Darrell Ezell is an expert on state/non-state actor relations, particularly between state actors engaging non-statecombatants in conflict zones.   He currently serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Studies at Louisiana State University and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tulane University. 

Dr. Ezell received his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Birmingham (Birmingham, England), specializing in diplomacy, interfaith relations, and peacemaking, particularly in the Muslim and Arab world.  He also holds an M.A. in Theology and Ethics from Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University.

His research and teaching focus on asymmetrical conflict, counterterrorism, public diplomacy, and post-secularism.

He is the author of Beyond Cairo: U.S. Engagement with the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), a study on U.S. public diplomacy efforts to restore trusted relations with the Muslim world since president Barack Obama’s 2009 ‘New Beginning’ address in Cairo, Egypt. His latest book chapter, “Enriching Post-secular Discourse in Faith Diplomacy” is featured in USC’s CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy.  Writing widely on globalization and intercultural cooperation, he has contributed to numerous media outlets and served as a contributing journalist at EA Worldview.

Dr. Ezell has worked with the U.S. Department of State (Office of Peacekeeping, Sanctions, and Counterterrorism) and William J. Clinton Foundation, undertaking high-level analysis on UN peacekeeping missions and cross-cultural communication projects in Africa and the Middle East. Prior to that, he has been active in grassroots peacemaking in New York City with the Interfaith Center of New York and in Chicago, IL with Interfaith Worker Justice. His human rights activism is featured in the documentary, Mississippi Chicken, highlighting his advocacy of workers’ rights for impoverished migrant workers in North America.

Dr. Cheema has extensive experience of working with world leaders, grantmakers, corporations, and financial institutions. As an expert on Muslim philanthropy he offers advice to policymakers, speaks at high-level forums, and sits on multiple nonprofit boards. He is a member of Committee of 100 of Lingshan World Philanthropy Forum that promotes engagement between China and the World on social and development issues. In addition to his philanthropic endeavors, he is the principal shareholder of Southeast Business Group (SBG), a unique commercial and industrial coalition dedicated to promote trade between the emerging markets.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Cheema has contributed to the development of several successful social initiatives such as Doctors Worldwide, a disaster response agency; Network of Islamic Activists Against Tobacco (NIAAT), a Geneva-based advocacy group to rally support for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; Diversity Forums, a project to encourage dialogue and understanding across critical social divides; Indo-Pak Peace Network, a people-to-people movement to promote goodwill among the two rival nuclear nations; and National Network for Diaspora Giving, a capacity-building resource and clearinghouse for US diaspora philanthropies

Patrice Brodeur is the holder of a Canada Research Chair on Islam, Pluralism, and Globalisation at the Faculty of Theology and the Sciences of Religions at the University of Montreal since 2005. Brodeur investigates the dynamics of power and multiple identities within intercultural, interreligious, intercivilizational, and interworldview dialogues, especially between Muslims and a variety of others. His Chair includes a  multidisciplinary research collective of over twenty researchers with funds from leading Canadian (SSHRC, CIC, DFAIT) and US (USIP) research and governmental agencies as well as international foundations and UN agencies (UNICEF, UNESCO, Alliance of Civilizations).

Brodeur studied at McGill University (BA, MA), Harvard University (AM, Ph.D.), Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2 years), and Faculty of Shari’ah at the University of Jordan (1 year). He spent a sabbatical year at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies as a Rockefeller Foundation Visiting Fellow at Notre-Dame University in 2004-2005 and another one at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University (2012).

Brodeur recently founded a social entrepreneurship NGO called InterWorldView to improve the transformative capacities of peace builders worldwide. He has lead over fifty workshops on this theme in five languages on five continents. Last year, he was named one of fifty worldwide “Interfaith Visionaries” by the Temple of Understanding, one of the oldest interfaith organizations based in New York City. He is currently involved in several research projects, one of which is on “Pluralism in Crisis” co-organized by academics at Cornell University and the University of Edinburgh, among others.

Brodeur’s most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Ina Merdjanova, is Religion as a Conversation Starter: Interreligious Dialogue for Peacebuilding in the Balkans, 1990-2008 (Continuum Press, 2009; paperback 2011).

Diego Melo, Ph. D. in Medieval History at Salamanca University is head

He specializes in medieval Islamic history as well as Al-Andalus and Medieval Magreb. Lately he focuses on the intercultural dialogue between civilizations; these encounters take place annually in partnership with the Mohammed VI Center for the Dialogue of Civilizations located in Coquimbo, Chile.Professor Melo is the author of several scientific papers, among them: “Europe and the Muslim Mediterranean. Dynamics of encounter and Divergence” (in collaboration with Fernando Laiseca); “Dialogue and Cultural Rights” (in collaboration with Ahmed Ait Belaid y Patricio González) and “1300 years of Al-Andalus conquest (711-2011)” (in collaboration with Francisco Vidal Castro).