Beacons of Hope: Our Interreligious S/Heroes Beacons of Hope: Our Interreligious S/Heroes — Harmeet Kaur Kamboj
Each month, we will honor an individual (or group) who inspires the bridge-building efforts of the Miller Center. Each honoree embodies the values of inclusivity, justice, and compassion in different and unique ways.
The work of the Miller Center is rooted in relationships. This applies to all our initiatives—with teens, young adults, seminarians, and professionals. Our “Beacon of Hope” for December is a person who embodies this ethos and who has become a valued colleague and friend.
Harmeet Kaur Kamboj (they/them) entered the Miller Center orbit through their work as a program manager at Interfaith America—our partner on the expanded BILI fellowship. Harmeet has been a wonderful addition to the BILI leadership team, and I am excited to work with them on this unfolding national venture.
Harmeet is a fierce advocate for inclusion—for Sikhs and Sikh traditions, as well as for trans and non-binary lives—and they inspire us with their commitment, their wisdom, their creativity, and their collaborative spirit. Plus, they are a lot of fun to work with!
In addition to their program-related work, Harmeet is also a performing artist, public scholar, and zine-maker. Harmeet is both a dancer and instructor specializing in South Asian dance. They have written for the Religion News Service, Sojourners, and Interfaith America Magazine, and recently published their first piece of original reporting in the October issue of The Revealer, housed at New York University’s Center for Media & Religion. The article is entitled, “Virtual Communities are Critical Lifelines for Transgender Sikhs.”
Thank you, Harmeet, for all that you are and all that you do! We are delighted to celebrate you and the work that you do with the Miller Center, Interfaith America, and beyond.
Tom Reid is the Associate Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership at Hebrew College. Tom is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and serves as pastor of Newton Presbyterian Church in Newton Corner. He holds a Master of Divinity (MDiv) magna cum laude from Boston University School of Theology where his studies included a focus on religion and conflict transformation and interreligious engagement. Prior to returning to higher education, Tom spent over ten years working in a variety of fields: clean energy in Boston, environmental and green building consulting in Boston and Dubai, and business education in Madrid, Spain. Originally from Kansas, Tom holds a BA with honors from the University of Kansas in Environmental Studies, Latin American Studies, and Spanish and an MA in European Politics, Policy, and Society granted jointly by the Euromasters consortium of European universities and funded by a Fulbright grant.