Bridging Religious Divides: Women's Role in Building Bridges

In this dynamic panel discussion, we bring together three distinguished leaders who have dedicated their careers to advancing interfaith dialogue, cultural diplomacy, and the protection of religious freedom across the globe. Mariah Mercer from the U.S. Department of State, LouAnn Sabatier from FoRB Women's Alliance, and Debbie Almontaser from Bridging Cultures and Groups share a common commitment to fostering understanding and cooperation among diverse communities.

This session will explore the unique perspectives and strategies these women employ in their work, from shaping international policy to grassroots community engagement. Attendees will gain insights into the critical role of women in navigating complex cultural landscapes, promoting religious freedom, and building bridges between diverse groups. Through their experiences, the panelists will highlight the challenges and successes of leading change in a world where cultural and religious divides often create barriers to peace and cooperation.

Join us for an inspiring conversation that not only underscores the importance of women in leadership but also provides actionable takeaways for those working to build more inclusive and harmonious communities.

Join us for an insightful lunch keynote featuring Dr. Valerie Hudson from Texas A&M University, a leading scholar in international affairs and gender equality. In this thought-provoking address, Dr. Hudson will explore the often-overlooked truth that true women's equality must be rooted in the home and community before it can be fully realized in the workplace.

Drawing on her extensive research and experience, Dr. Hudson will argue that the foundations of gender equality are laid within the family unit and local communities, where societal norms and values are first established. She will discuss how empowering women in these fundamental spaces can create a ripple effect, leading to broader societal change and greater equality in all areas of life, including the professional sphere.

This keynote will challenge attendees to rethink conventional approaches to gender equality and consider how personal and communal efforts can drive lasting change. Dr. Hudson's compelling insights will inspire a deeper commitment to fostering environments where women can thrive, starting where it matters most—at home.

Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with one of the foremost voices on women's empowerment and to learn how we can all contribute to a more equitable world, beginning in our own communities.

In this compelling afternoon panel, four distinguished leaders will share their personal experiences and case studies, offering valuable insights into how to maintain hope and build resilience while pursuing realistic objectives in the quest for peace and justice. Featuring Susan Madsen from A Bolder Way Forward, Julia Schiwal from the United States Institute of Peace, Schika McBean Okosi from Bahá'ís of the United States, and Katrina Lantos Swett from the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, this session will explore what peaceful steps forward look like in practice.

Each panelist brings a unique perspective from their work in promoting peace, human rights, and justice across different contexts. Through their stories, attendees will learn about the challenges and successes of leading change in a world often fraught with conflict and division. The discussion will focus on practical strategies for fostering resilience, maintaining hope, and setting achievable goals that can drive sustainable progress.

Participants will walk away with a deeper understanding of how to navigate the complexities of peacebuilding, informed by the real-world experiences of women who are at the forefront of this critical work. This session is essential for anyone committed to creating lasting positive change in their communities and beyond.

Join us for an engaging conversation that will inspire and equip you to take peaceful, effective steps toward a more just and harmonious world.

Dr. Debbie Almontaser is an internationally recognized, award-winning educator, speaker and authority on cross cultural understanding. She is an influential community leader and the Founder and CEO of Bridging Cultures Group, Inc.

Dr. Almontaser was the founding and former principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, NY. A twenty-five-year veteran of the NYC Public School System, she taught special education, and inclusion, trained teachers in literacy, and served as a multicultural specialist and diversity advisor. Currently, she is the Board President of the Muslim Community Network (www.mcnny.org). She frequently lectures, serves on panels and facilitates teacher and public workshops on cultural diversity, conflict resolution, Arab Culture, Islam, Muslims in America, interfaith coalition building and youth leadership at schools, universities, libraries, museums, faith-based organizations, churches, synagogues, as well as national and international conferences.

Dr. Almontaser was a consultant for CAMBA, a New York based nonprofit, on The Diversity Project. She also served as the consultant and advisor for Nickelodeon’s Nick Jr. Muslim American Series; Independent Production Fund on the Islam Project (producers of Muslims and Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet PBS Productions); Islam Access Project (Channel 13 WNET); and Educators for Social Responsibility on cultural matters and the Interfaith Center of NYC on religious diversity issues.

Dr. Almontaser co-designed and developed a curriculum for the Muslim Communities Project, Columbia University titled “Re-Embracing Diversity in NYC Public Schools: Educational Outreach for Muslim Sensitivity and for Educators for Social Responsibility/Metro, Arab Peoples: Past and Present.” Both curricula engage students to develop interpersonal and intercultural understanding based on respect for ethnic and religious diversity. They also engage students to become culturally sensitive and aware of bias and bigotry and how to combat such behaviors.

A member of the steering committee for A Community of Many Worlds: Arab-Americans at the Museum of the City of New York and on the Advisory Board for the Children’s Museum of Manhattan exhibit, America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far, Dr. Almontaser’s leadership and expertise are frequently utilized by both public and private organizations.

In 2005, Dr. Almontaser spearheaded the inauguration of Arab Heritage Week in New York City. She is also the “go to person” on cultural and religious diversity issues for Borough President Eric Adams, the Mayor’s office of Immigrant Affairs, New York Police Department and New York City Council members. She also sits on the Public Advocate Tish James’ Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh Task Force to Combat Hate. Dr. Almontaser is a founding board member of The Dialogue Project, Brooklyn Borough President’s New Diversity Task Force and board advisor for the Same Difference Interfaith Alliance. Dr. Almontaser served on the boards of Youth Bridge NY, Women In Islam, Inc., and Saba: The Association of Yemeni Americans. She is a co-founder of Brooklyn Bridges, the September 11th Curriculum Project, We Are All Brooklyn, and Women Against Islamophobia and Racism (WAIR).

She currently sits on the boards of Emerge National, Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee National, American Muslim Women PAC, and The Therapy and Learning Center Preschool in Brooklyn.

Dr. Almontaser was a featured speaker at the 2016 National Democratic Convention and has been featured on the front page of the New York Times and profiled in Time Magazine, Newsweek, NY1 and Daily News.

Dr. Almontaser received a BA from St. Francis College, a MS from Adelphi University and Ed.D from Fordham University. She is a Revson Fellowship Scholar and alumna of Columbia University’s Revson Fellows Program.

Since September 11, Dr. Almontaser and her family have opened their home to people from across the country to have a social exchange that lends itself to developing an understanding of Arabs and Muslims in New York City. She also organized numerous interfaith and cultural events to develop cross-cultural understanding across New York City, such as the Children of Abraham Peace Walk. This work has led to travel in order to share her peace-building work nationally and internationally in Canada, Russia, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Denmark, Netherlands, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kazakhstan, and Portugal.

Julia Schiwal is a program officer for the Religion and Inclusive Societies program and the Disruptive Technologies program at USIP. On the team, she leads the religious women negotiating on the frontlines and geopolitics of religion and soft power research projects. Before joining USIP, she worked at George Washington University and volunteered with the Xinjiang Victims Database. Her research interests include history, law, and society — with a particular focus on how people engage religion and technology. She has a master’s degree in imperial and colonial studies from George Washington University and a bachelor’s in global humanities and religions from the University of Montana.

As Principal and Lead Consultant at Sabatier Consulting, for 30 years Sabatier has led a global consulting consortium of professionals experienced in publishing and communications across all platforms. Equipped with industry knowledge, business savvy, and creative spirit, she and her team have completed more than 300 assignments for nonprofits, associations, companies, and the U.S. government. In addition to consulting, Sabatier serves as the Director of Communications for 21Wilberforce. Early in her career, Sabatier served in senior management for publishing operations in the U.S. and globally.

During the last decade, Sabatier launched and continues to publish the Congressional International Religious Freedom Scorecard. She is a co-author of both the 20th and 25th Anniversary Retrospectives of the International Religious Freedom Act. Sabatier co-chairs the International Religious Freedom Women's Working Group.

In 2021, she co-founded FoRB Women's Alliance, a community of individuals, NGOs, and faith groups working to change the narrative around women and Freedom of Religion or Belief. FoRB Women's Alliance strives to better understand current and emerging issues, highlight trends, tell compelling stories, and advance solutions. As an accelerator, the Alliance focuses on increasing the impact of existing initiatives that focus on the intersection of women and FoRB (both the vulnerabilities and opportunities).

Mariah Mercer has served as Deputy to the Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom and Deputy Director of the Office of International Religious Freedom since 2021, where she leads a team of experts promoting freedom of religion and belief for all as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy.

Ms. Mercer has 20 years of experience in communications and human rights. Previous roles in the office have included Unit Chief for Near East Affairs, Unit Chief for East Asia Pacific, Deputy Coordinator for the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, and Senior Advisor for atrocity prevention. Ms. Mercer joined the State Department as an intelligence analyst and served as senior human rights analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s Office of the Geographer and Global Issues.  She focused on human rights in conflict and post-conflict settings, with expertise in authoritarian and closed countries, including Burma, China, and Syria.

Before joining the U.S. government, Ms. Mercer was a journalist with the Findlay Publishing Company.  She won several Associated Press awards for her work, including for best features reporting.  She also worked as a media relations coordinator at First Step: Family Violence Intervention Center. Ms. Mercer received a B.A. in political science and creative writing from Miami University and M.A. in International Affairs from the Australian National University. She was born and raised in Findlay, Ohio.

In 2019, after working with the Yazidis in Iraq, Rachel observed the humanitarian gap for religious minority groups that have experienced genocide, particularly in communities where freedom of religion or belief is violated, ignored, or deemed unimportant. Rachel founded Bellwether International in London, UK to respond to pre- and post-genocide communities who have experienced severe violations of freedom of religion or belief. 

Our model is to recruit locally and implement sustainably. As such, we rely on local partners and community project leaders to collaborate on holistic solutions that ensure peace and stability

for years to come. Protecting freedom of religion or belief for one is protecting human rights for all. 

Dr. Susan R. Madsen is the Karen Haight Huntsman Endowed Professor of Leadership in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. She is also the Founding Director of the Utah Women & Leadership Project, which focuses on strengthening the impact of Utah girls and women. Through the years, Professor Madsen has written a host of Utah research and policy briefs and snapshots, reports, and editorials. She is also leading a statewide societal change movement titled “A Bolder Way Forward.” Madsen is also a well-known global scholar, publishing nine books and hundreds of articles, chapters, and reports. Madsen’s research has been featured in the U.S. News and World Report, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Parenting Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, and she is a regular contributor to Forbes. She speaks globally, and in recent years has done keynotes in Ireland, Costa Rica, the United Arab Emirates, England, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, and other countries. She serves on or advises many nonprofit, community, and education boards and committees, including the Utah Governor’s strategic initiatives, Envision Utah, South Davis Communities that Care, Utah Financial Empowerment Coalition, Women’s Work Utah, and others. Madsen received a bachelor’s degree from BYU, master’s from Portland State University, and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Valerie Hudson, University Distinguished Professor, joined the faculty of the Bush School in 2012 as the holder of the George H. W. Bush Chair. An expert on international security and foreign policy analysis as well as gender and security, she received her PhD in political science at The Ohio State University and comes to Texas A&M University from a senior faculty position at Brigham Young University. Hudson directs the Bush School’s Program on Women, Peace, and Security.

In 2009, Foreign Policy named her one of the top 100 Most Influential Global Thinkers. Her coauthored book Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population, and the research it presents, received major attention from the media with coverage in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, BBC, CNN, and numerous other outlets. The book also received two national book awards. Another coauthored book, Sex and World Peace, published by Columbia University Press, was named by Gloria Steinem as one of the top three books on her reading list. Another award-winning book, with Patricia Leidl, is The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy, published in June 2015. Her newest coauthored book is The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide (Columbia University Press, 2020). She was also named a Distinguished Scholar of Foreign Policy Analysis as well as a Distinguished Scholar of Political Demography and Geography by the International Studies Association.

Dr. Hudson has developed a nation-by-nation database on women, the WomanStats Database, that has triggered both academic and policy interest (the latter includes its use by both the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and various agencies of the United Nations). Using this data, Hudson and her co-principal investigators from the WomanStats Project have published a wide variety of empirical work linking the security of women to the security of states, with research appearing in International Security, American Political Science Review, Journal of Peace Research, Political Psychology, and Politics and Gender.

Dr. Hudson offers courses on women and nations (the foundations course for the Women, Peace, and Security concentration), foreign policy analysis, and a capstone on Women, Peace, and Security. Throughout her career, Dr. Hudson has demonstrated a strong commitment to collaboration with other scholars both in her own field and in other disciplines and has received significant research grants, including grants from the US Department of Defense’s Minerva Initiative and the National Science Foundation, to support her work in international affairs. Her research and teaching experience is also complemented by three major teaching awards and numerous research awards, and she was awarded an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. She was also a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Australian National University in early 2017.

Hudson served as vice president of the International Studies Association for 2011-2012. She is a founding editorial board member of Foreign Policy Analysis, and also serves or has served on the editorial boards of The American Political Science Review, Politics and Gender, the American Journal of Political Science, and International Studies Review. More information can be found on her professional website vmrhudson.org

Dr. Yael Admi and Reem Hajajre, Co-Founders, Women Wage Peace & 2024 Times Magazine Women of the Year recipients

Thursday, September 26 Women's Role in Bridging Religious Divides
Saturday, November 11 Global Changemakers