2026 Honorees

Rev. Fabian Arias is a pastor at the Saint Peter’s Church. Immigrant accompaniment is a central part of his ministry. Weekly he goes to Federal Plaza and sits in on immigration hearings, checks whether people have attorneys, serves as a translator and gathers information when a person is detained. Every Thursday he leads a Jericho Walk, a silent procession of prayer and meditation circling the Federal Plaza seven times, reminiscent of the story of the Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho for seven days before the walls fell. Every Sunday after Mass, he holds special sessions with lawyers to offer legal advice to immigrant families. Every Tuesday he holds a food giveaway in Jackson Heights for immigrants. The Argentine-born pastor first came to Saint Peter’s more than two decades ago as an immigrant himself and the people of the Church accompanied him throughout the immigration process.

After his ordination in 2003, Pastor Arias began his ministry leading Iglesia de Sion. When the economic downturn of 2008 sullied plans to build a mixed condo-religious-community space on Sion’s original home in Spanish Harlem, he led the community into diaspora, and then ultimately to a new home at Saint Peter’s Church. Inglesia de Sion merged with Saint Peter’s Church in January 2020.

The Forum on Faith 2026 aligns with the Inaugural NYU Interfaith Week, organized by the NYU Center for Global Spiritual Life. Brandon Dunkley, Special Advisor, Spiritual Life Education and Outreach, will accept the award on behalf of the Center.

The Center for Global Spiritual Life (GSL) is home to robust and vibrant religious, spiritual, and ethical communities at NYU. Guided by their commitment to religious literacy and pluralism, GSL provides opportunities for interfaith engagement, contemplative practices, learning, and leadership development. GSL works alongside students, faculty, staff, and alums to foster belonging, transcendence, storytelling, and purpose as they cultivate a life of meaning during their time at NYU and beyond.

Brandon leads the Interfaith Supper Club. Launched in 2024, this Club brings students together for 6 dinners per semester focused on dialogue across diverse religious and spiritual worldviews. This program offers an intentional co-curricular space to cultivate essential interfaith engagement and bridge-building skills. By sharing meals and authentic narratives, participants foster deep belonging across lines of difference while refining their ability to engage pluralism on campus and beyond.

Rachel Steinberg is the Vice President for Foundation Partnerships at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) USA, where she leads a team responsible for managing high-impact partnerships with institutional foundations. From 2013-2025, Rachel led funding partnerships with civil society organizations at UUSA, including faith-based organizations. She was instrumental in forming UNICEF’s partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has reached millions of women and children with life-saving and transformative programs. These included the Learning for Life program serving displaced children below the age of 5 and their host communities with early childhood education, psychosocial care, and teacher and caregiver training and resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, and the Church’s committed partnership to the Global Programme to Eliminate Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus, amongst many other programs addressing maternal, newborn and child health, nutrition, and humanitarian response.

Imam Shahidullah’s service exemplifies the power of faith leadership to build bridges, strengthen communities, and foster meaningful partnerships across religious, civic and governmental institutions.

As an imam, chaplain, multifaith scholar, first responder, educator, and community organizer, Imam Shahidullah has consistently carried his spiritual leadership beyond the walls of the mosque. His work has included collaboration with the NYPD Clergy Council, interfaith and civic organizations, educational institutions, and public agencies, alongside initiatives focused on community resources, immigrant support, peacebuilding, combating hate, and strengthening relationships among New Yorkers of different faiths and backgrounds.

What distinguishes Imam Shahidullah is his commitment to partnership as an expression of faith—bringing together people, institutions, and communities around a shared responsibility to serve others. His sustained efforts to promote dialogue, mutual respect, civic engagement, and peaceful coexistence reflect the kind of spiritual leadership that strengthens not only a faith community, but New York as a whole.

Paul Lambert is the Religion Initiative Director at the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University. He is a national expert on religious pluralism in society, including the role of pluralism in economics and business. He works extensively with global business fellows at the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, assisting with their corporate training and consulting. Prior to his current position, he was Assistant Dean at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and before that at the National Defense University (NDU) where he was Professor and lead Academic Officer of a congressionally-funded Department of Defense and Department of State American Studies graduate program for students from over 75 countries. Lambert holds a doctorate from Georgetown University, a masters degree from Tufts University and a bachelors from BYU.

Harmeet Kaur Kamboj, Assistant Director of Workplace Strategy, supports Interfaith America’s initiatives advancing religious inclusion in the private sector. Harmeet holds a M.A. in Interreligious Engagement and S.T.M. in Religion & Society from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. They also hold a B.A. in English from the College of William & Mary. Prior to serving in their current role, Harmeet led state- and local-level advocacy campaigns at the Sikh Coalition. They previously served on IA’s Higher Education team and have held positions at America Indivisible, the Campaign for Youth Justice, and the Public Religion Research Institute. In their free time, Harmeet enjoys teaching South Asian folk and classical dance and learning about the history of food around the world.

Susan is director of operations and community engagement for the Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA (FOR-USA), and a member of the International Committee of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), for which she serves as a UN representative. In 2024, on behalf of IFOR and FOR-USA, she helped launch and develop a Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine network. She is a founding member of the International Sanctuary Declaration Campaign, and has been involved in justice and resettlement work with migrants in Italy, Greece, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, the Western Sahara, and Algeria, as well as with the unhoused in the USA. She is a former resident of the Community of Living Traditions at Stony Point Center, an intentional community of Jews, Christians and Muslims drawing upon the core of their faith traditions to engage in peace and social justice work. A former Islamic school principal, she is the author of Biblical Children’s Stories As Told in the Qur’an. Susan is a former United Nations employee who worked in the Department of Public Information and Department of Peace-keeping Operations in the Western Sahara.

Rev. Finn serves as the director of the Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Office since 1999, and as director of the ministry in previously oblate offices domestically and in Rome. He is Chief of Faith Consistent Investing for the Oblate International Pastoral (OIP) Investment Trust and represents the OIP at Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).  He is an international leader in faith-consistent and socially-responsible investing and serves as a consultant to a number of investment committees. He served as Chair of the Board of the ICCR , and was instrumental in the formation of the International Interfaith Investment Group.

Rev. Finn actively engages corporations in the financial and extractives sectors, as well as multinationals on labor and supply chain issues. He serves on the board of the Forest Peoples Programme; on the steering committee of the Mining and Faiths Reflection Imitative; the advisory committee of the Development Partner Institute; a member of the Fact Coalition.

The Invest in Education Foundation educates and advocates for K-12 education freedom and choice and supports a national coalition in support of such policies. Peter Murphy is Vice President of Invest in Education Foundation and he is accepting the award on its behalf. He previously served as Policy and Communications Director at the New York Charter Schools Association, the statewide membership organization of charter schools in New York, and in the Office of New York Governor George Pataki, where he helped develop the New York Charter Schools Act and the School Tax Relief (STAR) program.  He also held positions at the New York State Division of the Budget, the state Senate Finance Committee, and the Empire Foundation for Policy Research.  

Lenora is the Director of Administration & Community Building at the JCC in Harlem. She manages programs, partnerships, communications and stakeholder relationships across nonprofit and community-based organizations. She is simultaneously a graduate student at the Union Theological Seminary. She is described as a “focused… young activist who is dedicated to building bridges. Her interfaith work in her Harlem community transcends borders. Her stellar intergenerational efforts are especially noteworthy.”