Interfaith Academy Faculty Bios

Vern Barnet, director of CRES (Center for Religious Experience and Study) in Kansas City
Dr. Barnet completed doctoral work at the University of Chicago and the affiliated seminary, the Meadville Theological School.
He founded CRES (Center for Religious Experience and Study), a Kansas City community resource for exploring spirituality in all faiths in 1982, and became its minister-in-residence in 1985 with "community networking" responsibilities. He is also the founder of The Kansas City Interfaith Council and its convener through 2003, he is now minister emeritus. He teaches religion courses as an adjunct at the Ottawa University Kansas City campus and for ministerial students at the Unity School of Christianity. He has also taught at the Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Avila College, and the Saint Paul School of Theology.

Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia, Chair of Interfaith Committee of the World Sikh Council-America Region
Dr. Butalia currently holds several positions in interfaith organizations on the national level. He is the Vice-President of the North American Interfaith Network and is a member of its Program Committee. He is the Moderator of Religions for Peace – USA, a member of the Council of Presidents, and was co-chairs its Program Committee. He has served on the Governing Board of the Clergy and Laity Network. While he was the Secretary General of the World Sikh Council-America Region, he now serves as the Chair of its Interfaith Committee.

Bud Heckman, Administrator at Hartford Seminary
Rev. Heckman's educational background includes a B.A. from Ohio University, an M.Div. from The Divinity School of the University of Chicago, and an M.A. from Boston University
He has served as an Executive for Volunteer Placement with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church and on the Board of the North American Interfaith Network and has chaired the Membership Committee for the National Association of Ecumenical and Interreligious Staff.
He served as treasurer of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations and is on the Troika of the Tripartite Forum on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace at the United Nations. Rev. Heckman is the former Executive Director of Religions for Peace – USA.


Yehezkel Landau, Professor at Hartford Seminary
Professor Landau completed his A.B. degree at Harvard University in Social Relations, a program which combined psychology, religion and education, and went on to complete a Masters of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School.
He directed the OZ veSHALOM-NETIVOT SHALOM religious Zionist peace movement in Israel during the 1980's
From 1991 to 2003, he was co-founder and co-director of the OPEN HOUSE Center for Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Ramle, Israel. He lectures internationally on Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations and Middle East peace issues, has authored numerous journal articles, co-edited the book Voices from Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land (Paulist Press, 1992), and authored a research report entitled “Healing the Holy Land: Interreligious Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine”

Phil Meckley, Professor at Kansas Wesleyan University
Dr. Meckley completed a Bachelors degree at Capital University, a Masters of Divinity at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, a Masters at the University of Notre Dame, and a Masters- Doctorate at Vanderbilt University.
He has held teaching positions at Vanderbilt University and Western Kentucky University and is currently the Chair of the department of Religion and Philosophy at Kansas Wesleyan University

Lucinda Mosher, Inter-religious Consultant, Author, and Educator
Dr. Mosher earned her Th.D. from General Theological Seminary. A Christian ethicist, she is the author of Belonging, Praying: Rituals of Faith, and Loss, the first three volumes of Faith in the Neighborhood, a Seabury Books series on inter-religious understanding. A frequent lecturer in the US and abroad, Dr. Mosher works extensively with Christian clergy, seminarians and congregations on questions raised by America’s increasingly multi-religious context, particularly regarding Islam and Christian-Muslim relations. She currently offers courses at Fordham University, The General Theological Seminary (NYC), Ecumenical Theological Seminary (Detroit), and The University of Michigan-Dearborn


Rori Picker, Executive Director of Religions for Peace-USA
Ms. Picker earned her Bachelors' Degree in Religious Studies and Political Science from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College. There she researched Interfaith Dialogue among Orthodox Jews, and wrote her thesis concentrating on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's seminal treatise on the the barriers to Jewish participation in interfaith dialogue, Confrontation. She has been working at Religions for Peace-USA in various capacities for the past two years and currently holds the position of Acting Executive Director. Ms. Picker

Ellie Pierce, Senior Researcher at the Pluralism Project
Ms. Pierce completed her B.A. in anthropology and international studies, with a core in religious studies, from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She earned her Master of Theological Studies degree from the Harvard Divinity School.
She been involved in "Religious Diversity News" since its inception in 1997. She also developed the Women's Networks Initiative, and was a content advisor for Acting on Faith: Women's New Religious Activism in America. Ms. Pierce began working for the Pluralism Project as a student field researcher in San Francisco and is now senior researcher.

John Thatamanil, Professor at Vanderbilt University
Dr. Thatamanil completed his A.B. at the Washington University, St. Louis, MO, an M.Div. at Boston University School of Theology and a Ph.D. at Boston University. He teaches a wide variety of courses in the areas of comparative theology, theologies of religious pluralism, Hindu-Christian dialogue, Buddhist-Christian dialogue, the theology of Paul Tillich, process theology, and Eastern Orthodox theology and spirituality.
He is committed to adult religious education and teaches often at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel on the Vanderbilt Campus
Dr. Thatamanil is a past president of the North American Paul Tillich Society. He is also the author of The Immanent Divine: God, Creation, and the Human Predicament: An East-West Conversation (Fortress, 2006). He is currently at work on a book tentatively entitled, Religious Diversity After 'Religion': Rethinking Theology of Religious Pluralism (Fordham University Press).

Margaret "Peggy" Orr Thomas, Presbyterian Minister
Rev. Thomas earned her BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles and her M.Div from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. She has served as the Chair of the National Council of Churches commision of Interfaith Relations and was a member of the World Council of Churches Advisory Group on Interfaith Relations. She retired in 1999 after serving since 1964 on behalf of the Presbyterian Church. She has worked worldwide, spending 16 years abroad in Iran. She is currently Parish Associate at the West End Presbyterian Church in New York City and a member of the General Council of the Presbytery of New York. She has published a number of articles and study guides on the subject of Interfaith Relations.