Joshua Ellsworth is a forester and international development practitioner with over 25 years of experience in the fields of sustainable development, ecological restoration, and social change and innovation education. He is particularly interested in how to plan and implement social, organizational, and environmental change in complex multi-stakeholder systems. 

Rabbi Yitzchok Adler has been the spiritual leader of Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford since 1995, and before then he served communities in Savannah (GA), Chattanooga (TN) and Jacksonville (FL).

Dr. Okan Dogan embarked on his Islamic studies journey in Turkey and finished with a Ph.D. in Islamic Studes at Hartford International University. His specializations encompass Qur’anic recitation, Islamic legal history, and Christian-Muslim relations.

Rev. Dr. Edward Duffy is our resident Greek expert. He has taught New Testament Greek at HIU since 2005. The Rev. Dr. Duffy is also a pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Fairfield, CT, which has a multicultural partnership with three congregations, Korean, Haitian, and Brazilian. 

Zahra Ayubi is an associate professor of religion at Dartmouth College. She specializes in women and gender in premodern and contemporary Islamic ethics and has published on gendered concepts of ethics, justice, and religious authority, and on Muslim feminist thought and American Muslim women's experiences.