Learning to Lead

Rev. Willard W. C. Ashley Sr., MDiv, DMin, DH, a frequent speaker on the topics of leadership development, clergy resiliency and interfaith dialogue, is acting dean and associate professor of practical theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He was the interim pastor at Union Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey, and is the founding pastor of Abundant Joy Community Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. He also serves as a consultant on disaster recovery and clergy self-care to congregations and Fortune 100 companies. He is author of Learning to Lead: Lessons in Leadership for People of Faith and coeditor of Disaster Spiritual Care: Practical Clergy Responses to Community, Regional and National Tragedy (SkyLight Paths).

Shaykh Ibrahim Abdul-Malik, PhD, EdD, earned his first doctor's degree in science and education at Harvard University and his second in Islamic studies from the Graduate Theological Foundation. Following a twenty-five-year career with the New York City school system, Dr. Ibrahim became a science advisor at UNESCO. In that capacity, he organized and headed the first junior college in the Islamic Republic of Maldives. Shaykh Ibrahim has been part of the adjunct faculty in the School of English, Philosophy, Humanities, and Religious Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University since 2003. His written works include Islam and Muslims: Twenty-Five Questions and Answers (a widely distributed information booklet written in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy); Islam and Muslims: Fifty Questions and Answers; Ramadan: A Primer; and Prayer in Islam: A Guide for Beginning Muslims, an Introduction for Non-Muslims.

Rev. Carlos Alejandro, MS, MDiv, BCC, is the clinical pastoral education supervisor at New York's Calvary Hospital and is certified by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). He has extensive experience in pastoral care and in clinical pastoral supervision in both traditional and challenging venues. The founding director of North General Hospital’s Department of Pastoral Care and Education, Rev. Alejandro also created and led Harlem’s Outreach Program for Emergencies (the HOPE team), a faith-based critical incident stress management (CISM) team. He went on to develop the first clinical pastoral education (CPE) supervisory training program in Puerto Rico, which is based in three hospitals and one major university. A board-certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains, he served as a corrections chaplain at Rikers Island Central Punitive Segregation Unit and at the Manhattan Detention Center, known as "the Tombs." A former journalist, Rev. Alejandro received a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary. An ordained minister with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), he lectures on Afro-Caribbean spirituality and pastoral care, spirituality and trauma, and cultural issues in end-of-life care.

Rev. Msgr. Richard Arnhols, MDiv, is pastor of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He is also vicar for pastoral life for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, overseeing more than fifteen departments geared to pastoral service, and is a member of the College of Consultors and Presbyteral Council. He is a regular contributor to the "Seeing and Believing" column of The Catholic Advocate, the official biweekly periodical of the archdiocese. As former pastor of the inner-city St. Patrick's Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, he wrote the foreword to the recently released The Grand Old Man of the Port: Dean Martin Gessner, the American Catholic Church, and Parish Life in the Nineteenth Century, written by Carl Ganz Jr.

Rev. David Billings, DMin, has been an antiracist trainer and organizer with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond since 1983. After thirty-five years in New Orleans, he moved to New York City in the fall of 2004 to work with The People’s Institute’s New York office. In the fall of 2006 he was appointed the Pauline Falk Chair on Community, Race, and Mental Health with the Jewish Board of
Family and Children’s Services. Rev. Billings is an ordained United Methodist minister. He also is a historian with a special interest in the history of race and racism. Over the years, Rev. Billings’s organizing work has been cited for many awards, such as the Westchester County chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Public Citizen of the Year; the New Orleans Pax Christi Bread and Roses Award; the Loyola University of New Orleans Homeless and Hunger Award; and the National Alliance against Racist Oppression’s Angela Davis Award for community service.