Jenan Mohajir is an educator, a storyteller, a mother, and a believer in building relationships across the lines that separate us. Jenan currently serves as Vice President of External Affairs at Interfaith America, where she has developed & implemented long term strategic plans, created innovative programs, and forged collaborative partnerships with philanthropic leaders and foundations. In her 18 years of leadership at IA, Jenan has trained hundreds of young leaders from diverse backgrounds to foster a vision and practice of civically engaged leadership. Jenan is deeply inspired by the stories from her family and her faith to create change at the intersections of gender, sexuality, race and religion. As a natural storyteller, she performs with 2nd Story, Chicago’s premier storytelling company. Jenan proudly lives on the south side of Chicago with her children and loves to collect vintage children’s books.

Rebecca Russo, Vice President of Higher Education Strategy at Interfaith America, oversees IA’s work in higher education, partnering with colleges and universities to become laboratories where students can deepen and challenge their own worldviews and learn to build relationships across divides. She has worked at Interfaith America for nearly a decade and held previous roles as the Director of Engagement at Northwestern University’s Fiedler Hillel and Executive Director of the Campus Climate Initiative at Hillel International. Rebecca has written on the importance of bridge-building in higher education in the Journal of College and Character, Religion News Service, and Times Higher Education. Rebecca holds a B.A. in Middle East Studies from Brown University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Rebecca is inspired by her interfaith experiences living in Morocco and Jerusalem, and by the Talmudic concept of “these and those are words of the living God,” to work toward a society where religious diversity is engaged actively and positively. Rebecca lives in Chicago with her family and enjoys singing, hiking, and chasing around her three children.

This program is made possible by The Richard W. and Dorothy B. Comfort Religious Initiatives Fund.