Emerging Clergy Cohort
At a time when there are deep divisions in so many areas of life, it is critical to have leaders with relationships across all faiths and life stances, and who are trained to share their understandings and their relationships with their congregations.
Tri-Faith Initiative is pleased to announce the second cohort of the Emerging Clergy Seminar to Advance Interfaith Relationships and Understanding. The theme for 2025 is “Creative Fabulations in World-Making: Solidarity Across Difference.” In 2025, the cohort of 10 emerging leaders across diverse faith and religious traditions are meeting together and developing relationships built over time with trust. The goal of this cohort is to equip these emerging leaders with learning and skill, and the ability to bring these relationships home to their communities. Cohort members and co-directors include religious identities such as Judaism, Christianity (Catholic and Protestant denominations), Islam, Buddhism, Spiritual, Multifaith, and Humanist.
CHAPLAIN FATIMA ALI is deeply dedicated to interfaith dialogue, Muslim life, and caring for the hearts of others, and has found her heart’s calling in Muslim Chaplaincy. She hopes to create a world that celebrates the rich cultural mosaic within the Muslim community and embraces the multi-faith neighborhood. Chaplain Ali is the inaugural Muslim chaplain at Colby College, where she supports a vibrant Muslim community. Prior to this role, Chaplain Ali served as the Director of Fundraising & Sponsorships at Muslim Culture Con, a nonprofit she co-founded to support the personal and collective growth of young adult leaders in the national African-American Muslim community. She received The Mosque Cares’ 2023 “Muslim Young Adult Female of the Year Award”, for her numerous contributions to the community. Chaplain Ali is a Dual Masters’ Student pursuing Interreligious Studies and Islamic Chaplaincy at Hartford International University of Religion and Peace (HIU), where she supports the rich student body as a member of HIU’s Student Care Team.
GAIL CANTOR (she/her) has been the Director of Belonging and Spiritual Life at Endicott College for the last 7 years. Before that, she had a 40 year career as a seminar leader, life coach, and corporate consultant bringing spiritual ideas to practical issues and concerns. She is an Ordained Interfaith Minister and an Interfaith Chaplain as well. She also runs a program called the Inspired Circle bringing people together for community building and mindfulness practice.
REV. ZACK DE BRUYNE is a husband to Malorie, and father to Arie and Otto. An Ordained Protestant Minister and Director of the Faith and Life Department at Brock University, in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He has a deep love for creating interfaith spaces where students of all religious, spiritual, and secular identities can flourish in their belief-system while attending University.
CYNTHIA HRUBY Currently lives in Omaha Nebraska. Professionally, she’s been a classroom teacher, youth and young adult minister, college campus minister. She’s in pre-retirement as a substitute teacher for grade 4 to 8 and sometimes high school depending on the subject. She grew up on a farm and rural Nebraska and completely values working with the soil. Gardening and caring for flowerbeds is her volunteer work where she lives.
MANATO JANSEN (he/him) serves as the Director of Residential Community at the Pres House campus ministry and apartment community at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Manato served in multiple hospital and college chaplaincy roles in Boston during his time at Harvard Divinity School (MDiv ’22) and was ordained in the American Baptist Churches – USA tradition. He also serves as homilist and presider at Holy Wisdom Monastery and leads ecumenical services at St. Mary’s Care Center in Madison. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, his upbringing across Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian communities has shaped his spirituality and passion for interfaith dialogue and solidarity across differences. Manato is passionate about cultivating LGBTQ+ affirming communities in Christian spaces and providing spaces for students to engage in topics around death and grief.
FRANCES LEE (they/them) is the inaugural Director of Spiritual Life at Sarah Lawrence College. They are a sacred space convener, ritual innovator, and essayist. Frances received their Master of Divinity (MDiv) from Harvard Divinity School in 2024, and a Master of Arts (MA) in Cultural Studies from the University of Washington Bothell in 2018.
SARAH LIVSCHITZ (she/they) is a fourth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is passionate about building joyous Jewish communities across the Diaspora. Sarah currently works at the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles in their Ensuring the Jewish Future (Young Adults) division. Before starting at the Federation, Sarah was a chaplain intern at UCLA Hospital in Santa Monica and spent two years working as the student rabbi for Congregation Shir Ami in the San Francisco-Bay Area, where she especially loved running the bnei mitzvah program.
IVAN MAYERHOFER (he/him) is an ordained Dharma and meditation teacher in a Korean heritage Seon (Zen) Buddhist lineage. His ordination master is the Ven. Haju Sunim at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he began to practice while a philosophy graduate student at the University of Michigan. Currently, he serves as the Associate Chaplain for Buddhist Programs, Director of the Davidson Meditation Initiative, and Interfaith Coordinator at Davidson College. At Davidson College, he gets the rare and awesome opportunity to be a Buddhist presence on campus, lead Dharma and meditation programs, lead meditation retreats, and take students on Buddhist pilgrimages to local temples and international ones too. Originally, Iván is from Southern California, where his parents immigrated from Germany and Mexico.
TIM RAGLAND J.D. (he/him) is a lawyer, nonprofit executive, and former mayor dedicated to public service and civic leadership. As the first Black mayor of Talladega, Alabama, he led the city through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, issuing one of the state’s first stay-at-home orders and securing a $2 million surplus. Currently serving as Vice President of Policy and Governmental Affairs at Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), he champions policies to keep young people out of institutional placements. A graduate of law school, an adjunct professor at Talladega College, and an MDiv student at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, Ragland integrates law, policy, and theology to advance social justice.
RABBI ROXANNE J.S. SHAPIRO (she/her) serves as the Director of Lifelong Learning at Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. She was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She is a graduate of Union College in Schenectady, NY and additionally holds the degrees of Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity. Her focus throughout her rabbinate has been on education for all ages and on building interfaith understanding. Before coming to Indianapolis, she worked at the Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis, United Hebrew Congregation (St. Louis, MO) and Congregation Shalom (Milwaukee, WI). While serving her congregation in St. Louis, she collaborated with leaders from the Interfaith Partnership, a UCC church, and the Islamic Foundation, to create “Sprouts of Peace” – a monthly learning community for elementary school aged children and their parents.
THE EMERGING CLERGY COHORT DIRECTORS:
REV. DR. ZARIA DAVIS
(she/her) is an advocate, leadership development and nonprofit consultant, spiritual care provider, and educator. Zaria is ordained through the United Church of Christ. Rev. Dr. Zaria holds a DSW (Social Work) from Capella University, MSW from the University of Cincinnati, MDiv from Eden Theological Seminary, and BA in Sociology from Wilberforce University. She is trained in Mental Health First Aid and is a certified reiki practitioner, restorative justice practitioner, and healing circles facilitator focusing on trauma and harm. Zaria is passionate about restoration and healing for individuals impacted by oppressive systems. She has explored issues such as trauma with women impacted by the criminal legal system and post-incarceration syndrome (PICS). Rev. Dr. Davis provides coaching, consulting, presentations, facilitation, and public speaking engagements throughout the country through New Direction Coaching & Consulting, LLC and restorative practice and wellness work through Center for Spiritual Care & Healing.
DR. SAFIYYAH KAI EL-AMIN (she/her) BCC, Fellow, Preaching and Womanist Theology and Preaching,Assistant Professor of Religion at Lane College Jackson, TN and CEO of THE SEED Program by Kai, Editor of SproutnBloom and organization whose focus is to promote in praxis and policy social and environmental justice through religious pluralism
ANTHONY CRUZ PANTOJAS MATS, MALS, BCC (they/them), serves as the Humanist Chaplain and Coordinator of Africana Spirituality at Tufts University, fostering ethico-naturalist inquiry and leading community-driven projects. An advocate for Global South Humanism(s) and Freethought, their writings on meaning-making, ethics, and existential care are featured in leading journals. Recognized for advancing interbelief, civic, and secular dialogue, they co-founded the Kindling the Humanist Spark Summit in 2024, a vibrant community of practice supporting mentorship, creativity, and care for emerging humanist and secular young leaders across North America.
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