All members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Network, made up of young professionals applying interfaith skills beyond higher education.
Emerging Leaders
Deepen your interfaith leadership skills by joining a cohort of peers for a yearlong fellowship, and completing a project using principles of interfaith cooperation to directly respond to a need you’ve identified within your community.
To build healthy and thriving communities, our nation needs interfaith leaders who can break barriers and build bridges across differences. Members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Leaders Network successfully collaborate across difference throughout many sectors of society by employing an interfaith lens and leveraging the gifts of America’s religious diversity. Thus, we are proud to support the ongoing leadership development and impact of this network through the Interfaith Innovation Fellowship. The Fellowship awards $5,000 to interfaith leaders with an inspirational vision for social change.
In addition to the $5,000 award, Fellows will network with cohort members and learn from one another’s projects, participate in an intensive in person retreat in Chicago geared toward their professional development, and receive ongoing support to grow their leadership experience through mentorship with senior-level Interfaith America staff. We look forward to celebrating the impactful work of these Fellows who share Interfaith America’s pluralistic vision of a country united around the common good.
All members of Interfaith America’s Emerging Network, made up of young professionals applying interfaith skills beyond higher education.
The Fellowship award is $5,000. Up to $1,000 of the award can be used to support the awardee for their time.
June 15- August 14: Application Period
September 2023- June 2024: Fellowship Period
Priority will be given to applicants that promote Racial Equity through their projects, engage their community and are prepared to share their stories through our online platform.
The Fellowship is intended to support the work of the Emerging Leaders Network to carry out projects that address a community need with an interfaith lens, and to support the recipient’s development as an interfaith leader.
Successful applications will identify evidence for the expressed need and clearly articulate the anticipated outcomes of the project.
Lisa Doi is a community organizer with Tsuru for Solidarity, a national network of Japanese American progressives, and a PhD student in American Studies at Indiana University. Lisa developed a trip for young Japanese and Arab Americans of Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim backgrounds to explore historical sites to learn from the Civil Rights Movement and apply those lessons to today’s political environment.
During her role as a Senior Advisor at America Indivisible, a nonprofit coalition addressing anti-Muslim bigotry by strengthening neighbor-to-neighbor ties in local communities across the United States, Usra Ghazi created a peer-learning council of local government officials committed to inclusion for all. Muslim communities and those perceived to be Muslim (from Sikh, South Asian, Arab, and Black American communities) are faced with hate and discrimination while also being underrepresented and underserved by their local governments. This project equipped public servants in elected, appointed, and professional positions in local government (at the city, state, and county levels) to challenge hate and bigotry more effectively by building interreligious and intercultural understanding and cooperation in their communities and by exploring and adopting inclusive policies and practices in their civic roles.
Casey Jones (he/him) is a Christian lay leader who served as Fellow at Jubilee Year Los Angeles providing case management and housing navigation services to folks experiencing houselessness and active substance abuse. He has nearly a decade of experience in various arenas of the interfaith movement and other faith-informed justice work.
Casey Jones transformed an unused and unwelcoming section of land at a local Christian church and dedicated it to interfaith environmental justice and food security organizing in his neighborhood. His project built an outdoor interfaith chapel, classroom, and community garden with neighbors and partners from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the surrounding Isla Vista community. After it was completed, interested partners were invited to join an interfaith collaborative that continued to meet in the new space and explored the relationship between food, faith, and how we engage our environment for the common good.
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