By JoAnne Wadsworth, Communications Consultant, G20 Interfaith Forum
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The 2026 Annual G20 Interfaith Forum, “Resilient Hope, Shared Future,” takes place October 15 to 17 in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is the third in a short series introducing some of the people taking part. The first featured religious leaders and the second featured government and policy voices; the last will feature academics, media, and research participants. Please note that the program is still being finalized, and the names below do not represent a complete list of the practitioners and humanitarian leaders expected.
Much of what faith communities contribute to global problems happens far from any policy table: in clinics and classrooms, in disaster response, in savings groups and shelters and violence interruption programs. The Forum brings that work into the same room as policy conversations. This year’s participants include people running organizations that operate across dozens of countries, others working block by block in a single city, and a number who move between the two. A selection follows.
Civic and Interfaith Leadership
Martin Luther King III is a humanitarian and civic leader and Ambassador for Global Human Rights, and has spent decades carrying forward his family’s work on nonviolence and civil rights. He will join the Thursday afternoon session on peacemaking through disagreeing better at the Historic Tabernacle.
Dr. Francis Kuria Kagema has served as Secretary General of Religions for Peace International since 2024, guiding a network of more than ninety interreligious councils worldwide, and continues as Secretary General of the African Council of Religious Leaders. He previously led the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya and has worked extensively on countering violent extremism and on women’s and youth participation in peacebuilding. He will speak at the opening ceremony.
Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi is Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, which supports locally rooted peacebuilding in conflict-affected regions. He will moderate the Friday plenary on extending G20 horizons toward the 2030 deadline.
Ms. Audrey Kitagawa is Founder and President of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation and Chair of the IF20 Anti-Racism Initiative, which has convened international dialogue on antisemitism, religicide, and racial and religious violence. She will moderate the session on preventing and addressing gender based violence.
Prof. Azza Karam is President of Lead Integrity and directs the Kahane UN Program at Occidental College. She previously served as Secretary General of Religions for Peace and spent years at the United Nations working on religion and development. She will speak on the Saturday plenary on energy policy, religion, peace, and human flourishing.
Fraser Bullock has led Olympic organizing efforts in Utah, serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games and going on to lead the committee bringing the Games back to the state. He will appear on the Friday evening plenary alongside Olympic athletes.
Hunger, Poverty, and Economic Empowerment
Rev. Dr. David Beckmann coordinates the Circle of Protection, a coalition of church leaders advocating for programs that serve people in poverty. He led Bread for the World for more than two decades and previously worked as an economist at the World Bank. He will speak on the Deadline 2030 plenary and in the session on faith engagement on poverty and hunger.
Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne is President of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka’s largest grassroots development organization, which serves thousands of village communities across ethnic and religious lines through an approach rooted in Buddhist principles. A physician specializing in public health, he led Sarvodaya’s response to the 2004 tsunami and founded its microfinance arm. He will speak on the Friday morning plenary on unleashing human potential for the common good.
Dr. Kim Tan is Chairman of SpringHill Management and a partner in several social impact funds operating in South Africa, Kenya, Singapore, and the United States. He co-founded the Transformational Business Network and has written on social venture capital as an approach to poverty. He will speak on the Friday morning plenary.
Affan Cheema is Director of International Programs at Islamic Relief Worldwide, which delivers humanitarian and development programs across dozens of countries. He will speak in the session on faith engagement in pandemic prevention and preparedness.
Mrs. Elissa McConkie Gifford directs Humanitarian Services for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, overseeing relief and development work carried out through the church’s global network and its partnerships with other organizations. She will speak on the Deadline 2030 plenary.
Health, Disaster Response, and Disability
Debra Boudreaux is a senior volunteer with the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation and formerly Chief Executive Officer of Tzu Chi USA. With more than three decades in charity, medical care, education, and humanitarian aid, she has served on community advisory councils through SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and COVID-19, and sits on the UN Multi-Faith Advisory Council. She will speak in the session on how faith actors respond to disasters.
Doug Fountain is Executive Director of Christian Connections for International Health, a network of organizations working on global health. He will help moderate the session on faith engagement in pandemic prevention and preparedness.
The clubfoot treatment session brings together an unusually practical group: Martin Egbert of Allymar LLC and Allyson Egbert, President of the Las Vegas Alliance for Religious Freedom and Human Dignity, will lead a discussion with Ann Parker of the Rotary Action Group for Clubfoot, George Santhosh of CURE Clubfoot India, Todd Becker of Clubfoot Solutions, Dr. Theressa Henessey of Shriners Hospital for Children, and Dr. Monica Nogueira of the Ponseti International Association. Roughly 250,000 children are born with clubfoot each year, many without access to the treatment method that can correct it in infancy.
Climate and Environment
Fletcher Harper is an Episcopal priest and Executive Director of GreenFaith, an international interfaith climate and environmental organization that organizes religious communities for environmental action. He will moderate the session on faith communities and a planet in crisis.
Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards serves as Climate Action Fellow at Texas Impact, an interfaith advocacy network working on state and federal policy. She will speak in the session on faith communities and a planet in crisis.
Rick Twelves works as a Sustainability Office Consultant in the Presiding Bishopric Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He will speak in the session on faith communities and a planet in crisis.
Prof. Husna Ahmad OBE is Chief Executive Officer of Global One 2015, an international development organization working on water, sanitation, food security, and women’s empowerment from an Islamic perspective. She will speak on the Saturday plenary on energy policy, religion, peace, and human flourishing.
Anti-Trafficking and Violence Prevention
Sister Sally Duffy, SC serves on the Executive Board of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, a collaborative of Catholic sisters and partners working on survivor services and prevention. She will take part in the session on human trafficking and modern forms of slavery.
Katie Boller Gosewisch is Executive Director of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking. She will take part in the human trafficking session.
Timothy Wren is a consulting and global business leader who will join the human trafficking session, bringing a private sector perspective to questions of supply chains and labor exploitation.
Ms. Karen Volker is Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative, a global grassroots interfaith network. Her work has focused on interrupting and preventing violence, including an approach that treats violence as a behavior that spreads and can be stopped rather than as a fixed trait of individuals. She will speak in the session on preventing and addressing gender based violence.
Ms. Liliana Olvera-Arbon is Executive Director of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, which supports survivors and works on prevention across the state. She will speak in the gender based violence session.
Education, Youth, and Technology
Mr. Matius Ho is Executive Director of the Leimena Institute in Indonesia, which has developed cross-cultural religious literacy training for teachers and students at significant scale. He will speak in the session on educational initiatives for social cohesion.
Mrs. Maria Lucia Uribe Torres is Executive Director of Arigatou International Geneva, which works on ethics education for children and interfaith cooperation for child wellbeing. She will speak in the session on educational initiatives for social cohesion.
Dr. Liliya Khasanova, Riley Anderson, and Sara Rahim represent A Common Word Among the Youth, or ACWAY, which trains and connects young interfaith peacebuilders. Dr. Khasanova is Executive Director, Riley Anderson is Program Coordinator, and Sara Rahim is a Fellow and Trustee. They will lead the session on religion, peace, and the next generation of peacemakers, which examines how young people of faith can move from dialogue toward community action and civic impact.
Ben Olsen is Executive Director of the Faith Family Technology Network, which works with families and faith communities on technology use. He will speak in the session on AI innovation and human dignity.
Christina Tobias-Nahi is Director of Government Affairs at ICNA Relief, a Muslim American humanitarian organization providing social services across the United States. She will speak in the session on faith and media.
Rev. Dr. Marian Edmonds-Allen is Executive Director of Parity, an organization working at the intersection of faith and LGBTQ+ concerns with an emphasis on bridge-building across difference. She will speak in the session on faith and media.
More to Come
This is a partial list. Additional participants are expected, several sessions are still being finalized, and the full program continues to develop ahead of October. Program details are available at g20interfaith.org.
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JoAnne Wadsworth is a Communications Consultant for the G20 Interfaith Forum Association and Editor of the Viewpoints blog, IF20’s platform for commentary at the intersection of faith and global policy. She has covered the work of the Forum across multiple G20 cycles, producing summaries, articles, and editorial content that bring the voices of interfaith leaders and scholars to a broader audience. Her writing engages with topics spanning environmental governance, religious freedom, anti-racism, poverty and inequality, and the role of faith in multilateral policy processes.