The people that make BRIJ possible:

BRIJ Student Leaders

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​Ilana is a sophomore at Brown University and has been deeply involved in Muslim-Jewish collaboration since her time at Gann Academy, the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston. Currently, she is the Brown-RISD intern for the Avi Schaefer Fund, a program that works with over a hundred campuses across the country to pursue interfaith and peace initiatives. She loves working with kids and and spent a year doing literacy and creative reuse workshops in elementary schools through the Beautiful Stuff Project. Ilana enjoys studying languages (Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew), writing and spending time in nature. BRIJ has been an incredible learning experience and she looks forward to learning more from the fifth graders, teachers, chaplains, professors and college students who are all part of this initiative! 
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Junaid Malik is a senior at Brown University studying Political Science. He is excited to be a part of BRIJ, especially meeting our new students! As a Muslim, Junaid is interested in interfaith as a way to build understanding and respect between different communities. He is involved with several groups on campus, having serving as a coordinator for the Religious Literacy Project at Brown, on the board of the Muslim Students Association, and as one of the founders of Decolonization at Brown. In his free time, Junaid coaches debate, enjoys learning languages, and tries to catch up on sleep.
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Becki can't wait to meet all of the students and be a part of an incredible year with BRIJ! She is passionate about teaching kids and religious learning. In the past, she partook in a Jewish learning fellowship as well as the Religious Literacy Project at Brown, which enhances understanding and connection across the main world religions. Becki is devoted to work in criminal justice reform and interned at an alternative to incarceration organization this summer. In her free time, she tutors incarcerated people in English, Math, and Science. She knows the BRIJ students will have a lot to teach her, and she can't wait to learn!
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​Nimo is very interested in interfaith work on the whole. The idea of sparking a dialogue between children of different faiths drew Nimo into the program in the first place. She is a member of the Brown University Class of 2021 from Columbus, Ohio and is potentially concentrating in Applied-Math and Economics. Around campus, she is also involved in the Brown Debating Union, Model United Nations, and the Bonner Fellowship. 
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Isatou is a first year student at Brown University.  She grew up in both the United States and her home country The Gambia. She is very excited to work with BRIJ this year because she wants to learn from the religious experiences of others as well as foster a community at Brown geared towards interfaith dialogue.
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​Justin Ortiz is a sophomore at Brown University from Middletown, New Jersey. He intends to  concentrate in Modern Culture and Media and Music. He loves the beach and running, and hopes to use his passion and experience with film to help BRIJ.
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​Nicole is very excited to be a part of the BRIJ team this year!  She values the importance of interfaith support especially for our younger generations. She loves working with kids, and has spent time working in her synagogue’s Sunday school classes.  Nicole is from California, and has a love for the ocean and photography. In addition to being a part of BRIJ, she looks forward to joining WRBU and the active minds club in the spring semester. She spent the fall semester in California and is excited to be back in Providence!
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​Ruban, class of 2018, is constantly lost in thought, getting a little too excited at the most random of things, whether it be the latest self-driving car developments, emergent properties of simple networks, considerate design of everyday objects, or just a really thought-provoking movie. 

As a third-generation Muslim immigrant from a predominantly Hindu country who went to (and thoroughly enjoyed!) a Catholic high school, you could say interfaith is in his blood. He’s always taken a keen interest in both the commonalities and subtle differences between faiths and how these can lead to either different priorities or the same ones through a different path!

Ruban has served as the head of the board for the Brown Muslim Student Association on campus, and loves thinking about building and shaping communities to welcome voices that might have otherwise been left out. Before coming to Brown, he used to tutor elementary age students in math and reading comprehension at Kumon and loved that job dearly. 

By day, Ruban is a Computer Science concentrator, and by night he pretends he’s Batman. When that doesn’t work out, he spends his time on the occasional photography, sculpture, graphic and web design. It’s currently in this capacity as a web developer that he has helped construct this website!

Partners in Peace

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Head of ISRI - Co-Founder & Director of Partners in Peace
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Head of JCDS-RI - Director of Partners in Peace
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​Cherishing the magic of Oz and the warm and eclectic community of her hometown, Andrea was raised in Lawrence, Kansas and stayed to receive her BA and MA from the University of Kansas. Her graduate research was on the impact of gender and ethnicity on identity construction. After graduate school, Andrea lived in Jerusalem for a year, where she coordinated a Jewish feminist project and managed a tutoring program for Ethiopian immigrants.
Since arriving in Providence in 1999, Andrea has taught in the Education Department of Rhode Island College, volunteered in the Providence public school system and coordinated a youth philanthropy program. Andrea, together with her students and colleagues at JCDSRI, spends her days building community, documenting discoveries, experiencing great joy, and practicing kavod, (respect), hesed (kindness), and shalom (peace). She has an extensive snow-globe collection and regularly perpetrates acts of “guerilla gardening.” Andrea lives in Providence with her husband, Steve Jacobson, and two daughters.
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Co-Founder of Partners in Peace
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Adam is an experienced educator and was the Chair of the Middle School Jewish Studies Department at Rodeph Sholom School in Manhattan. He holds a B.A. from Emory University and an M.A. from Brooklyn College, has been a participant in several selective educational leadership programs, including the Pardes Educators Program and the Day School Leadership Training Institute, and received the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. He served as the head of the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island. Since arriving in Providence in 1999,

Campus Partners

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​Michelle Dardashti serves as the Rabbi of Brown RISD Hillel and Associate University Chaplain for the Jewish Community at Brown.  As a rabbi, Michelle views herself as a leader, teacher and guide and feels privileged to accompany students on their religious/spiritual journeys during their time at Brown.  Daughter of an Iranian hazzan (cantor) and American folk-singer of Eastern European descent, and married to an Australian Jew, Rabbi Dardashti brings to her roles a deep understanding of global Jewry, Jewish music, practice and culture, and a commitment to fostering pluralistic communities.
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​Imam Adnan Adrian Wood-Smith is the Associate University Chaplain for the Muslim Community at Brown University. Prior to his appointment at Brown, he served as the Coordinator of the Convert Continuum of Care at Ta'leef Collective in the San Francisco Bay area, and as the Coordinator of Student Life at Zaytuna College, the first Muslim liberal arts college in America, where he laid  foundations for residential life, residential education, and personal and spiritual counseling.
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​The Reverend Janet Cooper Nelson is Chaplain of the University, Director of the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life, and a member of the faculty at Brown University. Her 1990 appointment to these responsibilities followed comparable posts at Vassar, Mount Holyoke, and as Associate Pastor at The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. Since 1986 she has been a member of the supervisory faculty for fieldwork placements from Harvard Divinity School and the Boston Theological Institute.
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Ian Gonsher is an artist, designer, and educator. He is on the faculty in the School of Engineering at Brown University, where his teaching and research focus on the creative process through interdisciplinary practice. He is also the Associate Director of the Brown Creative Mind Initiative. Ian has degrees in Art History and Industrial Design from the University of Kansas, and also holds an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. His most recent work focuses on design strategies that blend creative practices across disciplines as a means of developing pedagogical strategies for teaching creative thinking.

Website: www.gonsherdesign.com/

The Organizations that Make BRIJ Possible:

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