Board of Directors
Wendy Sinton has been a community volunteer for over 30 years. She has served on the board of the Ecumenical Hunger Program (EHP) in East Palo Alto and has been active in the Palo Alto schools, Association for Senior Day Health, El Camino Youth Symphony and worked at Palo Alto High School as a Career Counselor. Wendy is a Trustee of the Sinton Family Fund. She is a member of Congregation Beth Am. Wendy has a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a Teaching Credential from University of San Francisco. She enjoys spending time with her grandchildren who are scattered far and wide and wants to help preserve the planet.
Motivated by 22 years of professional relationship with Jerusalem, Rev. Leppäkari encourages people not to be afraid to build bridges of understandings through intercultural and religious dialogue: Rev. Dr. Leppäkari holds a Doctoral degree in Theology (2002) from Åbo Akademi University, Finland and is Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Comparative Religion. Her expertise spans from academic research to applied leadership. In September 2019 she was the first woman to be ordained Reverend in Jerusalem in the Arabic speaking congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL). She has published extensively on Jerusalem, and is best known for her book Apocalyptic Representations of Jerusalem. Her most recent book is Pilgrimage and Tourism to Holy Cities: Ideological and Management Perspectives, co-edited together with Dr. Kevin Griffin.
Website:
FELM Center Jerusalem
Loretta Pele Glanville is a proud Strong Mulgal, Dauareb, and Kaurareg woman from Moa Island in the Torres Strait, and the founder of the Totalai Land and Sea Indigenous Corporation. Raised in Kubin within a family of ten, Loretta’s early life was shaped by her parents’ teachings and the deep cultural knowledge of her ancestral land and sea. Her journey reflects a powerful fusion of spiritual conviction, cultural integrity, and environmental leadership.
Currently working in the conservation sector across Zeneth Kes, Loretta champions Indigenous-led restoration and the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into sustainable development. Her professional path began in the mining and civil industries, where firsthand exposure to environmental degradation inspired her to leave a high-paying role and dedicate her life to community service and ecological healing.
Loretta serves as a board member of PuipiKak Malu, an organization committed to revitalizing and rehabilitating culture, sea, and land by merging Indigenous knowledge systems with innovative solutions. Its mission promotes education, climate resilience, and sustainable economic development. Through her personal faith walk and unwavering dedication, Loretta facilitates youth programs, women’s mental health initiatives, and accredited training—always centering measurable impact and cultural authenticity.
Shelly Bengiat is founder and chairwoman of the Coralz, Envirotech Australian Group and Perfect Sea NGOs. Shelly is proudly leading research, development, export, and training of the first global Marine Habitat Conservation and Restoration technical vocational education and training accreditations under the Australian Qualifications Framework, that is a turn-key solution for partners to deliver our IP internationally.
The group builds communities capacity for sustainable blue economy development, by project-oriented training in a range of blue carbon and biodiversity seascapes, across hundreds of micro-credentials, in marine habitats, aquaculture, and sustainability, from schools, to universities and marine industries.
Since developing the first international marine habitats conservation and restoration technical vocational accreditations IP, the Envirotech and Coralz group deliver Government funded contracts, in Australia, especially with Indigenous Islanders and coastal communities, and the group are yearly receivers of excellence awards such as recent Indigenous Student of the Year in Queensland, trainers, innovators of the years in various states, and winners of Australian national export and sustainability awards.
Sally Schuster is a passionate networker and connecter working to find systemic solutions to pressing social problems. Originally from Colombia and currently based in New York, Sally has held positions at the Colombian Department of Social Prosperity (Presidential Office), the Ford Foundation, Latimpacto, and The Grad Network, powered by Columbia/Barnard Hillel. She is currently the Director of Fundraising at CADENA International, a global humanitarian nonprofit dealing mainly with disaster response. Her experience spans poverty alleviation efforts, climate finance, venture philanthropy and fundraising.
She has dual B.A.s in International Relations and Political Science (with a Minor in International Economics, from Universidad del Norte), an MA in State, Public Policy and Development (Universidad de los Andes), and an MPA in Development Practices (from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs).
Website URL: https://www.peacedepartment.global/about-us
Shelly Bengiat is founder and chairwoman of the Coralz, Envirotech Australian Group and Perfect Sea NGOs. Shelly is proudly leading research, development, export, and training of the first global Marine Habitat Conservation and Restoration technical vocational education and training accreditations under the Australian Qualifications Framework, that is a turn-key solution for partners to deliver our IP internationally.
The group builds communities capacity for sustainable blue economy development, by project-oriented training in a range of blue carbon and biodiversity seascapes, across hundreds of micro-credentials, in marine habitats, aquaculture, and sustainability, from schools, to universities and marine industries.
Since developing the first international marine habitats conservation and restoration technical vocational accreditations IP, the Envirotech and Coralz group deliver Government funded contracts, in Australia, especially with Indigenous Islanders and coastal communities, and the group are yearly receivers of excellence awards such as recent Indigenous Student of the Year in Queensland, trainers, innovators of the years in various states, and winners of Australian national export and sustainability awards.
Dr. Richard Friend is an independent consultant/scholar with expertise in just and equitable approaches to social and environmental change. During his 30-year career he has worked in
academia (University of York, UK), international NGOs, and as a consultant providing technical advice to NGOs, international organisations/UN agencies and donors. With an academic background in social anthropology and development studies, he has spent much of his career living and working in the Mekong region (Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam). His areas of expertise include (transboundary) water resource governance; climate change, systemic risk and resilience; fisheries governance; urbanisation; food systems and food security; sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction; climate change vulnerability and adaptation; decentralisation and community-based approaches; participatory processes and knowledge co-production. His publications include peer review journal articles, book chapters, working papers, Op-Eds and blog articles. He is currently based in East Yorkshire, UK.
Board of Advisers
Rabbi Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, is a past chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations. He also serves as the Adviser on Interreligious Affairs to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel; is a member of the Chief Rabbinate’s delegation for Interreligious Dialogue; and serves on the Council of the Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. He is the only Jewish member of the Board of Directors of the King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, established by the King of Saudi Arabia together with the governments of Austria and Spain. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI made Rabbi Rosen a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great for his contribution to promoting Catholic-Jewish reconciliation; and in 2010 H.M. Queen Elizabeth II made him a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for his contributions to interfaith relations.
For videos of Rabbi Rosen on religion and ecology, see: On Love of the Divine and God’s Creation (four minutes) On Judaism, Ecology, and Global Responsibility (eight minutes)
Dr. Dajani is a Weston Fellow at The Washington Institute, founded the Wasatia movement of moderate Islam and previously worked as a professor of political science at al-Quds University in Jerusalem. A Jerusalem-born scholar and peace activist, Dr. Dajani holds doctorate degrees from the University of Texas and University of South Carolina. He is the founding director of the Jerusalem Studies and Research Institute, chair of the board of directors of the House of Water and Environment in Ramallah, and a member of the board of directors of the Jerusalem International YMCA. He has written extensively on Arab culture and politics, including an International Herald Tribune op-ed.
The Julia Burke Foundation is based in the United States and has wide-ranging projects on five continents. Marilyn is a long-serving board member of The HALO Trust, an humanitarian organization that removes landmines and other explosive remnants of war throughout the world. Marilyn also served for four years as a member of the Board of Directors of The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco, and lives in California and Hawaii.
Pankaj Jain is an internationally recognized academic leader in Sustainability, Jain Studies, Film Studies, and Diaspora Studies. He is the Head of the Department of Humanities & Languages and the Chair of The India Centre at FLAME University. Earlier, he was the founding co-chair of India Initiatives Group and Associate Professor in the Departments of Philosophy & Religion and Anthropology at the University of North Texas. He is currently co-editing the Encyclopedia of Hinduism and a volume on Indian and Western Philosophical Concepts in Religion. He is also the author of the award-winning Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability and Science and Socio-Religious Revolution in India: Moving the Mountains.
Most Rev. Bishop Shomali was born in Beit Sahour (Palestine) in 1950. He earned a B.A. in philosophy and Theology and was subsequently ordained as a priest in Jerusalem in 1972. He earned a Doctor of Divinity degree, and served as professor of liturgy, vice-rector and dean of studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology of the Major Seminary of Jerusalem. In 2005 he became Rector of the same seminary. In 2009, he became Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In 2010 he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Titular Bishop of Lydda and Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine on April 7, 2010; and ordained Bishop on May 27, 2010 in Bethlehem. On February 4, 2017 he was nominated as Patriarchal Vicar for Jordan.
UN/NGO Representative of the International Council of Jewish Women and Member-at-Large of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development.
UN/NGO Representative of the International Council of Jewish Women and Member-at-Large of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development.
Dr. Lurie is a physicist and business development consultant living in New York City and dealing with applications of satellite imagery and technology transfer. Her current interests include using satellite imagery to study the environment and the assessment of sustainable development projects. At the United Nations she represents the International Council of Jewish Women, and is a member of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development where her work emphasizes the relationship between women’s rights and sustainability.
Dr. Lurie is a physicist and business development consultant living in New York City and dealing with applications of satellite imagery and technology transfer. Her current interests include using satellite imagery to study the environment and the assessment of sustainable development projects. At the United Nations she represents the International Council of Jewish Women, and is a member of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development where her work emphasizes the relationship between women’s rights and sustainability.
Financial Board of Oversight
David has degrees in economics and engineering science from Cambridge UK and Rochester USA. Before entering the technological world, he was a development economist working on UN and World Bank projects in Africa. He has since built a number of technological enterprises in the industrial field with three successful exits.
For the past twelve years he has been building start-ups in the renewable energy space including PV, lithium battery, wastewater treatment, and tidal energy and now concentrates on energy efficiency. He is presently CEO of Elencon Energy Efficiency, Venture Partner at OurCrowd Investments, Chairman of Contronics UK and Chairman of South West Energy UK.
Dr. Kranzler is a public servant in public health and an ethnographic fieldworker, committed to health equity through trauma-informed care, compassionate pragmatism, and community power-sharing. He previously worked for the Israeli Ministry of Health and earned a PhD at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Health Systems Management. He served on the Nachlaot Community Council, and worked for Jewish Climate Initiative.