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About the Panelists
Christine Gallagher | Panelist
Christine Gallagher serves as the Head of Program and Program Director for Teachers and Schools at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (ICJS). She leads a yearlong fellowship for public, private, and independent school teachers to explore how religion is present in their curriculum and to gain confidence in talking about religion in the classroom. She presents on this topic to Baltimore-area schools and school districts. In addition, she participates in national conferences and gatherings on religious literacy in K-12 education. She’s the co-editor and a contributor to Interreligious Studies and Secondary Education: Pedagogies and Practices for Living and Learning in a Religiously Plural World, a collection of essays on the role of interreligious studies in public, private, and parochial secondary education. Prior to joining ICJS in 2019, Christine spent more than a decade as a classroom teacher and administrator in secondary schools, most recently as the director of mission and ministry at a Baltimore school. She grew up in Philadelphia, holds a B.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University, a M.A. in Theology and a M.A. in History from Villanova University.
Benjamin E. Sax, Ph.D. | Panelist
Ben Sax is the Jewish Scholar and Head of Scholarship at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. Ben is an experienced professor, university administrator, scholar, award-winning teacher, public speaker, and practitioner and facilitator of interreligious dialogue. Ben holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (B.A., Social Thought and Political Economy), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.A., Jewish Thought), and the University of Chicago (Ph.D., History of Judaism). He also studied at Middlebury College’s Summer Language School, where he received a Zertifikat ÖSD Mittelstufe, M.D. in German Language and Culture.
Heather Miller Rubens, Ph.D. | Moderator
Heather Miller Rubens, Ph.D. is the ICJS executive director and Roman Catholic scholar. She is an experienced teacher, public speaker, facilitator, and scholar-practitioner of interreligious learning and dialogue. She develops educational initiatives that foster interreligious learning and conversation for the public in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and online. In her research and writing Heather creatively focuses on the theoretical, theological, ethical, and political implications of affirming religious diversity and building an interreligious society.