The Interfaith Center of New York, the Fordham University Graduate School of
Social Service, and our partners, invite all mental health professionals to attend a symposium


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Interfaith Perspectives on Communal Trauma and Healing:
Religious Leaders and Mental Health Professionals
Explore the Emotional Life of the City at the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

We are delighted to have the following religious leaders, chaplains, therapists, and thinkers leading workshops at the September 9th symposium on "Interfaith Perspectives on Communal and Healing."


The Reverend Dr. Willard W. C. Ashley is the Director of Field Education and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He is the founder and senior pastor of the Abundant Joy Community Church, Jersey City, NJ, and chair of The Instituto Latino de Cuidado Pastoral, Inc. in New York City.

Rev. Dr. Ashley is also a psychotherapist and an experienced chaplain, having served as the director of pastoral care at Barnert Hospital in Paterson, NJ, where he set up a clinical pastoral education program for clergy, and as Project Director of the Care for the Caregivers Interfaith Program, for the Council of Churches of the City of New York, which was the largest clergy resiliency program in the United States.

He is also the co-editor (with Rabbi Stephen Roberts) of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (Skylight Paths Publishing, 2008), and has published a number of articles on spiritual care and disaster recovery.



Imam Yusuf Hasan, BCC, is the first board certified Muslim chaplain in the Association of Professional Chaplains. He did his Clinical Pastoral Education at HealthCare Chaplaincy, Inc. and is a member of the Historical Malcolm Shabazz Masjid (Mosque) in New York City.

Imam Hasan is a staff chaplain at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center, specializing in Pediatric spiritual care, and has been a leading advocate of professional chaplaincy within the Islamic Community. He is a board member of the Muslim Foundation of America, the African American Heritage Day Parade and the Juneteenth Committee of New York.

He is also a member of the Red Cross Spiritual Care Response Team and was a first responder after 9/11. Among many other publications, he is the coauthor (with Rev. George Handzo) of an essay on “Anniversaries, Holidays, and other Reminders” in the Disaster Spiritual Care collection.



Baba Antonio Mondesire, Awo Ifa, is a nationally respected Ifa priest and spiritual counselor in the Yoruba / Lukumi tradition -- an “African Traditional Religion” (ATR).  As clergy, he has represented his faith through invocations, community prayer, and presentations at numerous post-9/11 interfaith venues in the New York metropolitan area, and served as regional representative of the Church of Lukumi Babalú Ayé (CLBA).  In addition, he has successfully completed one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Calvary Hospital, in the Bronx, under the standards of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education.

Born in the Bronx, of Puerto Rican and Eastern Caribbean ancestry, the roots of his vocation and activism come from three distinct sources: 1) early childhood musical expression inspired by the recordings of respected Afro-Cuban elders -- an inspiration that developed into accomplished musical skills, with recording experience, international travel, and online reviews; 2) a maternal familial tradition of "Espiritismo" -- where African diasporal and “Criollo” or “Creole” spirituality was held in high esteem as a source of personal healing ; and 3) the influence of his late aunt, Dr. Evelina Lopez Antonetty, a community leader and activist who fought for educational issues -- big and small -- for the children of the South Bronx, from the mid-1960s through her untimely passing in 1984.

Baba A’s current projects include ongoing spiritual counseling, as well as an exploration of the spiritual dimensions of human suffering through the clinical counseling of dying patients.  Other recent projects include adjunct teaching at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, where he taught a special course on “Spiritism and African Religions in Puerto Rico and other Spanish Speaking Caribbean Societies,” and other related syllabi.



Geshe Lobsang Ngodup, MSW, was born in Tibet and grew up in India. He received his Masters Degree in Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (a private monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama) in Dharamsala, north India, and received his Geshe Degree (a Ph.D in Buddhist Philosophy) from Sera Jey Monastic University, Bylakuppe, south India. He is also a graduate of Yeshiva University, where he received his MSW.

Geshe Lobsang has been teaching Buddhism and meditation since 1989, in both the United States and India. He is currently the president of Sera Jey Buddhist Culture Center in New York. He has also worked with a number of social service agencies in New York City over the past 17 years, including counseling refugees from Tibet and elsewhere.



Minister Kathleen S. Turner, a native New Yorker, began dancing at the age of five at the Gloria Jackson Dance Studio. She received a BFA from SUNY Purchase, an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.Div. and STM (Master of Sacred Theology) from Yale Divinity School, and a Certificate of Merit from the Institute of Sacred Music, where she conducted research on “The Healing Properties of Music and Dance.” She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Program of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University.

Minister Turner was a tenured Associate Professor in the Dance Program at CUNY Hunter College from 1994-2005, where she taught courses on liturgical dance as a healing tool. She has danced with many New York choreographers and has worked extensively with the Director / Choreographer Dianne McIntyre. She has taught and choreographed for a wide range of private dance studios, college programs, and theatre productions throughout the East Coast, in addition to teaching throughout Germany and Austria.

She is also the founding director of the Allen Liturgical Dance Ministry (ALDM) of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, choreographing over seventy-five dances for ALDM. She coordinated and co-coordinated seven international liturgical dance conferences from 1998 through 2008. She and her husband, Mr. Curtis Turner, have traveled throughout the United States ministering and co-choreographing for dance ministries, church congregations, marriage enrichment ministries, and liturgical dance conferences.



Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, LCSW, serves as rabbinic director of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services (JBFCS), where his major responsibilities involve the New York Jewish Healing Center and the National Center for Jewish Healing (NCJH). He offers spiritual counseling and leads spiritual support groups for Jews confronting illness, trauma, and loss, and training seminars for rabbis and health care professionals.

Rabbi Weintraub has written and lectured widely on the use of traditional texts and practices for Jewish spiritual healing. He edited NCJH's first book, Healing of Soul, Healing of Body (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994), and Guide Me Along the Way: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Surgery (JBFCS/NCJH, 2002), and contributes regularly to the NCJH journal, The Outstretched Arm, and many other books and periodicals.

Ordained by JTS, Rabbi Weintraub holds a master's degree in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University (1983), and graduated from the Couples and Family Therapy Program of the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in New York (1988). He maintains a private practice in couples and family therapy in New York, working with clients who are confronting a wide range of issues, including chronic illness, infertility, trauma, and bereavement.