Four students and four faculty and staff participated in Interfaith America’s 2025 Interfaith Leadership Summit, “Chords of Democracy.”
As part of Elon University’s commitment to inclusive excellence, religious pluralism and student thriving, the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life sent four students and three professional staff to the 2025 Interfaith America’s Interfaith Leadership Summit (ILS) in Chicago.
Interfaith America works to strengthen interfaith partnerships and civic engagement within American society. ILS is the largest annual gathering of its kind, fostering relationships among faculty, staff, and students and training them in core skills for interfaith work.
This year’s theme, Chords of Democracy, explored the intersection of music and pluralism in American society. Each religious and spiritual community brings its own music to our collective civic conversation – through relationship building, intentional dialogue across difference, and identification of shared values and common goals, our traditions can work in harmony to continue to create a more perfect union.
The Truitt Center delegation included first-year multifaith interns Addison Anderson ’28, Omar Khamis ’28, Tess Trayner ’26; second-year multifaith intern Rocco Albano ’26, Associate Chaplain for Jewish life Rabbi Maor Greene, Associate University Chaplain Rev. Julie Tonnesen, and Interim Assistant Sirector for Jewish Life Communications and Development Carly Gray Adler. Students learned about the vision, knowledge, and skills of interfaith leadership, while staff learned strategies for fostering learning environments for pluralism, developing student interfaith leadership, and managing conflict.
Brian Pennington, director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society and professor of religious studies also attended the summit. As a recipient of an Interfaith America grant last year, he developed “Bridging Faith and Health,” a religious literacy certificate program for the School of Health Sciences, Brian participated in the summit’s Faith and Health track to explore local communities of faith as public health assets.
“One line that really stuck with me throughout the conference was that pluralism is not just diversity but diversity in action,” said Addison Anderson, on how her own understanding of diversity has evolved. “Each person at that conference or on this campus has a unique story, perspective and belief system that makes our community diverse. Only by highlighting those differences can we build a stronger community and foster mutual respect and understanding.”
Similarly, Tess Trayner describes how they learned that “religious plurality isn’t about tolerating or ignoring difference. It’s about building community with people who may have insurmountable differences and embracing that reality. It means having dialogue on difficult topics, learning to respect, relate, and cooperate across worldviews.”
Based on their learnings at ILS, Trayner hopes to contribute to a culture of pluralism at Elon.
“I’m excited to bring the ideas, wisdom, and inspiration I gained at the summit back to Elon, weaving them into my multifaith work at the Truitt Center,” said Trayner. “My hope is to help create spaces where students can share their own sources of meaning, explore the beauty in difference, and discover that our campus, like our country, is stronger when we build bridges across every line that might divide us.”
Omar Khamis describes feeling inspired by others deeply engaged in this work.
“Listening to leaders my age share their experiences with interfaith coming from so many different backgrounds opened my eyes to the number of people interested in connection,” Khamis said. “Hearing leaders talk about their attempts, triumphs, and failures gave me more confidence in the work I want to put into the Multifaith Internship at Elon University.”
Students and staff alike found the experience rewarding. Rev. Julie Tonnesen described how invaluable it is “to learn about new practical resources to support the work we do in multifaith bridge-building on campus” and “to connect with other professionals in the field.”
“This year, it was especially wonderful to get to catch up with Elon and Truitt Center alumnae Morgan Redmon and Hannah Podhorzer who have remained personally and professionally committed to interfaith work in their years since graduating from Elon,” said Tonnesen.
Elon University is committed through fostering multifaith understanding and engagement as seen in its multifaith strategic plan. The work of the Truitt Center’s Multifaith Internship is essential for carrying out core components of Boldly Elon, Elon University’s strategic plan.