Selection Committee 

Friends of Faith will engage a Selection Committee to make decisions regarding invited delegates. These individuals will be chosen because they have significantly contributed, in some fashion, to interfaith dialogue.

These are people who have helped to develop the structure of the dialogue, or worked to expand it’s reach, or made it necessary to re-examine how we talk to and about people of other faiths. These committee members are not being chosen for the same reasons as the delegates; they do not need to have chosen a particular faith. They, and/or the organizations they represent, should be seen as balanced and fair foremost.

This committee will be made up of five to seven members, including one member chosen by the delegates from the panel each year. For purposes of the 2009 event, Mari Christie, founder, will take the place of the delegate member.

Qualities important to Selection Committee members:

• Significant contribution to interfaith dialogue

• Balance, fairness, and appreciation of all belief systems

• Ability to meet for 8-10 hours annually by videoconference, at agreed meeting times

• Public association with the event

• Ability to serve on the Committee for a minimum of one year (for purposes of the 2009 Summit, through the completion of the event)

• Desire to help define Delegate invitations based on the Selection Model

• Desire to help define event topics for discussion based on the Conversational Model

• Desire and ability to assist minimally in the development of the event, as needed

Selection Committee members will receive an honorarium, as well as airfare, hotel and free access to all proceedings associated with the Summit.

Initial invited Selection Committee members include:

• Paul Alexander, Director, Regis University Institute on the Common Good (Accepted)

• Karen Armstrong (Invited Chair), author of The Battle for God, A History of God

• Bill Moyers, Public Affairs Television

• David Smock, Director, Religion and Peace Initiative, United States Institute of Peace

• The Rev. Dr. Herbert Valentine, Founding President, The Interfaith Alliance

• Steven Waldman, CEO, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Beliefnet.com

• Mari Christie, Event Director, Friends of Faith Summit

Biographies of Accepted Selection Committee members will appear here as their involvement is confirmed.

Paul Alexander is Director of the Institute on the Common Good at Regis University.  Prior to that he served as the Degree Chair for the Master of Nonprofit Management Program (MNM) at Regis.  He initiated the new leadership curriculum for the MNM program, with its enhanced focus on internal development and service and helped create the Colorado Trust Fellows Project. He has over twenty years experience in the nonprofit sector, most recently serving as Executive Director of Denver Youth Employment Service and Program Director for the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development.  He has traveled extensively and lived and worked in Spain and Latin America.  He currently serves on the boards of the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning, the Colorado Nonprofit Loan Fund, the Rocky Mountain Regional Steering Committee of the PeaceJam Foundation, the International Multicultural Institute, the National Coalition on Dialogue and Deliberation, and the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado.  He has a BA from Williams College, an MA in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and has a Ph.D. in Community Dialogue with the Union Institute and University.

Mari A. Christie is the Founder and Event Director for Friends of Faith. She has been managing and promoting successful events since 1988, ranging from small seminars and consumer events to sizable trade shows and exhibitions. In 1989, when she was just 17, she was the creator of the first University of Northern Colorado Apartheid Awareness Day, and from 1991-95, she was promoter of Colorado's original Poetry Slam, including managing the first Colorado Poetry Slam team, ranked 8th internationally. She acted as Show Manager for the China and East Asia Mineral Resources Show in 2000, Assistant Show Manager for the Rocky Mountain Film and Video Expo from 1996-2000 and the Total Technology Expo 2000, and Production Manager for the SAGEEP and Rocks geological symposia for the Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society and the American Rock Mechanics Association, respectively. Concurrently, she has provided print marketing and communications services to a variety of clients, including The Denver Press Club, Multi-Link Communications, Auraria Campus, The Colorado Film and Video Association, ExpoMasters, the Denver Studio Complex, John-Phillip’s Printing, and others. Ms. Christie is currently enrolled at the University of Colorado, pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Writing, with a minor in Religious Studies.  

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