Faith House Manhattan

Leadership

Samir Selmanovic
Founder & Director for Strategic Planning and Community Engagement
Samir@FaithHouseManhattan.org

Personal Mission: Learning to love well, God, people, and all of life.

Samir Selmanovic, Founder, and Director of Community Engagement at Faith House Manhattan, knows how to create synergy among the stakeholders of an organization and manage them for success. A dynamic community leader since his high school days in former Yugoslavia, Samir was born into complexity with a Muslim father, Christian mother, and an atheist school system, with capitalism to the West and communism to the East. Samir’s passion for problem solving propelled him through his B.Sc in Engineering, M.A. in Psychology, M.Div, and Ph.D. His ten years of community leadership as a progressive Christian pastor include a recognition by the organization Muslims Against Terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 in New York City, co-founding a vibrant young adult congregation in Southern California, founding the non-profit Faith House Manhattan, and authoring of It’s Really All About God, a book about collaboration with the “religious other.” His work has been profiled in The New York Times. Samir consults, writes and lectures nationally and internationally but no communication achievement compares with his 30 minutes of awesomeness explaining to his two tween daughters the relationship between a girl’s self-image, the fashion industry, and development of adolescent males. Samir has managed 1,000+ active volunteers, raised more than $2 million for worthy causes, and designed 100+ events and programs. He is passionate about community engagement, conscious capitalism, and corporate re-enchantment with common good. Samir has a complicated love relationship with New York City, tends to miss subway stops while reading, and continues to romance his wife Vesna every day since they met more than 20 years ago. If he had to do it all over again, Samir would talk less and cook more.

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Samir Selmanovic, Founder, and Director of Community Engagement at Faith House Manhattan, knows how to identify, engage, and organize the internal and external stakeholders of an organization, create synergy, and manage it for success. Samir was born into complexity. Growing up with a Muslim father, Christian mother, and an atheist school system—with capitalism to the West and communism to the East—he learned at an early age to see the best in the other. It was in high school in the former Yugoslavia, while producing George Orwell’s Animal Farm when he first discovered the power of synergy between unlikely stakeholders (business leaders, public officials, and independent artists) to achieve together what none of them could do alone—ideologically, relationally, and financially. Samir’s passion for ideas and problem solving propelled him through a B.Sc. in Engineering, an M.A. in Psychology, an M.Div, and a Ph.D. in Education.

Samir worked as a Christian pastor and community organizer for ten years. In 2002, the organizationMuslims Against Terrorism honored him for his community leadership on the Upper East Side of Manhattan during the aftermath of 9/11. He then transferred to Southern California where he co-founded a vibrant young-adult congregation based on community engagement and shared leadership. It took Samir four years to come to terms with his complicated love relationship with New York City. He returned in 2007, to start the non-profit organization called Faith House Manhattan, an inter-religious “community of communities” and a co-laboratory of interdependence.

Samir is the author of It’s Really All About God, a book about understanding and collaboration with the “religious other.” He writes and lectures about leadership, interdependence and community engagement at universities and other institutions nationally and internationally, and has been profiled in The New York Times. None of these achievements however compare with his 30 minutes of awesomeness (or a stroke of parenting luck), explaining to his two tween daughters the relationship between a girl’s self-image, the fashion industry, and development of adolescent males.

Through solving problems, creating new initiatives, and forming partnerships at the intersection of community, business, and not-for-profits, Samir has managed 1,000+ active volunteers, raised over $2 million for worthy causes, designed 100+ events and programs, organized relief efforts nationally and internationally. One of the most challenging learning experiences in his professional career has been his work as a consultant for strategic planning and community relations for Cordoba Initiative, at the center of the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ controversy in 2010. One of his current passions is corporate re-enchantment with and commitment to the common good. He writes and speaks about community engagement, corporate responsibility, and conscious capitalism.

Samir tends to miss subway stops while reading, tries to revive his lost marathoner’s mojo, and has been romancing his wife Vesna every day since they met more than 20 years ago. If he had to do it all over again, Samir would talk less and cook more.

For Presentations/Publications/Media, Resume or References, please contact Samir.

To go to Samir’s author’s website click: www.SamirSelmanovic.com

To go to Samir’s Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/#!/SamirSelmanovic

To go to Samir’s Google Profile: https://profiles.google.com/samirselmanovicnyc/about

Bowie Snodgrass
Executive Director
Bowie@FaithHouseManhattan.org

Bowie is Executive Director of Faith House Manhattan, an interfaith community in New York. She is co-founder of Transmission, a Manhattan house church, and a member of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Bowie was Web Content Editor of episcopalchurch.org from 2004-2007, has served on the Steering Committee of Christian Churches Together, and worked in the Episcopal national Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations. Bowie majored in Religious Studies at Vassar College and received her M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She lives in Harlem with her husband, George Mathew, and son, Jacob.

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Anne Bowie Snodgrass was born in Manhattan and grew up in inner-city and Appalachian rectories in the South Bronx, Newark, Cincinnati, and Olean (in rural, western) NY. She has lived in New York City since 2000 and has been working for Faith House Manhattan since June 2008.

As an undergraduate at Vassar College, Bowie took classes on black religion in America, Cuban Santería, Hindu and Buddhist goddess traditions, and women in the Hebrew Bible. She spent her Junior year at Trinity College Dublin, where she studied Theology, Women in the Middle Ages, and Russian. A pilgrimage to Celtic sites in the British Isles, paired with studying early Christianity and modern Russia, led her to look closer at Orthodoxy. Bowie wrote her senior thesis on Mary’s iconic role in the conversion of the Slavs.

After graduating, Bowie spent a year in Vladimir, Russia, teaching English. She arrived a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union. Her encounter of inter-Christian and inter-religious tensions during that year in Russia, and the experience of 9/11 in New York City, opened her eyes to the religious and cultural transitions happening in the United States and served as a call to work for forward-looking, faith-based change at home.

Returning from Russia, Bowie enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York. City, where she earned her Master of Divinity. At Union, Bowie joined the editorial staff of the student journal, The Turning House, which became a vehicle for opening and deepening dialogue at the seminary, and became Senior Editor in her second year. Bowie also explored Christianity in the media and marketplace in papers on Bon Jovi’s Cross Road, U2’s Pop, and her Master’s thesis, ”Would Jesus Sell [WWJD] Bracelets at Wal-Mart?”

Bowie’s post-seminary path was shaped by her 2-year internship at the Episcopal Church Center’s Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations (EIR). She redeveloped the EIR website, which led to her appointment after graduation as editor of the National Episcopal Church website. In her first eighteen months as editor of episcopalchurch.org, she strategized, developed, and managed a major redesign. She produced many original projects, including a national ad campaign website called “Come and Grow,” a website for Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and online art exhibitions created in collaboration with Episcopal Church & Visual Arts (ECVA). She also became a delegate to the National Council of Churches, then was appointed to the Steering Committee of Christian Churches Together, the newly-formed and broadest ecumenical organization in U.S. history.

Bowie has been a leader in young adult and emerging ministries. She was involved with Episcopal groups at both Vassar and Union. After graduating, she joined the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where she was co-convener of the 20s/30s Connection. In 2006, she and musician Isaac Everett co-founded Transmission, a house-church community that creates innovative worship in NYC. Transmission has led worship at the UK Greenbelt Festival, the Wild Goose Festival, Storahtelling’s Yom Kippur 5767, and Club Avalon in New York, where they collaborated with local sex workers and artists to plan an experimental Easter evening service that honored Mary Magdalene and drew more than 200 people. This past summer, she and Samir organized the interfaith events for the first Wild Goose Festival. Bowie enjoys leading retreats and adult education classes. She authored a chapter about Faith House for Discovering the Spirit in the City (Continuum, 2010) and has been published in the Anglican Theological Review, Episcopal Life Online, and the Washington Window.

In the fall of 2007, Bowie Snodgrass married Palliath George Mathew, a conductor and humanitarian, who was born in Singapore and whose family has deep roots in the Mar Thoma Syrian Orthodox Church in South India. The family name, Palliath, means “living on the grounds of the church.” Bowie and George love living together in a brownstone in Harlem with a roof garden and their one-year-old son, Akbar Jacob Mathew. Bowie is a member of the Congregation of St. Saviour at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and a founding member of the New York Chapter of the Order of Urban Missioners.

Bowie’s family background includes Methodist circuit ministers on her father’s side and Hungarian Jews on her mother’s. Her father, James, was raised Presbyterian in 60’s suburbia, experienced “faith in a living God” while teaching in Kenya in the 70’s, and became an Episcopal Priest. Her mother’s family fled Hungary during the Revolution and were sponsored as refugees by a Congregational Church in New York. Mary is an ordained UCC pastor and has worked for social justice with various non-profit organizations.

To go to Bowie’s Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/#!/bowiesnodgrass

Frank Fredericks

Community Development Administrator
Frank@FaithHouseManhattan.org

Frank Fredericks is one of the most recognizable youth leaders in the global interfaith movement. After graduating from New York University’s Music Business program, Frank Fredericks worked in the music industry, managing artists such as Lady Gaga, producing recordings, booking, and founding an independent record label, called Çöñàr Records. Today, Frank still consults bands, labels, and production companies, writes music, and performs as a guitarist and percussionist in New York’s local music scene.

While doing independent research in Egypt on Christian-Muslim relations, he became inspired to found World Faith, an interfaith community service organization. After developing an action-based model in New York, he traveled to conflict-prone regions finding passionate young people to replicate the model, in places like Lebanon, India, Egypt, and Sudan.

As the Executive Director of World Faith, Frank has led World Faith from a small initiative into a global organization with over 300 volunteers in nine countries, represented and spoke about World Faith at the United Nations, and given countless interviews around the world, including for Good Morning America.

Frank also co-founded Religious Freedom USA, an initiative designed to counter religious prejudice in media and governance, which mobilized over a thousand people in the Liberty Walk to support of Park51′s protested Muslim community center in lower Manhattan. Religious Freedom USA has also been mentioned on NPR and was invited to the White House to participate in a conference lead by Hindu American Seva Charities.

Frank also works as an independent Online Marketing and PR Consultant, consulting non-profits, corporations, foundations, recording artists, and political campaigns on web issues ranging from viral video and social networks to SEO and advertising. Frank played a critical role in assisting in the press strategy for Cordoba Initiative when their proposed Muslim Community center was protested and labeled the “Ground Zero Mosque.” As a social media guru, he has gained his clients tens of thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook fans, as well as built websites and blogs that have generated hundreds of thousands of hits.

Frank led a viral video campaign that gained over 800,00 views on Youtube, and precipitated in him being asked to produce and direct a festival-showcased documentary film called “Twice on Sundays” about a local celebrity Rasta tour guide in Negril, Jamaica. Frank is an active blogger, contributing to blogs on issues ranging from business, technology, religion, and music, is a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post’s Religion section, and has contributed to the Washington Post. Frank frequently speaks at conferences about interfaith needs, social entrepreneurship, and technology, and has been interviewed on Good Morning America, NPR, New York Magazine, and various international media outlets.

Frank also served as a Fellow, Fellow Mentor, and Interfaith Trainer for the Interfaith Youth Core, is a 2011 Youth Action Net Fellow, and is an Interfaith Coach for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Faith Acts Fellows. Frank resides in New York, New York, where he still performs as a professional musician with local artists. He has a love for languages, and is studying one or more at a given time. At home, he has a passion for cooking Italian food.

To go to Franks’s Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/#!/frankiefreds

Board of Directors

Samir Selmanovic, Founder and President of the Board

Bill Ashlock, Vice President, is a seasoned business executive, writer, and want to be wood turner with a passion and calling to tend God’s trees. Bill works out from Singapore, lives in California, and is often found travelling. His tools include innovation, excellence, and compassion with an unending view of community. He is currently working with ANZ, based in Singapore, as a group executive and Global Head of Payments and Cash Operations.

Russell Chin is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. He comes from a Christian tradition (specifically the Seventh-Day Adventist church) and is an active member of Citylights, a Christian faith community which meets in Manhattan. He also serves on the board of Symposia Bookstore in Hoboken, New Jersey. He lives in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. “Experiencing the faith of my neighbor has inspired me to deepen my own,” he says. “I am honored to be part of this effort to promote interdependence and a deeper understanding of the Other.”

Rod Colburn, Treasurer

Yolande Miracle Colburn

Khabir John McGeehan, Secretary, is a dervish of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order.

Jill Minkoff, who works for the Jewish Education Project, is also a rabbinical student at the Academy for Jewish Religion. She moved to New York from Kansas City where she was the Rabbinical Association’s representative to the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council and a frequent facilitator of interfaith women’s spiritual expression at the House of Menuha. Jill believes that the ability to be in positively meaningful relationships with others (including those of different faiths) is a crucial element for promoting peace in the world. She was a founding member of Faith House Manhattan and currently serves on its Board of Directors.

Mairim Pina is a Designer in New York City who considers her self a Christian-Buddhist. She was drawn to Buddhist Dharma through the roots of centering prayer, a contemplative form of prayer she learned at St. Bart’s Episcopal church where she attends. “My spiritual journey has been marked by discovery and am glad to be part of a group which provides a venue for it.” Mairim is a long-time active member of our community and was a member of the Kitchen Table before being elected to the Board of Directors. Using her skills as a graphic designer, Mairim is responsible for many of the graphics on our postcards, website, including the banner you see at the top of every newsletter.

Bowie Snodgrass, Executive Director, Ex Officio

Please contact Samir Selmanovic to learn more about becoming a member of our Board of Directors. He will send you the Guidelines and set up a time to discuss this possibility over the phone or in person.