Our People
Meet the people who lead, administer, and advise the Center.
Director
Barbara A. McGraw
Barbara A. McGraw, Founding Center Director, is Professor of Social Ethics, Law, and Public Life at Saint Mary's College of California, and is the author and editor of works on religion and public engagement and interfaith leadership. Previously a Skadden Arps corporate finance attorney, she holds a Ph.D. in Religion and Social Ethics and J.D. from the University of Southern California. See her detailed bio here.
Sarah Freedman
Sarah Freedman provides administrative support to the Center. She holds a Masters in Leadership for Social Justice from Saint Mary's College of California and is a nonprofit communications and community engagement professional.
Center's Saint Mary's College Internal Advisory Board
Julie Ford
Julie Ford, Associate Professor of Performing Arts, Director of Vocal-Choral Activities and the Music Program at Saint Mary’s College of California, is a classical and jazz vocalist, pianist, and conductor with an extensive history in interfaith collaborations. She is a certified Master Teacher of Estill Voice Training (a non-genre biased vocal pedagogy) with a scholarship focus on the intentional, educative, integration of global musical styles. She holds a Master of Music (Eastman School of Music) and a Doctoral in Musical Arts (University of Oklahoma) degrees in Conducting.
Emily Hause
Emily Hause is Professor of Psychology. She is an expert on organizational psychology, as well as on assessment and survey methods. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Ohio State University.
Makiko Imamura
Makiko Imamura, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Communication and co-director of Faculty Development. Dr. Imamura specializes in Intercultural Communication and is the author or co-author of many works in that discipline. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas.
Yuan Li
Yuan Li, Associate Professor of Organizational Theory, Saint Mary’s College of California, works on semiotic and rhetorical conceptions of organizations and institutions. She has published in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Management Studies, among others. She holds a Ph.D. (Management and Organizations) from the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.
Julie Park
Julie Park is a Tutor in the Integral Program. She has recently written on Homer, Aeschylus, Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Nietzsche, Thomas Mann, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and is the 2019 recipient of the Brother O. DeSales Perez Award for Excellence in Collegiate Seminar. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine.
Aaron Dickinson Sachowitz
Aaron Dickinson Sachowitz (AKA Sachs) Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Media Technologies and Culture and Director of the January Term program at Saint Mary’s College of California. An award-winning author, Dr. Sachowitz specializes in the intersection of media technologies and culture with a primary concern for the examination of power, particularly as it relates to traditionally marginalized positions.
Grete Stenersen
Grete Stenersen is Adjunct Associate Professor who teaches in Collegiate Seminar on campus, as well as in the LEAP Program and the BA in Leadership Studies. M.A., Graduate Theological Union. She has written and presented on death, dying, grief, and religion.
Paul Zarnoth
Paul Zarnoth, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology. He is an expert on cognitive style, confidence, and social decision making, with many publications and presentations on the topic. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Center's External Advisory Board
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DIANA L. ECK Diana L. Eck is Director of The Pluralism Project and Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Frederic Wertham Professor of Law and Psychology in Society at Harvard University. She is the author of many books on religious pluralism and is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton and the National Endowment for the Humanities for her work on American religious pluralism and the American Academy of Religion’s Martin Mary Award for the Public Understanding of Religion. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in the Comparative Study of Religion. |
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EBOO PATEL Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. He was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Council of the Obama White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Initiatives. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize, and named to the Top 50 Power and Influence List by The NonProfit Times, he is the author of numerous books on interreligious understanding and engagement and is a frequent speaker in prestigious venues on those topics, including TED and the Nobel Peace Prize Forum. As a Rhodes scholarship recipient, he holds a doctorate in the sociology of Religion from Oxford University. |
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BR. GERARD RUMMERY Brother Gerard is an Australian member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. Fluent in French, Spanish, Italian and German, he served two periods on the staff of the International Lasallian Center in Room, which he directed from 1982-1986. Twice elected to the General Council of the De La Salle Christian Brothers (1986-1993 and 1993-2000), he has worked with displace member of his congregation all over the world. In the United States, he is a foundation presenter of the Buttimer Institute and the Lasallian Leadership Institute. He conducted post-graduate studies at London University and holds a doctorate from Lancaster University, specializing in the study of world religions. |
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KENNETH D. WALD Kenneth D. Wald is emeritus Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Samuel R. "Bud" Shorstein Professor of American Jewish Culture & Society, and former director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida. He is the author of numerous books and articles on religion and politics in the United States, as well as serving as editor of the Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics for Cambridge University Press. He has been a Fulbright Professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting scholar at several prestigious universities, including Harvard University and Haifa University (Israel). He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Washington University-St. Louis. |