New York, NY — The National Association of Episcopal Schools is pleased to announce that Eboo Patel, executive director of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), will offer the keynote address at the Association’s Biennial Conference 2010, November 18–20, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas, the theme of which will be “From Every Family, Language, People, and Nation.”
Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo Patel is the founder of IFYC, a Chicago-based institution building the global interfaith youth movement. Author of the award-winning book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, Eboo is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post, National Public Radio and CNN. He is a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.
Dr. Patel serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, on the Board of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA. He has spoken at the TED Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and universities around the world, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, the Review of Faith and International Affairs, and the Sunday Times of India. Eboo is a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum and an Ashoka Fellow, part of a select group of social entrepreneurs whose ideas are changing the world. He was named by Islamica Magazine as one of ten young Muslim visionaries shaping Islam in America; was chosen by Harvard’s Kennedy School Review as one of five future policy leaders to watch; and along with IFYC was honored with the Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom of Worship Medal in 2009.
At the annual Alumni Convocation at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) this past October 2009, Dr. Patel gave one of the two Zabriskie Lectures focusing on Christian formation in a multi-religious culture. Bringing a fresh perspective on the topic of diversity in his address entitled “Acts of Faith: Interfaith Leadership in a Time of Global Religious Crisis,” he said, “The tragedy of a diverse, open society is that, too often, it tends towards conflict if cooperation isn’t proactively built. The strength of our civic fabric has everything to do with the relationships between people of different backgrounds—between different communities.” We look forward to him sharing his thoughts on this and other topics at Biennial, which will include speakers from all of the Abrahamic faith traditions.
To learn more about Eboo Patel through podcasts and additional videos of his lectures and media appearances, click here.
Biennial Conference is NAES’ signature national conference for Episcopal school leaders, faculty members, and friends designed to develop leadership, governance, and the articulation of the Episcopal identity of our schools and to strengthen participants’ professional, spiritual, and personal development.
The National Association of Episcopal Schools (NAES) is an independently incorporated, voluntary membership organization that supports, serves, and advocates for the vital work and ministry of those who serve over 1,200 Episcopal schools, Early Childhood education programs, and school establishment efforts throughout The Episcopal Church. Chartered in 1965, with historic roots dating to the 1930s, NAES is the only pre-collegiate educational association that is both national in scope and Episcopal in character. The Association offers a variety of services, publications, resources, and conferences consonant with its mission and focused principally on Episcopal school identity, leadership, and governance, and on the spiritual and professional development of school leaders.