Building Civic Leadership Across Difference: ICJS Opens Interest for Its 2026 Fellowship for Nonprofit and Civic Professionals

The Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies is accepting interest applications for its 2026 Fellowship for Nonprofit and Civic Professionals, an intensive in-person program beginning in October 2026 that brings together Baltimore-area civic and nonprofit leaders to engage in interreligious dialogue and explore how religious pluralism can strengthen their efforts to build a more just and democratic community. Directed by Molly Silverstein and supported by ICJS resident scholars, the fellowship engages participants across Muslim, Christian, and Jewish perspectives — along with non-religious participants — equipping them with dialogue-across-difference skills, a peer network of cross-sector leaders, a community project, and a completion stipend. The program directly advances NCDD's mission by modeling how sustained interreligious dialogue can build the relational capacity, mutual understanding, and civic leadership that democratic community life requires.

---

---

What happens when Baltimore's civic and nonprofit leaders sit down together across lines of faith, background, and professional experience to explore how interreligious understanding can deepen their work? That is the animating question behind the ICJS Fellowship for Nonprofit and Civic Professionals, a program of the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies that brings together local leaders to study and dialogue together across religious traditions. The next cohort begins in person in October 2026, and ICJS is now accepting interest from potential applicants. For NCDD members working in dialogue, civic engagement, and community leadership, this fellowship represents a distinctive and underappreciated model for building the relational capacity that civic work requires.

​The fellowship brings together professionals from across Baltimore's nonprofit and civic sectors — from advocacy and arts to public health and government — for sustained interreligious learning and dialogue. Drawing on Muslim, Christian, and Jewish perspectives alongside current thinking on interreligious dialogue, participants explore how authentic encounter across religious difference can transform both individual leadership and shared public life. The program is directed by Molly Silverstein and supported by ICJS resident interreligious scholars. Fellows engage across their diverse faiths — including non-religious participants — and leave equipped with skills for dialogue across difference, a project tailored to their community, a professional network of cross-sector civic leaders, and a stipend upon completion. Past fellow Leon F. Pinkett III captured the fellowship's civic vision directly: bringing a whole community of believers in a city together — across difference — creates the conditions for real change.

Interreligious dialogue is one of the oldest and most practiced forms of dialogue across difference in civic life — and one that the D&D field sometimes underengages relative to its importance. Faith communities remain among the most significant civic institutions in American life, and the capacity to navigate religious difference is a core competency for anyone doing community engagement, conflict transformation, or bridge-building work. The ICJS fellowship model — sustained, cohort-based, explicitly oriented toward civic application — reflects the same values of inclusion, mutual understanding, and relational depth that NCDD's network champions. For nonprofit and civic professionals in the Baltimore area ready to deepen their dialogue skills and connect with a diverse community of peers, this is a meaningful opportunity. Express interest and learn more at https://icjs.org/nonprofit-and-civic-professionals/.