Meet Our Advisors

Donna Hicks, PhD is an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University where she served as Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution (PICAR). She worked extensively on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and as a member of the third party in numerous unofficial diplomatic efforts.

In addition to her work in the Middle East, Dr. Hicks founded and co-directed a ten-year project in Sri Lanka. She has also worked on the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Colombia and conducted several US/Cuba dialogues. As a consultant to the BBC, Dr. Hicks co-facilitated encounters between victims and perpetrators of the Northern Irish conflict with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Dr. Hicks teaches courses in conflict resolution at Harvard, Clark, and Columbia Universities and conducts trainings on the role dignity plays in healing and reconciling relationships in conflict. Her book Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People was published by Yale University Press in 2018.

Riane Eisler, PhD pioneered the extension of human rights theory and action to the majority of humanity: women and children. Her multidisciplinary research and scholarship provide a roadmap for all of us who seek to build a more equitable, sustainable, and less violent world based on partnership rather than domination.

Dr. Eisler received the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award, earlier given to the Dalai Lama, and other national and international awards for her ground-breaking contributions as a systems scientist, futurist, attorney, and historian.

She is President of the Center for Partnership Systems, Editor in Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, and a distinguished professor at Meridian University.

Wendy K. Smith helps people engage opposition to achieve more creative solutions to challenging problems. She earned her BA from Yale University and PhD at Harvard Business School, where she began her intensive research on strategic paradoxes—how leaders effectively embrace contradictory, yet interdependent demands.

Her research has won multiple awards, including the 2023 Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award and the Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher Award (2019-2024). Her book Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions To Solve Your Toughest Problems makes 25 years of academic research accessible to anyone grappling with competing demands.

Wendy is the Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the Women's Leadership Initiative at the University of Delaware.

Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, PhD is a Research Scientist at University of Washington's Harborview Medical Center and an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Washington Bothell.

His research focuses on algorithmic nudging at scale, simulation modeling for machine learning, Responsible AI, and personality emulation. He has had academic appointments at University of Washington, Center for Cognitive Science at University of Minnesota, Minnesota Population Center, and the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur.

Muhammad also has worked in applied AI in industry for several startups and advisor to various governmental bodies. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota.

"Among the most publicly prominent voices of Germany's younger generation" (Washington Post). Lecturer at Leuphana University Lüneburg on future-oriented technology such as Blockchain, AI, and VR and its impact on society.

Member of various think tanks on digitization and justice, including the ZEIT Foundation and the Grameen Creative Lab of Nobel Peace Prize winner Prof. Muhammad Yunus. One of 100 European Founders invited to President Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University.

An Ariane de Rothschild Fellow at Cambridge, Global Justice Fellow at Yale, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum, and Co-Founder of RetroBrain R&D, recognized as "a benchmark in the therapeutic gamification industry."

Patrice Brodeur, PhD is an associate professor at the Institut d'études religieuses at the Université de Montréal. Between 2005 and 2015, he was the Canada Research Chair (junior) on Islam, Pluralism and Globalization.

His current research includes both contemporary Islamic thought and interreligious dialogue. His publications include more than sixty academic articles, book chapters and books.

Brodeur has lectured to academic audiences and conducted trainings on different forms of dialogue in over fifty countries, exploring identity and power dynamics within intercultural, interreligious, and inter-worldview dialogues. In 1999, he obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University in comparative religion.

Naznin Musa is a dedicated advocate for social justice, whose deepest engagement is in initiatives addressing diversity and inclusion efforts in education and the workforce and the well-being of students and workers.

Her leadership in the Innovation Fund VR x Reducing Stress project at Hogeschool van Amsterdam secured a €10,000 grant. Her work led to recognition as Impact Maker of the year ('23) and the prestigious ECHO Award in 2022.

As a member of DIHOO (Advisory Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Higher Education and Research), she actively lobbies for the inclusion of student caregivers in the Dutch educational system through legislation recommendations, directly contributing to policy changes.

Brian Nelson has driven the communications strategy for some of the world's most well-known and iconic brands. He has provided communications counsel and public relations support to companies and executives, ranging from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 brands.

Previously, Brian led communications for eBay in North America ($40B in annual retail sales). He was VP of Communications at The Walt Disney Company, where he propelled Disney's perception shift from traditional entertainment to a tech-centric media organization. He managed PR for all apps, videogames and digital products from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises.

Earlier in his career, he led PR for Yahoo's suite of content sites and held roles at tech startups and in politics, including the White House.

Nirmala Ravishankar is a health systems specialist with over 15 years of experience in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Her area of specialization is health financing, with a focus on health expenditure analysis and the design and implementation of health financing policy reforms.

Key highlights include leading a multi-country project to improve how countries allocate and spend public funds for primary healthcare at ThinkWell, overseeing a research initiative to measure development assistance for health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and managing multi-partner initiatives linking primary care services with government health insurance.

Currently, Nirmala holds the position of Senior Fellow at ThinkWell and also works as a health financing consultant at the World Bank.

Tracy Pollard is an accomplished entertainment marketing executive who honed skills as an Agency Creative Director that she brought to her career as a studio executive at 20th Century Fox, Focus Features, and Lionsgate, where she led award-winning 360° campaigns.

A sharp and agile thinker, known for developing precision strategy, she is acclaimed as "a courageous and intentional creative." A champion of bold ideas, she drives innovation through her inspirational leadership, thoughtful collaboration, and passion for spiritual wisdom that supports robust self-reflection and growth.

Ardeshir Mehran, PhD is a psychologist, psychoanalyst, leadership coach, and author. He designed The Bill of Emotional Rights and developed Emotional Restoration Therapy.

Across multiple industries, Mehran helps global leaders, star performers, and professionals achieve stronger results by stepping fully into their roles as leaders. He has led development of high-performance teams, global corporate universities, succession planning, culture change, and customer experience innovations.

Dr. Mehran earned his PhD and MEd degrees in Organizational, Counsel, and Quantitative Psychology from Columbia University. He has been in leadership roles at Genentech/Roche, Dolby Laboratories, Kaiser Permanente, and Hewlett-Packard.

Danny Richmond is a Community Lead for the Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum. Previously, he worked in roles focused on civic engagement, youth leadership, and social inclusion including at the Parliament of World Religions, Inspirit Foundation, Ve'ahavta, and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

Danny got his start in interfaith engagement as a Faiths Act Fellow of Interfaith America. He has a passion to demonstrate the power of communities working together as a force of social change.