Wilmette Institute Faculty

TIMARA ADAMS

Timara Adams is the Director of the Office of Assembly Development, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, Ill.

NECATI ALKAN

Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Studies, specialization in late Ottoman History; post-doc and faculty at the Department of Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies and the Chair in Bahá’í Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2006-2008); senior fellow from June 2008 to June 2009 at the Research Center for Anatolian position at the University of Erfurt, Germany.

HUSSEIN ASHCHI

I am a biologist and an educator by profession with educational background from Aston [UK], Florida State and Southern California [USA], universities. Currently, I am semi-retired and involved in teaching efforts directed at the Arab world, the Wilmette Institute and the BIHE through the internet. My interest is the understanding of Islam from a Bahá’í perspective. I am also involved in translations from the holy literature into English.

CHRISTOPHER BUCK

Christopher Buck (Ph.D., study of religion, University of Toronto, 1996; J.D., Cooley Law School, 2006) is a Pennsylvania attorney and independent scholar. He previously taught at Michigan State University (2000-2004), Quincy University (1999-2000), Millikin University (1997-1999), and Carleton University (1994-1996). He is the author of various book chapters, encyclopedia articles, journal articles, and books, notably Religious Myths and Visions of America: How Minority Faiths Redefined America’s World Role (2009); Alain Locke: Faith and Philosophy (2005); Paradise and Paradigm: Key Symbols in Persian Christianity and the Bahá’í Faith (1999); and Symbol and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i Íqán (1995/2004).

An On-line Bahá’í Learning Center Wilmette Institute Faculty

MARLEEN CHASE

M. Chase, trained in history of science and medicine, is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow alumna and scientist investigating infectious diseases and immunological responses. Her interests include philosophy of science and the historical reception of Darwinism in the Near East.

PHYLLIS GHIM LIAN CHEW

Race: Chinese Nationality: Singaporean Languages written and spoken: Chinese, Malay, English

Education Background B.A. Hons. University of Singapore Dip. Education. University of Singapore Dip. Applied Linguistics. SEAMEO Regional Language Centre M.A. ESL. University of Hawaii Ph.D. Linguistics. Macquarie University, Australia.

RODNEY CLARKEN

Director of School of Education, Associate Dean of Teacher Education, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan. Taught over seven Wilmette Institute Courses, Bahá’í for 41 years, Traveled to 60 countries, Taught in schools and universities in several countries for over 35 years.

See http://www.instruct.nmu.edu/~rclarken/ for biography, vita, papers and other material.

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ARTHUR LYON DAHL

Professor Arthur Lyon Dahl of Geneva, Switzerland (http://yabaha.net/dahl), has more than 40 years international experience in sustainable development and environment. He coordinates the UNEP/University of Geneva/Graduate Institute Programme of Advanced Studies in Environmental Diplomacy (http://www.unige.ch/formcont/environmentaldiplomacy/) and is Visiting Professor at the University of Brighton, UK, and partner in an international project on values-based indicators of education for sustainable development (http://www.esdinds.eu/). He is a retired Deputy Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and a consultant to international organizations and research programmes on environmental assessment, observing strategies, indicators of sustainability, coral reefs, biodiversity, islands (islands.unep.ch), environmental education, and social and economic development. He holds an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A specialist on small islands and coral reefs, he spent many years in the South Pacific as Regional Ecological Advisor with the Pacific Commission (www.spc.int), and organized the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (www.sprep.org). He represented the Bahá’í International Community at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972), was in the Secretariat of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to prepare Agenda 21, the global action plan for sustainable development, and organized several parallel events at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). He is President of the International Environment Forum (www.bcca.org/ief) and on the governing boards of the European Bahá’í Business Forum (www.ebbf.org) and the Global Islands Network (www.globalislands.net). He has published many scientific papers and books including: “Unless and Until: A Bahá’í Focus on the Environment” and “The Eco Principle: Ecology and Economics in Symbiosis.”

ROGER M. DAHL

Roger Dahl received his master’s degree in American history from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, with an archival sequence. He has been the archivist at the National Bahá’í Archives, United States, since 1974. He is a member of the Society of American Archivists, the Academy of Certified Archivists, the Midwest Archives Conference and the Association of Moving Image Archivists. Mr. Dahl has published several articles on American Bahá’í history and is currently working on a biography of the first African American Bahá’í, Robert Turner.

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NICOLA DANIELS

Niki Daniels earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of the West Indies (Mona), and a Master’s in Forensic Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow). She worked for 10 years in the Police Forensic Laboratory in her home town of Kingston, Jamaica, before leaving the scientific field to work as an administrator. Niki became a Bahá’í in 2001. She is also a poet, and a blogger, and science-related issues are often featured in her writing. She reads widely, and is especially interested in health/alterna- tive medicine, brain science/artificial intelligence, and evolutionary theory. Niki served as Faculty on the Institute’s Science & Religion course (2010), and is looking forward to collaborating once again with other faculty and learners.

ED DILIBERTO

Edward N. Diliberto holds a B.A. and M.A. from California State University and the Credential of Bilingual Education, Spanish-English, (1980) from the California State Board of Education. He served in various educational positions in California, Central America and South America over the years. Most recently, he served for six years on the Advisory Board assigned to collaborate with the Center for Bahá’í studies in Beijing, where he presented various papers correlating Chinese philosophy with the Bahá’í teachings. He has been to 26 countries as a consultant on developing human resource for the Bahá’í Faith, and he served as a member of the Auxiliary Board of the Continental Board of Counselors for twelve years.

PAULA DREWEK

I’m a retired professor of humanities/religious studies active in many interfaith activities in the Detroit area as well as core institute activities.

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DANIEL GROLIN

Daniel Grolin is a Bahá’í living in Denmark, the most Lutheran of countries (or so they think). In High School, when he first encountered academic bibli- cal scholarship, he became gravely concerned with the implication of this science for Bahá’ís, in terms of the significance for reading as Scripture and effect on Bahá’í-Christian dialogue. He pursued this interest through service in the Holy Land and through most of his time at university. He published “Jesus and Early Christianity in the Gospels” through George Ronald as a means drawing together what he had learned and concluded from his studies.

ROBERT HARRIS

Bob Harris is a senior executive in a medical software company in Clearwater, Florida. He has studied and spoken about the Bahá’í Revelation for 41 years as a member of various institutions of the Faith, including the Continental Board of Counselors, the Auxiliary Board and a Regional Bahá’í Council of the Northeastern States. He has lectured extensively on the writings of Shoghi Effendi and the manifold aspects of the Covenant and Teaching. He has a particular interest in encouraging youth to immerse themselves in the Holy Writings. This is the first time that Bob is engaged with a course of the Wilmette Institute.

KURT HEIN

Kurt Hein holds a Ph.D. in Development Communication from Northwestern University. He pioneered in Ecuador, Kenya and Guinea. He worked as an international consultant and professor in 25 countries. He was on staff at the Baha’i National Center and WLGI. He has been on faculty for several Wilmette Institute courses.

ELIZABETH HERTH

Elizabeth Herth holds an MBA in strategic planning and business development from Davenport University and a B.S. from Central Michigan University, where at both she taught communications and business theory. In her current role at the national headquarters for the Bahá’ís of the United States, she studies and reports on the progress of the Bahá’í Faith in relation to national and international goals.

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RICHARD HOLLINGER

Richard Hollinger is an archivist and historian residing in Maine who has conducted research on the history of the Bahá’í Faith in North America and the Middle East. His recent publications include: “An Iranian Enclave in Lebanon: Baha’i Students in Beirut, 1906-40,” in H.E. Chehabi ed. Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 years (Oxford: Center for Lebanese Studies 2006); and “ ‘Wonderful and True Visions’: Magi Community,” in John Danesh and Seena Fazel ed. Search for Values: Ethics in Baha’i Thought, (Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 2004).

WILLIAM HUITT

Professor Emeritus at Valdosta State University teaching psychology and education courses. I have been Bahá’í for 39 years, now residing in Erlangen, Germany, where my wife is the Principal of the Middle School at Franconian International School. I currently teach online undergraduate and graduate classes and work on school improvement projects.

SANDRA HUTCHISON

Sandra Lynn Hutchison is the author of two books, Chinese Brushstrokes (Turnstone Press, Winnipeg, 1996), a memoir of her time in China in the prelude to and aftermath of the Tiananmen Incident; and The Art of Nesting (George Ronald, Oxford, 2008), a book of poems.

Sandra holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Toronto and has taught at universities around the world, including in mainland China and Hong Kong, where she served as a pioneer for a number of years. She currently serves as a home front pioneer in Orono, Maine with her husband and her twelve-year old daughter, Shira. In addition to writing books, she teaches at the University of Maine and holds the position of Maine Studies Research Associate. For the past three years, she has served as poetry editor of the Maine literary journal Puckerbrush Review.

Her research and writing on the Bahá’í scriptures date back to her tenure in the English section of the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa in the 1990s, when she worked closely for three years with the English writings of Shoghi Effendi about whose work she has written in journals such as World Order.

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WOLFGANG KLEBEL

Wolfgang Klebel became a Bahá’í 14 years ago. He has been a Catholic priest in Austria and left the priesthood in 1969, when he came to the U.S. He studied psychology at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. He has retired from working as a psychologist in the California Woman’s prison and now works in private practice part time, so he is able to dedicate more time to the study of the Faith.

IAN KLUGE

Ian Kluge is a poet, playwright and independent philosophical scholar. He taught high school English and Comparative Civilizations for almost 30 years. He has published numerous articles on the Bahá’í Writings and philosophy in the “Lights of Irfan” series and presented philosophical papers at ABS conferences. He has also published two books on the American philosophical poet Conrad Aiken.

ZAID LUNDBERG

I’ve served as a Wilmette Institute faculty member since 1999.

Academically/professionally: B.S., Psychology, MIU Iowa, USA (1987). M.A., History of Religions, Lund University, Sweden (1996). My MA thesis is entitled Bahá’í Apocalypticism: The Concept of Progressive Revelation and is available online. Most of my time I spend with High-School students, trying to teach them Religious Studies, History, Psychology, Philosophy, Art History and Music History. Meanwhile I try to finish a long overdue Ph.D. dissertation entitled The Guardian and the Globe: Shoghi Effendi’s Discourse on Modernity and The Bahá’í Faith.

Spiritually/family: I became a Bahá’í at Wilmette in 1992 and shortly after I also met my wife Marie-Louise and together we have been blessed with two daughters: Angelica (11) and Miranda (8).

An On-line Bahá’í Learning Center Wilmette Institute Faculty

SUSAN MANECK

Dr. Susan Maneck is an Associate Professor in the History and Philosophy Department at Jackson State University where she teaches courses in the Middle East and South Asian History, World Civilization, and Comparative Religion. She received her Master’s degree in Oriental Studies and her Ph.D. in Asian and European History from the University of Arizona. She has conducted extensive research on Bahá’í and Zoroastrian history and published numerous articles in Bahá’í journals and in volumes from a number of presses, including SUNY Press, Kalimat Press, Oxford University Press and Brill Press. She has also published a book on the history of the Parsis entitled The Death of Ahriman.

MOOJAN MOMEN

Dr. Momen is the author of numerous books about the Bahá’í Faith, its historical development, and its relationship to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. He has published scores of articles about Bahá’í subjects and has spoken about the Faith at many academic conferences. He has been an editor of the Bahá’í Encyclopedia project and is currently an editor of the Bahá’í Studies Review, published in the United Kingdom, where he lives. He is a medical doctor by profession.

KARRYN OLSON-RAMANUJAN

Karryn Olson-Ramanujan loves exploring the world and its cultures–a passion that has taken her from her home state of South Dakota to live in Germany, Ghana, and India. After completing her Masters in Public Affairs in 1994, she searched for practical ways to integrate sustainability into her life and began studying permaculture in 1997. In 2003, Karryn and her family moved to Ecovillage at Ithaca, where they are learning how to live in community. A co-founder and instructor for the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute, Karryn also teaches sustainability-related courses at Ithaca College (IC) and co-coordinates the Partnerships in Sustainability Education initiative between IC and Ecovillage. Karryn sees her lifework as assisting faith communities to connect their spiritual teachings about the environment and agriculture with skills such as permaculture to create a regenerative future.

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LIL OSBORN

Dr. Lil Osborn (formally Abdo) holds a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, an M.A. in Women and Religion and a B.A. (Hons) in Arabic and Islamic Studies both from the University of Lancaster. She is an independent scholar whose research interests include esoteric and occult movements, Paganism and the alternative religious and spiritual movements in early twentieth century Britain. She has published a number of articles on the Bahá’í Faith and her Ph.D. thesis “Religion & Relevance: The Bahá’í Faith in Britain, 1899-1930” is due to be published shortly.

ANNE PEARSON

Anne lives in Dundas, which is now part of Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. She has been a Bahá’í for some 30 years, ever since she was a first year student in university. She teaches a wide variety of courses in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University. Her area of specialty is Hinduism, but she also teaches other South Asian religions, as well as courses on gender, nonviolence, and ecology as they relate to religion. She has been a Wilmette Institute instructor for about ten years. She has lived, studied and researched in India for over five years on several different trips. She has three daughters who are almost grown up.

BRENT POIRIER

Brent Poirier has been a Bahá’í for nearly 40 years, and has been a presenter at several Bahá’í summer schools and Wilmette Institute online courses on a variety of subjects. He is an attorney with a background in international law and the author of the http://bahai-covenant.blogspot.com website.

FARHAD RASSEKH

Farhad is a professor of economics at the University of Hartford, Hartford, CT where he has been teaching for the past twenty years. He has published extensively in academic journals. He is also the author of “The Bahá’í Faith and the Market Economy,” published in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies (2001). He serves on the Advisory Committee of the Green Acre Bahá’í School and has been a faculty member in several Wilmette Institute courses.

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SUE RISHWORTH

Susan Rishworth graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a B.A. in African History and Indiana University with an MLS in the late 1960s. Her professional positions have included Librarian for African Studies at Michigan State University, Reference Librarian at the Library of Congress, African Section in Washington, D.C., Director of the Library at Southeastern University, and History Librarian/Archivst at the American College of Ob/Gyns. She’s been at her current position as Archivist at the American College of Surgeons since 2001. She has twice served as a faculty member for the Archives course of Wilmette Institute. She and her husband Butch have three children and one grandchild with more on the way! The family spent two years as pioneers in St. Kitts in the early 1980s.

MELINDA SALAZAR

Melinda Salazar, Ph.D. is a sustainability education consultant whose work is informed by over thirty years of experience teaching interdisciplinary studies in K-Higher Education. She most recently served as the Director of Education at The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education. Presently, Dr. Salazar is a faculty member at Western New Mexico University, Gallup

Graduate Studies Center. Her areas of expertise include: • Education for Sustainability (EfS) and Environmental Education • Curriculum Design and Professional Development • Interdisciplinary and Integrative Arts • Community Development and Collaborative Methods • Social Justice and Diversity Training.

ROBERT SARRACINO

Robert Sarracino is a physicist currently living in Los Alamos, New Mexico. My wife and I pioneered to Lesotho and South Africa for over 20 years, and returned to the U.S. in 2005.

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MARTHA SCHWEITZ

Martha Schweitz, J.D. NYU, has practiced international business law in Chicago and been a professor in the U.S. and Japan, teaching international public law, human rights, and international organizations. She has published on the role of civil society in global governance and on Bahá’í topics related to law, gender, and rights and responsibilities.

CYNTHIA SHAWAMREH

Cynthia Shawamreh received her B.A. with a double-major in History and African-American Studies from Grinnell College in 1984. She spent 1984-85 in Israel on a Watson Fellowship for International Travel that researched the connection between the self-perception and legal status of Israeli women. In 1988 she received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and was admitted to the Illinois Bar. She currently practices law as a senior counsel for the City of Chicago Department of Law, Finance and Economic Development Division, where she specializes in multi-layered financing transactions designed to create affordable housing and economic incentives to stimulate job creation. Cynthia has served as a faculty member of the Wilmette Institute since 2006. Cynthia also teaches courses on Islamic law as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. In addition, Cynthia serves as an appointed member of the Illinois Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Cynthia is married to Abed Shawamreh, a Palestinian Muslim from the West Bank. They have four children.

MELANIE SMITH

Melanie Smith holds an M.A. in reading education from Central Michigan University and has completed post-graduate hours in Educational Psychology at Michigan State University. She has co-authored study materials on deepening themes and a book on how to read the writings of Baha’u’llah.

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ROBERT H. STOCKMAN

Robert Stockman, Director of the Wilmette Institute, has a doctorate in religious studies from Harvard University (1990) and teaches religious studies part time at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the author of three books on American Bahá’í history and of numerous articles on many aspects of the Bahá’í Faith.

He has served on the Boards of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, World Order magazine, and the Bahá’í Encyclopedia project. He lives in South Bend, Indiana, with his wife and two children.

PETER TERRY

Peter Terry is a writer on theological topics, a singer of classical sacred and secular music, and a non-profit educational program manager living in Boston. He has been served as faculty for courses offered by the Wilmette Institute since 1999.

DUANE TROXEL

Duane Troxel received his B.S. from Moorhead State University, his M.Ed. in Educational Communications and Technology from the University of Hawaii, and his Doctorate of Instructional Technology from Temple University. He has served on the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Nigeria, as well as the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii. More recently, he was a Professor and Director of the Graduate Faculty at Landegg International University. Duane has taught at the following institutions: University of Hawaii, Louisiana State University, Southern University, Temple University, Ile-Ife University of Nigeria, a foreign language institute in Czestochowa, Poland, and the University of Colorado. He teaches classes Islam, Bahá’í history, and Bahá’í scripture for the Wilmette Institute.

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JOHN PAUL VADER

John Paul Vader is a medical doctor and Professor of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Lausanne Medical School (Lausanne, Switzerland). His principal activity is in the field of quality of healthcare. He is Past-President of the European Public Health Association (www.eupha.org). He has served on various Bahá’í administrative institutions and is author of a book on the life of the Swiss psychiatrist, August Forel, and his relation to the Bahá’í Faith. John Paul and his wife Patricia have four adult children and four grandchildren.

LOIS WALKER Lois Walker received her M.A. in American History with specialization in Archives and Museum Administration. She worked for 25 years as an aviation historian and archivist for the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 2007. She served for many years on the National Bahá’í Archives Committee in the U.S. and now teaches archives workshops to assist local and national Bahá’í communities with their archives.

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