Board of Directors

SOHAIL AKHTER, Board Secretary
Sohail Akhter is the founder of The Cordoba Foundation, a non-profit organization working to promote education about Islam and elderly care for Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attends South Valley Islamic Center in Gilroy, California where he served as president for two terms, leading numerous community service and interfaith events with both Jewish and Christian communities. Sohail has long been an activist for peacebuilding, community outreach and civil rights initiatives, participating regularly in interfaith dialogue and community outreach programs with organizations such as Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Networks Group (ING) and United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance. Sohail has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and a 20-year professional career in Sales, Marketing and Corporate Development.

ROD CARDOZA, Founder and Executive Director
Rod Cardoza is a cultural, theological and linguistic anthropologist. He has published ethnographic research on Muslim ritual, and lectures internationally on Muslim-Christian dialogue. He studied Urdu language at Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India. He researched social stratification among Muslim communities in Ahmedabad, India; shamanism among Maguindanaon Muslims in rural Mindanao, Philippines; and Shi'ite mourning rituals in Gujarat, India. He worked closely with leading Muslim scholars from Delhi University and Hazrat Pir Mohammed Shah Research Centre in India to publish faith-based, peacebuilding Urdu texts which have proven instrumental in helping militant extremists pursue peace non-violently. More recently, he researched the role of Muslim cinematography in teaching Islamic knowledge in Egypt, where Rod lived with his family for two and one-half years while studying Arabic. Rod has lectured widely at universities, Bible colleges, and seminaries such as San Jose State University, Lewis & Clark College, American University DC, Biola University, Multnomah Bible College, and San Jose Bible College. Rod attends a Mennonite church in San Jose, California. He authored "New Paths in Muslim-Christian Dialog: Understanding Islam from the Light of Earliest Jewish Christianity," (originally presented in Washington, DC at the Annual Conference on Muslim Peace, Justice and Interfaith Dialogue sponsored by Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, and Islamic Society of North America), which has recently been accepted for publication in The Muslim World, a journal devoted to the study of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations.

DR. ANN HOLMES REDDING
Dr. Ann Holmes Redding is the founder of Abrahamic Reunion West, a non-profit institute in Seattle committed to healing the global dysfunction of the Abrahamic family of faith. Ann holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Union Theological Seminary in New York. She served as an Episcopal priest for 25 years, and has been teaching theology at universities and seminaries since 1985, most recently as Visiting Assistant Professor at Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry where she taught courses on Synoptic Gospels, New Testament Introduction, Pauline Epistles, and Gospel of John. Ann was Assistant Professor at Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia where she taught Biblical Greek and Hebrew. She served as Associate Faculty of New York Theological Seminary where she taught courses in biblical hermeneutics, New Testament, Greek and Hebrew. Ann is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, and American Academy of Religion. Ann inherited a rich legacy in social justice from her father Louis L. Redding, Delaware's first African American lawyer who argued the historic Brown v. Board of Education case before the U.S. Supreme Court to dismantle racial segregation in the United States during the civil rights era. Ann continued her father's work with programs ending racism in the Episcopal church and elsewhere. Ann worships in Seattle at Al-Islam Center and at Episcopal churches, practicing both Islam and Christianity. Ann believes the two religions complement and illuminate each other. Reading the Qur'an through the lens of the Bible, and the Bible through the lens of the Qur'an, Ann embodies within herself a peaceful coexistence of Christianity and Islam. Ann co-authored Out of Darkness, Into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources and is a frequent speaker at interfaith events, churches, spiritual retreats, colleges and seminaries.

DAVE WEISS, Board Treasurer
Dave Weiss is a retired executive with General Electric Nuclear Energy, where he worked for over 35 years in a variety of capacities including Senior Engineer, Engineering Manager, and Nuclear Fuel Project Manager. Dave managed $100 million contracts to produce fuel for nuclear power plants to create electricity. Dave earned his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and his masters in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. For over thirty years, Dave has been serving his local community, building wheelchair ramps for the handicapped, and maintaining the homes of widows. Dave has also served internationally, travelling with church-sponsored building projects to Jamaica, Ecuador, San Salvador, Bolivia, France, and Ethiopia. Dave and his wife currently serve as a host family with the US-China Exchange Council for visiting government officials from China attending San Jose State University.