Keynote Speakers

Daisy Khan
Executive Director American Society For Muslim Advancement

Born in Kashmir, India, Ms. Khan spent the first 25 years of her career as an interior architect at various Fortune 500 companies. In 2005, she decided to fully dedicate herself to elevating the discourse on Islam, improving the lives of Muslims and non Muslims globally through ASMA and its sister organization the Cordoba Initiative.

Daisy Khan is Executive Director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), a non-profit organization dedicated to developing an American Muslim identity and to building bridges between the Muslim community and general public through dialogues in faith, identity, culture, and arts. Ms. Khan mentors young Muslims on challenges of assimilation, gender, religion and modernity, and intergenerational differences. In the aftermath of 9/11, Ms. Khan created interfaith programs to emphasize commonalities among the Abrahamic faith traditions, such as a groundbreaking theater titled Same Difference and the interfaith Cordoba Bread Fest.

To prioritize the improvement of Muslim-West relations and the advancement of Muslim women globally, Ms. Khan has launched two cutting edge intrafaith programs to start movements of change agents among the two disempowered majorities of the Muslim world: youth and women. The MLT: Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow and WISE: Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality programs were launched at an international scale in Doha (MLT) and in Malaysia (WISE). Both programs seek to convene, empower, and build networks in their target groups, and to facilitate the emergence of a leadership that speaks with a credible, humane, and equitable voice in the global Muslim community.

Ms. Khan has recently received major national coverage in the media on the recent rise of Islamophobia and Cordoba House. Daisy Khan is also active lecturing and debating in the United States and internationally. Her recent appearance on a panel with Christine Amanpour helped shift the narrative on how the media covers Islam in America. She has previously debated Christopher Hitchens on National Public Radio after the Danish cartoon crisis. She moderated a discussion in Denmark between young Muslims and Flemming Rose, the original publisher of the controversial cartoons. In May, 2007 Ms. Khan became the first Muslim woman to speak at Thanksgiving Square in Dallas, Texas on the National Day of Prayer.

Ms. Khan frequently comments on important issues in the media, and has appeared on ABC, PBS, BBC World, CNN, Fox News, National Geographic, Al Jazeerah, and the Hallmark Channel. She has also been quoted in several print publications, such as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Saudi Gazette, The National and Khaleej Times. In July 2007, Ms. Khan appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine along with 40 members of ASMA. In the same issue of the magazine, she also co-wrote an article on the symmetry between core Islamic values and the constitution of the United States.

Ms. Khan is the recipient of several awards, including the Interfaith Center's Award for Promoting Peace and Interfaith Understanding, the Auburn Seminary's Lives of Commitment Award, Hunt Alternatives Prime Movers Award, Women's E-News 21st leaders for 21st century. Jericho High School Alumni Hall of Fame Award.

Peter C. Phan, S.T.D., Ph.D., D.D.
Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought
Georgetown University

Peter C. Phan came to Georgetown University in 2003 and currently he holds the Ignacio Ellacuría Chair of Catholic Social Thought and is the founding Director of Graduate Studies of Ph.D. program in Theology and Religious Studies. He has earned three doctorates: S.T.D. from the Universitas Pontificia Salesiana, Rome, and Ph.D. and D.D. from the University of London. He has also received two honorary degrees: Doctor of Theology from Catholic Theological Union and Doctor of Humane Letters from Elms College. Professor Phan began his teaching career in philosophy at the age of eighteen at Don Bosco College, Hong Kong. In the United States, he has taught at the University of Dallas, TX; the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, where he held the Warren-Blanding Chair of Religion and Culture; Union Theological Seminary, NY; Elms College, Chicopee, MA; and St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI. He is also on the faculty of the East Asian Pastoral Institute, Manila, and Liverpool Hope University, England. He is the first non-Anglo to be elected President of Catholic Theological Society of America.

His publications in theology are wide-ranging. They deal with the theology of icon in Orthodox theology (Culture and Eschatology: The Iconographical Vision of Paul Evdokimov); patristic theology (Social Thought; Grace and the Human Condition); eschatology (Eternity in Time: A Study of Rahner's Eschatology; Death and Eternal Life); the history of mission in Asia (Mission and Catechesis: Alexandre de Rhodes and Inculturation in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam) and liberation, inculturation, and interreligious dialogue (Christianity with an Asian Face; In Our Own Tongues; Being Religious Interreligiously). In addition, he has edited some 20 volumes (e.g., Christianity and the Wider Ecumenism; Church and Theology; Journeys at the Margins; The Asian Synod; The Gift of the Church; Directory on Popular Piety and Liturgy). His many writings have been translated into Italian, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese. He is general editor of a multi-volume series entitled Theology in Global Perspective for Orbis Books and a multi-volume series entitled Ethnic American Pastoral Spirituality for Paulist Press. His writings have received many awards from learned societies.