AU Phone: x3324
Email: jasonb@american.edu

Jason Benkendorf has served as the Executive Director of American University Hillel since 2011. An AU alumnus, he is excited to return to his old stomping grounds to work and learn with the extraordinary people who make up the AU community.

Jason comes to Hillel following five years with The Curriculum Initiative (TCI), an organization that supports inclusive Jewish programming at independent high schools. He previously served as Senior Officer of Public and Academic Affairs at the Embassy of Israel, during which time he worked closely with student activists at AU and other DC area campuses. Jason has also been involved with BBYO in a variety of capacities over the last fifteen years.

A passion for public service brought Jason to DC, and he received his BA in political science from the AU School of Public Affairs. He subsequently completed an MBA at Johns Hopkins University with a concentration in organization development.

Jason is a devoted Washington Nationals fan, an avid reader, and a summer camp enthusiast (17 years and counting). No matter the weather, rest assured that he wishes he was wearing flip flops.

Email: mollief@american.edu

Mollie Feldman joined AU Hillel's team in July 2017 as Assistant Director and Senior Jewish Educator. Mollie received two master's degrees from the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University. She previously served as the youth director at a synagogue in Minneapolis and as an educator at Brandeis Collegiate Institute, an innovative four-week residential program for Jewish young adults. Mollie completed the Experiential Jewish Educators Program at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem and received a Certificate in Experiential Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College.

Email: sberns@american.edu

Sarah Bernstein, originally from Massachusetts, joined the AU Hillel team in August 2020 as the Springboard Social Justice Fellow. Sarah graduated from the University of Delaware in May 2020 with a B.A. in Public Policy and Communications and was deeply involved on campus as an organizer with Planned Parenthood’s student affiliate group. Sarah is thrilled to support AU Hillel’s student engagement and social justice initiatives and create thought-provoking, inclusive, and intersectional programming rooted in Jewish values.

 

Personal Phone: (240) 880-7708
Email: ahmad@minaret.org

Born on in 1948 at sea to Palestinian refugee parents, Dr. Ahmad was raised in Pennsylvania. He graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1970 and in 1975 obtained a Ph. D. in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Arizona. He teaches an introductory course on Islam at the Wesley Theological Seminary and holds a position as senior lecturer at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD where he has taught honors courses in "Religion and Progress" and on "Religion, Science, and Freedom." He has also taught college courses on Islam and Development at Georgetown University and graduate courses in Islam and Development and Theory of Social Change at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies. Dr. Ahmad has lectured on Islam at the Foreign Services Institute and for the Joint Special Operations University's Middle East Orientation Course. He has done postdoctoral work in astronomy at Harvard, the University of Maryland, and under contract to Goddard Space Flight Center and for private firms. He is currently President of the Minaret of Freedom Institute, an Islamic think-tank in the Washington, DC area.

Dr. Ahmad is an internationally sought-after speaker on matters relating to Islam and Muslims. He is author of Signs in the Heavens, co-editor of Islam and the West: A Dialog, and co-author of Islam and the Discovery of Freedom. Dr. Ahmad's essay "An Islamic Perspective on the Wealth of Nations" appears in the International Library of Critical Writings on Economics series #129 The Economics of Property Rights. His most recent books are The Islamic Rules of Order and the Directory of Policy Experts in Islamic Studies and Muslim Affairs. In addition to serving as a Muslim chaplain at American University, he is a chaplain at the Adventist Behavioral Center and the Perkins Hospital, Imam of the Dar-adh-Dhikr Mosque, President of the Islamic-American Zakat Foundation, and arbitrator for the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area. He resides in Bethesda with his wife Frances Eddy.

Dr. Ahmad has received the "Star Cup for Outstanding Public Service" award from the Montgomery County Civic Federation, the "Champion of Democracy Award" from Marylanders for Democracy, the "Samuel P. Chase Freedom Award" from the Libertarian Party of Maryland, and the "Sentinel Award" from the Montgomery County Civic Federation.

E-mail: nakshben@american.edu

Ghiyath Nakshbendi, was the Founder of the first college Masjid at Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland back in 1972, where he was tenured faculty. Most recently, he serves as a volunteer Muslim Chaplain at the Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University, and faculty advisor to several university student-run organizations, including the Muslim Student Association (MSA).

Ghiyath left academia to pursue a 25-year career in the financial industry. He is a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) subject-matter expert, with a focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and has conducted work on significant projects in the region spanning from Mauritania to Oman, over a period of 20 years. He was a member of the Advisory Committee on U.S.—Muslim World Relations formed in 2006 at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and is currently a fellow of the Sovereign Investment Lab and the ? BAFFI CAREFIN Centre for Applied Research on International Markets, Banking, Finance and Regulation at Università Bocconi and the National Council on US-Arab Relations

He returned to academia in 2007 to teach business courses at the American University, at i) the Kogod School of Business, in addition to, being an affiliate faculty member of ii) the School on International Service, the Arab World Studies Program and iii) the College of Arts and Sciences. Ghiyath was a guest of the United States Department of State’s (DOS) tour in 2008 to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan where he spoke about Islam in America.

At American University he introduced the first academic courses in the Washington, D.C. area on Islamic Finance at the graduate and undergraduate levels, in addition to, the first Graduate Certificate in Islamic Finance in the United States. Ghiyath is a Fulbright Scholar and has been affiliated with five other educational institutions of higher learning in the United States and abroad, where he has taught various business courses in the Arabic language.

Ghiyath is a frequent speaker in both the domestic and international arenas, and presented at the U.S. Department of State and Foreign Service Institute. His television, radio and print interviews, includes: Dubai TV, Alhurra Television, Express News, SNRT of Morocco, HOT 102 FM Station of Jamaica, Atlantic Radio of Morocco, VOA, SkyNewsArabia, Kuwait TV, FM 93.3 Radio of Kuwait, Oman TV, Xinhua News Agency, Al Ekhbariya TV of Saudi Arabia, French TV, France 24 and Radio Monte Carlo International, among others. 

Ghiyath received his Bachelor of Commercial Sciences from the University of Aleppo, Syria; earned his Master in Business Administration from the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas; and was awarded his Ph.D. in Business Administration from American University, Washington, D.C.

Email: rchicknel@aol.com

As a 40 year practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism and member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Barbara has been a Buddhist Chaplain with the Kay Center since 2011. Through the practice of Nichiren Buddhism, people awaken to the dignity and power within, allowing them to transform their lives on the deepest level thereby creating an indestructibly happy life state and desire to contribute to a peaceful society. Barbara has held various responsibilities and leadership roles within SGI and participated in the many SGI activities aimed at fostering peace, culture and education both locally and internationally.

Barbara holds two degrees in Psychology, a Bachelor's Degree from George Washington University and a Masters Degree from Catholic University. During a career in Criminal Justice, she counseled offenders and worked with youth and families. She served as a board member for two DC schools and has worked with a local group of neuropsychologists in coaching and tutoring youth with learning and emotional disabilities. She currently has a private tutoring practice.

Buddhist Chaplain
AU Phone: x3329
Personal Phone: (301) 946-9437
Email: kuparatana@gmail.com

In 1981 Ven. Dr. Henepola Gunaratana, the president of Washington Buddhist Vihara invited Bhante Katugastota Uparatana to join the temple as a resident monk. Upon arriving, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy at University of District of Colombia. He has served as the Buddhist chaplain at American University in Washington, D.C. since 1989 where he also teaches Vipassana meditation. In an effort to nourish Theravada Buddhism among the Sri Lankan, American and foreign born people in the United States, Bhante Uparatana founded the International Buddhist Center in Wheaton, Maryland in 1996.

A few years ago, Bhante Uparatana was appointed the co-president of the International Buddhist Committee, which encompasses all Mahayana and Theravada temples and centers in the Washington metropolitan area, and year 2000 he was appointed to host International Vesak, a celebration of Vesak by all of the temples and centers collectively.

Email: kpsekhsaria@gmail.com

Kavita Pallod Sekhsaria is currently pursuing her doctorate in clinical psychology at Rutgers, and is completing her internship in Maryland this year. She has been involved in the Hindu community and efforts to educate young Hindus about their faith throughout her life through numerous settings, including as a Hindu Camp Director, as as a student leader of the Hindu Student group at her alma mater (The University of Texas), and as a creator of Hinduism 101 (a resource for teachers to use in the classroom). She is very excited about the opportunity to bring together her passion for both emotional and spiritual well-being as a chaplain at AU this year. 

AU Phone: x3329
Personal Phone: (202) 537-6478
Email: ddenize@stalbansschool.org

Donna Denizé, of Haitian-American descent, is the author of the poetry chapbook, "The Lover's Voice" (1997) and a book of poems, "Broken Like Job" (2005). Her poems have appeared in anthologies such as Hungry As We Are; WPFW Poetry Anthology; Weavings 2000, and magazines, Provincetown Arts, Gargoyle, World Order, Innisfree Journal of Poetry, and Orison. She holds degrees from Stonehill College and Howard University, where she was a student of poet Robert Hayden, while he served as Consultant to the Library of Congress. She served two years on The Folger Poetry Board, and has also contributed to scholarly books and journals, including Shakespeare Set Free, published by the Folger Shakespeare Library and Teacher’s Digest, an educational magazine from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was also one of eight invited teacher's for The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s eight part mini-series, In Search of the Novel (aired nationwide, 2000-present).

In 2003, she was awarded by Williams College the George Olmsted Jr., Prize for excellence in secondary teaching, and in 2004, she was appointed to the board of trustees of The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) in Staunton, Virginia. She currently teaches literature at St. Albans School for Boys, where she has taught Shakespeare, American literature, and freshman English for 20 years, and during the summer, teaches in “The Cathedral Scholars Program,” an outreach program of academic enrichment which serves students from 18 different D.C. public schools.

AU Phone: x3329
Personal Phone: (301) 652-2205
Email: cjonescarroll@aol.com

Charlotte Jones-Carroll, an SIS BA '67 alumna, became AU's Unitarian-Universalist lay chaplain in 2001. Campus ministry for UU-preference students is sponsored by River Road Unitarian-Universalist Congregation (RRUUC) in Bethesda, Charlotte's home congregation, under supervision of Rev. Nancy Ladd. Before Charlotte took up this role, she served 31 years in USAID and World Bank positions, earned an MPA at Princeton University, and studied peacebuilding and conflict transformation informally at AU and Eastern Mennonite U. She has worked with high school youth as well at RRUUC, and served on that congregation's board, as well as the board of the UU Service Committee in Cambridge, MA and several other non-profit organizations' boards in the DC area. Charlotte and her husband Tom have an adult daughter, Ilona Carroll, and live in Chevy Chase, MD.

AU Phone: x3329
Email: biber@american.edu

Chaplain Biber is the faculty adviser to the Secular Student Alliance at AU. He is an ordained Humanistic rabbi who for thirteen years served a DC congregation called Machar, the Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism ('Machar' means 'tomorrow' in Hebrew). He served as the President of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis - North America, is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street – working for a just peace between Israel and Palestine, and was a board member of the Humanist Society, the professional organization of chaplains and officiants active within the American Humanist Association (AHA).

• Secular Student Alliance at AU "Campus Labs" link
• Secular Student Alliance on Facebook
• Humanist Chaplaincy at AU on Facebook

AU Phone: x3326
Personal Phone: (703) 405-9003
Email: gthrowe@gmail.com

Gene Throwe is an alumnus of the American University Washington Semester Program (Spring ’92) where he studied foreign policy. He holds a BA from Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC. Gene currently works for a non-profit that advocates for nursing education. He is active with Friends Meeting of Washington (Quaker) in Dupont Circle and was led to develop an outreach program between local college students and the Quaker community after attending a retreat on engaging young adults in Quakerism. Gene currently serves on the Ministry and Worship Committee at his meeting and is active with the Young Adult Friends. His hobbies include knitting and crocheting, reading, and he is active in LGBT issues.