UPF
UPF


Team



Daniel Tutt
Luby Ismail
Michael Wolfe
Alexander Kronemer





Daniel Tutt, Outreach Coordinator

Daniel is the Outreach Coordinator for 20,000 Dialogues, a national interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue project combining film and discussion for positive social change. In this capacity, he develops and leads trainings, builds partnerships, facilitates dialogue and manages a national program. He frequently presents workshops and speaks at universities, congregations and conferences on interfaith dialogue and faith-based civic engagement. He has served a year of public service as an Americorps*VISTA at the Points of Light Foundation under the faith-based initiative that helps to solve poverty issues. Daniel is also an M.A. candidate at the School for International Service at American University studying Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs, a multidisciplinary approach to contemporary problems. An advisor for groups such as the Washington Region for Justice and Inclusion, Youth Building Bridges program, the Muslim Advisory Arts Council of Americans for Informed Democracy, and board member of the 9/11 Unity Walk, a multi-city peace walk that celebrates America's pluralism and diversity, held annually in New York and Washington, DC.

Contact him at Daniel@upf.tv

Top





Luby Ismail, Advisor

Hi, my name is Lobna "Luby" Ismail and I am founder and president of Connecting Cultures, Inc. I am a training specialist in cross-cultural communication with a specialty on Arab and American cultures, Islam and religious diversity.

I was raised in a small, southern town where we were the only Muslims and Americans of Arab origin in a predominantly conservative Christian community. My experience was overall positive. My friends and I focused on our shared values: a love of God, an avoidance of drugs and alcohol, and a commitment to do good works in our community. We differed and respected one another at the same time.

Recently, I have been training Arab and Muslim teens that are new to an American high school. This was a very powerful experience, as it required breaking down barriers and training people to know the person behind the "labels," like "Muslim," "American," Jewish," Christian,", etc.

This is why I’m very excited to be a part of 20,000 Dialogues, because not only have I lived this experience, but through my work I have witnessed the power of everyday people meeting, talking, exchanging and sharing and I have seen the impact it can make in our communities, our countries and the world.

More about Luby
Lobna Ismail is the author of "Doing Business in the Middle East and North Africa" and "Finding Diversity." She is frequently used as an expert by national media and major international news programs and recently received press in Associated Press, The Washington Post, BBC World News and PBS's Religion and Ethics News.

Selected as a Peace Fellow for Seeds of Peace and a Malone Fellow in Middle East and Islamic Studies by the National Council for U.S. and Arab Relations, Luby participated in a study visit to Saudi Arabia. Luby has been providing training for hundreds of law enforcement agencies on Arab and Muslim Americans and on Iraq and Iraqi cultural considerations for police trainers and the U.S. military.

She holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a B.A. in International Service from The American University in Washington, DC. She has traveled throughout Europe, including Bosnia and Croatia, and the Middle East, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel.

Top





Michael Wolfe, Producer, Unity Productions Foundation

Michael Wolfe is a co-founder of Unity Productions Foundation (www.upf.tv). Unity Production Foundation is a registered non-profit corporation whose mission is to help build peace through the media by increasing understanding of the world’s other spiritual and cultural traditions.

Unity Production's first project was Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, which had its initial national broadcast on PBS in December, 2002. It began to air worldwide on National Geographic International in November, 2003.

Wolfe wrote and narrated the 1997 Emmy-nominated Nightline special on the Muslim Pilgrimage, which was also nominated for Peabody, George Polk, and Overseas Press Club awards. A writer with many publications, his most recent work, Taking Back Islam (Rodale Press 2003), was awarded the Wilbur Prize as the year’s best book of objective reporting on religious themes in American culture.

Top







Alexander Kronemer is the other co-founder of Unity Productions Foundation. He is a frequent writer and lecturer on Religion and Islamic Civilization. He has a degree in Theology from Harvard University and was an advisor and on-air commentator to CNN in 1998 during their first year of live coverage of the Pilgrimage to Mecca.

He is the author of many articles and essays, which have appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the Christian Science Monitor, and in book collections such as the 9/11 remembrance book, Up From the Ashes.

A frequent lecturer on Islamic History, he has spoken at numerous colleges, universities, and institutions, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Department of State, the World Affairs Council, and the Council on U.S.- Arab Relations.

Kronemer has also served in public life, most recently in 2000 at a one-year appointment to the U.S. State Department Office of Human Rights and International Religious Freedom. He was a delegate to the 2000 Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Top




  Unity Productions Foundation. All rights reserved. Design: TenPearls