Women’s Voices for a Sustainable Future

Mary Evelyn Tucker teaches at Yale University at the School of the Environment and the Divinity School. She is co-director with John Grim of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. With Grim she organized 10 conferences on World Religions and Ecology at Harvard. They were series editors for the 10 resulting volumes from Harvard. She co-edited Confucianism and Ecology, Buddhism and Ecology, and Hinduism and Ecology.

She has authored with Grim, Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014). They co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2017) with Willis Jenkins. They are editors for the series on Ecology and Justice from Orbis Books. They have created six online courses in Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community.

Tucker and Grim also edited Thomas Berry’s books, including Selected Writings (Orbis 2014). They published Thomas Berry: A Biography (Columbia University Press, 2019) with Andrew Angyal.

With Brian Thomas Swimme, Tucker and Grim created a multi-media project Journey of the Universe that includes a book (Yale, 2011), an Emmy Award winning film, a series of podcast Conversations, and free online courses from Yale/Coursera.

Elder Justina Mike Ngwobia is a peacebuiding practitioner who has been working in the field of interfaith relations for over 15 years. She holds a Bachelors’ degree in social work and administration. Her passion for Christian-Muslim harmony and dialogue grew when she moved to the northern part of Nigeria and discovered that the incessant crisis in that part of the world was the result of political manipulation: people were using the different religious groups for their own selfish gain, leading to violent conflicts. Her motivation grew when she visited people living in rural communities and saw how people were suffering and struggling to survive. Her major interest is focused on empowering communities through interfaith joint projects, adult education, peace clubs, Christian Muslim harmony, and the empowerment of women, which are all aimed at interfaith dialogue and sustainable development. She has travelled to different parts of the world sharing her experiences in interreligious dialogue. At present, she is the ecumenical coordinator of the Presbyterian church of Nigeria, Jos presbytery. She is also interested in promoting the participation of women in governance issues, peace and security. She considers her greatest milestone to be the establishment of the “Women Peace Builders Network” in Nigeria, which gives women the opportunity to add their voices to events in society through dialogue

Bani Dugal is the Principal Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the UN. She is serving as the Vice Chair of the Steering Committee of the NGO Working Group on the Security Council. She is the Vice President of the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, past Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, past Chair of the Global Forum of the NGO Committee on UNICEF, amongst several positions she has held at the UN in NY. Ms. Dugal holds a Master’s degree (LL.M) in Environmental Law from Pace University School of Law, New York and a law degree (LL.B) from the University of Delhi, India. She has authored published articles, statements and papers

Heidi Rautionmaa gives trainings on interworldview issues mainly for teachers, people of religious communities and youth. She has more than 20 years of experience in organizing various interfaith activities on the grass roots in Finland and internationally.  Currently Heidi is a KAICIID Fellow and a board member of ENORB (European Network on Religion & Belief) and a committee member of Religions for Peace European Women of Faith Network. She has also served several years as an ambassador of the Parliament of World’s Religions and as a Global Council Trustee of United Religions Initiative. At this moment she works in two projects at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University in Helsinki; for Peace and Global Citizenship Education and  for The Cultural, Worldview and Language Awareness in Basic Education.

Kiran Bali, MBE JP is a remarkable global organizational leader and spokesperson in areas of interfaith understanding, environmental justice, women’s empowerment, and peacebuilding through selfless service and multidisciplinary approaches. Tackling climate change through advocacy and empowering grassroots communities with knowledge, she launched the Hindu declaration on climate change in India and spoke at the launch of the inter-faith declaration on climate change in New York. As a UK magistrate, Kiran underpins all her initiatives with the principles of social justice, compassion and equity toward creating safer, healthier and stronger inclusive communities.

Tin Ma Ma Htet “Tess” is leading Saya Foundation, an education organization working for children across Myanmar. She is a teaching specialist with more than 15 years of experience in various sectors of education. Tess comes from a Hindu-Buddhist family, was educated in a Buddhist Monastic school and received her Masters of Teaching from a Catholic University. She loves children and believes in the power of education in creating a safer, more sustainable and equal world. She is currently working with women religious leaders, community teachers, teachers from faith-based schools and children across Myanmar. During COVID, she launched the “Learning at Home program”, the first free online education program for Myanmar children. Despite the unstable situation in Myanmar, she launched community based education programs . She works non-stop because children deserve quality education and a safe learning environment in any situation. Tess is a mother of a 15 months old baby and she works full time. Tess believes that “the value of life depends on the impact that person is making in the society” and she is trying her best to live an impactful life.