Since its establishment in 2008, Intersections International has sought to work towards a world where every person—regardless of race, culture, gender, ideology or sexual orientation—is treated with mutual respect and understanding. Our ongoing mission includes efforts to promote interfaith dialogue and action, address the consequences of conflict, train the leaders of tomorrow, work towards empowering marginalized communities, and form an international community engaged in ethics, values, and social justice.
With the Intersections Awards, we seek to lift up and acknowledge the work of individuals and organizations whose work exemplify our ideals and affirm all people, across lines of nationality, gender, faith, identity, and ideology. By shining the spotlight of recognition and appreciation on the extraordinary efforts of like-minded leaders, our hope is that we can inspire others in the international community to rise to the same level of action.
Our first Intersections Awards Gala recognized and honor Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, founder and CEO of Teshkeel Media Group, the Rev. Susan Sparks, Baptist minister of the historic Madison Avenue Baptist Church and standup comedian, and The Honorable Cory A. Booker, Mayor of Newark, NJ.
For our second Intersections Awards Gala, we are pleased to welcome the distinguished Mona Eltahawy.
Mona Eltahawy
Mona Eltahawy has worked as a reporter, correspondent, and columnist for the New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, and The Washington Post. She has utilized journalism, social media and other methods of communication to give voice to women’s rights, Muslim empowerment, and issues of justice and inequality. She has served as an intercultural ambassador for Muslim and non-Muslim communities and has been lauded as the first Egyptian journalist to live and work for a Western news agency within Israel. The international public speaker is a leading global voice on Arab, Muslim and women’s issues.
Daniel Lubetzky
Daniel Lubetzky is a serial social entrepreneur known for integrating social objectives with sustainable market-driven forces into new business models. He is the CEO and Founder of KIND Healthy Snacks and the KIND Movement. Mr. Lubetzky launched KIND Snacks with the value proposition of being “KIND to your body, your taste buds and the world.”® KIND has since become the fastest-growing healthy snack in the nutrition bar category. He is also founder of PeaceWorks Inc., and the PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement. Mr. Lubetsky attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where the seeds of PeaceWorks were planted. PeaceWorks is a “not-ONLY-for-profit”™ business corporation pursuing both peace and profit. Its flagship brand – Meditalia –is made through cooperative ventures among neighbors striving to co-exist in the Middle East. The PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement seeks to amplify the voice of ordinary citizens in the Middle East and encourages people to stand as OneVoice against violent extremism and for a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel.
Peter Laarman
Peter Laarman is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Divinity School with a background in community organizing and in media work for the U.S. labor movement. Mr. Laarman spent 15 years as a labor movement strategist and communications specialist prior to training for the ministry. He was ordained in 1993 in the United Church of Christ and he served as the senior minister of New York’s Judson Memorial Church from 1994 to 2004. During his time at Judson’s he focused the church’s public ministry on support for low-wage workers and popular education, addressing rising social and economic inequality in New York and the nation. In 2004, Mr. Laarman became executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting, where he has worked on developing working partnerships with other justice-centered organizations, and added new program initiatives in the areas of LBGT advocacy and eco-justice activism. Mr. Laarman has also created opportunities for progressive Christians, by nurturing young leader development via PCU’s campus outreach program called Faith/Activism Collective.
