Niyonu Spann is the director of the music group Tribe 1 and creator of Beyond Diversity 101, a five-day intensive experience grounded in faith that brings people together to acknowledge and manifest oneness. Read an interview with her or read more at her website.
Max Carter just completed a long tenure as director of Friends Center at Guilford College. Max is a recorded Friends minister with interests in the Middle East, the Amish, conscientious objection, and Quaker history. His graduate studies at the Earlham School of Religion and Temple University were in campus ministry and American religious history.
Laura Magnani served as director of AFSC’s Bay Area Healing Justice Program in California and has worked on criminal justice issues since 1971. She received her BA from the University of California in ethnic studies in 1971 and an MA from the Pacific School of Religion in 1982. She has worked on criminal justice issues for AFSC since 1989.
Lori Fernald Khamala is the director of the North Carolina Immigrant Rights Program for the American Friends Service Committee in Greensboro. A native of North Carolina, she grew up in the Charlotte Friends Meeting and later studied Spanish at Guilford College and spent time in Guadalajara, Mexico. She spent nearly eight years advocating for the rights of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in North Carolina and mobilizing the faith and secular community to support farmworker justice.
Scilla Wahrhaftig has a long history of Quaker activism, in England, Zimbabwe and the US. In November 2001 she spent nine months as staff for the Quaker United Nations Office in New York working on the issues arising from 9/11. Since 2003 she has been working as staff Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee Pennsylvania Office. Scilla is a member of Pittsburgh Friends Meeting in Pennsylvania.
Lauren Ballester is a junior studying Materials Science Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She grew up in Philadelphia attending Quaker school for most of her life. She is involved in student activism on campus as a member of Penn for Palestine, Penn BDS and the Penn Haven Housing Cooperative. She recently spent two weeks in Israel/Palestine with Interfaith Peace Builders, connecting with peace activists, families, and communities working to end the occupation and learning how to bring the movement home.
Sandra Tamari is a Palestinian-American and member of the St. Louis Religious Society of Friends. She spends her free time as an organizer with the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and a member of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation Steering Committee. She holds a Master’s degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University.
Jill Anderson was born in Utah, raised in Texas, and lives in Mexico City. She is one of the 213.9 million international immigrants in the world today. Since 2005, she has collaborated with immigrants and refugees in the United States and in Mexico. Her postdoctoral research and writing focus on immigration, globalization, and culture via the stories we tell each other.
I grew up in a household full of music: Spiritual, Religious, Rock and Roll, Gospel, R&B, Soul… I enjoy athletics and have competitively played Soccer for at least 12 years. I’ve run Varsity Track in undergrad for the past 3 years, and I always enjoy a good round of paintball with friends. Along with a double major in Human Development & Social Relations and Spanish & Hispanic Studies, I strive to continue challenging myself academically as I encounter more opportunities to do so—and my time at Earlham College has proven to grant me those.
Peter Lems served as the Program Director for Education and Advocacy on Iraq and Afghanistan for the American Friends Service Committee and the co-coordinator of the Wage Peace campaign. He coordinates and implements educational and advocacy initiatives around Iraq, Afghanistan and U.S. foreign policy. Since 1988, he has worked for a variety of organizations focused on the Arab world, including the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, the Palestine Human Rights Information Center - International, and the Association of Arab-American University Graduates.