2023 Advisors
Endy Bayuni
Endy M. Bayuni, is an Indonesian journalist with nearly four decades of experience. He is senior editor and advisor to the Board of Editors of the English-language news media The Jakarta Post. He served as its editor-in-chief in 2004-2010 and in 2016-2018. He now writes commentaries on topics such as Indonesia’s transformation to democracy and its international relations, the role of political Islam and the changing media landscape — which are published in The Jakarta Post and international publications, including Nikkei Asia and Strait Times of Singapore.
In May 2020, he was appointed to the inaugural independent Oversight Board for Facebook. He sits on various other boards, including TIFA Foundation, Yayasan Humanis dan Inovasi Sosial (Hivos Indonesia), the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), the Conversation Indonesia, and the International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ).
He is recipient of the East West Center Senior Fellowship at the Washington DC office in 2010, the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2003-2004, and the Jefferson Fellowship at the East West Center of the University of Hawaii in 1999. He received his bachelor of arts degree in economics at Kingston University in the UK in 1981.
Manya Brachear Pashman
Manya Brachear Pashman hosts People of the Pod, an American Jewish Committee (AJC) podcast about global affairs through a Jewish lens, and The Forgotten Exodus, AJC’s limited series on the untold stories of Jews from Arab lands and Iran. As a longtime religion reporter for the Chicago Tribune, she helped chronicle two papal transitions from Rome, progress and pitfalls of interfaith dialogue, and the emerging role of religion in American politics.
From 2016 until 2019, she served as president of the Religion News Association and in 2019 she won RNA’s first place award for Excellence in Religion Reporting for her investigation of misconduct at one of America's most influential megachurches.
She earned a bachelor's degree from Appalachian State University and masters' degrees in journalism and religious studies from Columbia University. She also occasionally teaches religion reporting to undergraduate and graduate journalism students and helps train journalists on what to know when covering contemporary antisemitism. In addition to the Chicago Tribune, she has written for Moment Magazine, The Times of Israel, Time magazine, The Dallas Morning News, Beliefnet.com and the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
Diana Eck
Diana Eck is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies; Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Member of the Faculty of Divinity at Harvard University. Eck’s work in the U.S. focuses especially on the challenges of religious pluralism in a multi-religious society.
Since 1991, she has headed the Harvard Pluralism Project, which explores and interprets religious dimensions of America's new immigration; the growth of Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, and Zoroastrian communities in the United States; and the new issues of religious pluralism and American civil society.
The Pluralism Project's award-winning On Common Ground: World Religions in America, was published in 1997; her book A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation was published in 2001. Her book Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey From Bozeman to Banaras is in the area of Christian theology and interfaith dialogue. It won the Grawemeyer Book Award in 1995, and a 10th-anniversary edition was published in 2003.
Samuel Freedman
Samuel G. Freedman is an award winning author, former columnist and staff reporter for The New York Times, and currently a tenured professor at Columbia University School of Journalism. He is the author of the nine acclaimed books.
Freedman has contributed to The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Daily Beast, New York, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed, Salon, Slate, Chicago Sun-Times, Tablet, The Forward, Ha’aretz, The Undefeated, The Root, and BeliefNet. Most recently, Freedman wrote Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: The Journey From Stage to Screen, the companion book to the film adaptation of August Wilson’s classic play. His book Jew vs. Jew won the National Jewish Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2001 and made the Publishers Weekly Religion Best-Sellers list. As a result of the book, Freedman was named one of the “Forward Fifty” most important American Jews in the year 2000 by the weekly Jewish newspaper The Forward.
Freedman holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which he received in May 1977. He lives in New York with his wife, Christia Chana Blomquist.
Anisa Mehdi
Anisa Mehdi is Executive Director of the Abraham Path Initiative, an NGO that creates walking trails that brings people together to experience the hospitality of the region commonly called “the Middle East.” Her coverage of local, national and global affairs has appeared on CBS, PBS’s Frontline, ABC's Nightline, NPR, and Stratfor.com. She has won two Emmy Awards, a Cine Golden Eagle, and numerous awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Mehdi is the first American to cover the Hajj pilgrimage on location in Saudi Arabia. She produced and directed National Geographic's acclaimed Inside Mecca and directed "The Hajj" for PBS's "Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler."
Mehdi consulted for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. She was a 2009-2010 Fulbright Scholar in Jordan, and serves on the board of the Esalen Institute. Mehdi writes about faith, culture, and politics, about her father, Dr. Mohammad T. Mehdi, an Iraqi-American expert on Palestine, and is an accomplished flutist. She has an MA in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a Certificate in Jewish-Christian Studies from Seton Hall University. Mehdi is an alumna of Wellesley College.
S.E. Cupp
S. E. Cupp is a CNN political commentator and practical conservative with a distinct outlook. Cupp most recently hosted CNN's SE Cupp Unfiltered, a weekly program covering the white-hot intersection of politics and media. Prior to that she led a panel-driven show on the HeadLine News cable network that debated impactful contemporary issues. Leading up to her move to CNN and HLN, Cupp hosted S.E. Cupp's Outside with Insiders, a digital series on CNN.com where she took political insiders to the great outdoors. Cupp also co-hosted Crossfire on CNN, the relaunched political debate program with panelists Newt Gingrich, Stephanie Cutter and Van Jones. Before joining CNN in 2013, Cupp co-hosted MSNBC's roundtable show, The Cycle.
Cupp is a nationally syndicated political columnist, culture critic, author, and consultant. She writes regularly for the New York Daily News, Glamour and CNN.com. Cupp penned Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity and co-authored Why You're Wrong About the Right with Brett Joshpe. She consulted to Apple TV+'s The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell and HBO's hit series, The Newsroom. She has been a contributor to The Blaze's Real News and contributing editor for Townhall Magazine.
A native of Massachusetts, Cupp is a graduate of Cornell University where she serves as an advisory member for their Institute of Politics and Global Affairs and earned a master's degree from New York University. In her free time, Cupp enjoys hunting, fishing, and camping with her family. She is married with one son.
Charles Sykes
Charles J. Sykes is one of the most influential conservatives in Wisconsin. Until he stepped down in December after 23 years, Sykes was one of the state’s top-rated talk show hosts. He is currently an MSNBC contributor.
Sykes is also author of eight books, including A Nation of Victims, Dumbing Down Our Kids, Profscam, The Hollow Men, The End of Privacy, 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School, A Nation of Moochers, and Fail U. The False Promise of Higher Education; and How the Right Lost Its Mind. He was co-editor of the National Review College Guide.
Sykes has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Salon, USA Today, National Review, The Weekly Standard and other national publications. He has appeared on the Today Show, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, PBS, the BBC, and has been profiled on NPR. He has also spoken extensively on university campuses.
Diane Winston
Diane Winston holds the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and teaches on the faculties of Journalism, Communication and Religion.
Her courses examine religion as it relates to journalism, visual media, American history and foreign policy. Her research interests include religion, politics and the news media; media coverage of changing Christianities, and religion and the entertainment media. She is the publisher of Religion Dispatches, an award-winning daily online magazine of religion, politics and culture.
Between 1983 and 1995, Winston covered religion at the Raleigh News and Observer, the Dallas Times Herald and the Baltimore Sun and contributed to the Dallas Morning News. She has won numerous press association awards and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her work in Raleigh, Dallas and Baltimore. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Winston has a Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University; a Master’s degrees from Harvard Divinity School and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and B.A. from Brandeis University.
Farhan Latif
Farhan Latif is President of the El-Hibri Foundation, providing strategic leadership. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer & Director of Policy Impact at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU). During his time at ISPU, Latif worked with White House, Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security officials on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues.
Prior to ISPU, he spent over a decade in higher education working at the intersection of building a culture of philanthropy and enabling access for underrepresented, low income, and first generation students. As a social entrepreneur, he founded Strategic Inspirations, a social impact-consulting firm focused on strengthening the ability of nonprofit organizations to build capacity, create a culture of learning, catalyze innovation through philanthropy, and maximize impact.
As an interfaith leader, Latif worked with state and national faith-based organizations to promote religious understanding and inclusion. He holds an M.A. from Harvard University and a degree in Business Management and Marketing with graduate work in nonprofit management at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.