach, SC, and has lived for over 16 years in and around Atlanta, GA, passionately uplifts and supports underrepresented innovators. She is also co-author of A Way Out of No Way: an Approach to Christian Innovation and an innoFaith Contributing Editor.

Meet Yasmine Tujjar, university student, art lover, and interfaith changemaker. Growing up in a Syrian family in the US, practicing Islam but also attending a Christian school, she developed a passion for decreasing polarization among religious communities. Yasmine, who goes between her home in Maryland and her university in Montreal, Canada, is also an innoFaith Contributing Editor.

Meet Francesca Reznik, Program Manager at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and committed climate activist based in Boston. Influenced by both her Jewish values and her own non-theistic spiritual practice, Francesca recently completed her Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School and is focused on creating climate transition solutions that benefit everyone. Fun facts: Francesca is half Mexican and fluent in Spanish and co-founded an ecotheology fellowship while at Harvard Divinity. She is also an innoFaith Contributing Editor.

Meet Gopal Patel, committed environmental advocate who is elevating the relevance and power of faith to help address the world’s challenges through his new initiative FutureFaith. Gopal previously founded the Hindu environmental organization, Bhumi Global, and has been mobilizing faith communities in support of climate and environmental goals for over fifteen years. Based in the New York metropolitan area (specifically, New Jersey), Gopal formerly served as co-chair of the United Nations Multi-faith Advisory Council and has served as advisor to numerous organizations as he works to bring faith voices to policy tables around the world.