Benjamin “BenjaSoul” Mertz, Chair
Musician / Justice Educator
San Francisco Bay Area
Benja is a performer, storyteller, public speaker, and teacher who specializes in the Black Spiritual and Black Folk traditions. As an educator, he leads workshops on justice and equity at religious institutions, nonprofit organizations, and corporations. As a musician, he organizes and performs benefit concerts, vigils, protest actions, and sacred services. Trained in songwriting through legendary programs like Dr. Ysaye Barnwell’s (of Sweet Honey in the Rock) Building Vocal Community and Bobby McFerrin’s CircleSong School, Benja belongs to a long tradition of writers and musicians at the center of the civil rights movement.Benja is a certified executive coach and workshop facilitator with the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute (BECI) and specializes in coaching BIPOC leaders in mission-driven organizations. He is also the founder/director of the Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers of Sonoma County. Benja has directed choirs for 20 years and is a strong believer in the power of the arts to build bridges and create alliances across identities. He was deeply moved when he first encountered the work of IM4HI in 2018, and is honored to have been trusted as the board chair after 4 years serving on the board under the guidance of Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Storyteller/Artist
San Francisco Bay Area
Lynn Gottlieb is a pioneer feminist rabbi, storyteller, percussionist, peace educator, writer, ceremonialist, community activist and clown. She is deeply committed to a life grounded in the creativity, joy and wisdom of the Torah (teachings) of Nonviolence. Her journey includes life long activism with The Fellowship of Reconciliation and ongoing pursuit of Israeli Palestinian conflict transformation based on principles of active nonviolence. Lynn served as a pulpit rabbi from 1973 to 1980 with Temple Beth Or of the Deaf and Mishkan, An Experimental Shul in NY and from 1981 to 2005 with Congregation Nahalat Shalom in Albuquerque, NM which she co-founded.Since 1964, Lynn has engaged in multifaith, intergenerational and multicultural organizing around issues of economic and racial justice, gender justice and ‘the demilitarization of land and life’. Lynn’s love of Jewish cultural and spiritual arts embodies her way of being Jewish in the world.
Martha Matsuoka, Secretary
Professor
San Francisco Bay Area
Martha Matsuoka is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Executive Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College. Her teaching and research focuses on environmental justice, community organizing, environmental movement history, and community-based research. She currently serves as Chair of the Project Advisory Board of the Moving Forward Network, a nationwide network established to transform the system of ports and freight transportation to improve public health, labor conditions, and environmental justice. She has served on the boards of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation (past Chair), Human Impact Partners, and APEN, all organizations who move with justice, spirit, and community to build power to make the world where all can thrive. Martha lives in Los Angeles but still calls the Bay Area home.
Maram Bata
Interfaith Activist
San Francisco Bay Area
Maram was born in Kuwait from Palestinian parents from eastern Jerusalem. She grew up in Kuwait and finished her Electrical engineering degree at Kuwait university with an emphasis on computers. She lived and worked in Kuwait as a hardware and software engineer until the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait where she had to flee to Jordan and restart again. She later married and moved to Thousand Oaks, Southern California and then moved to the Bay Area 20 years ago. For over 8 years, she has been involved in interfaith work through Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) to counter Islamophobia where she was responsible for forming many N2N circles. She was a part of the N2N steering committee and helped N2N to organize many events. She is an elected member of the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa. She serves on the Muslim Interfaith Council which seeks to coordinate Muslim interfaith activities between different masjids and organizations in the bay area. She has helped to coordinate the first Sunni-Shia conference in San Jose and intrafaith iftars during Ramadan. She attends Lighthouse Mosque in Oakland, a social justice oriented mosque.
Tarek Shawky
Defense Attorney
Southern California
Tarek Shawky is an attorney and criminal justice reform advocate. He was born in Cairo, Egypt and was raised in Southern California. He started his legal career as a public defender in Riverside and Los Angeles Counties before starting his practice in 2011. Working as a public defender taught him that the justice system often favors the wealthy and privileged. He witnessed the negative impacts of policing on black, brown and marginalized communities which motivated him to advocate for criminal justice reform. He is a member of the Pasadena Police Chief’s Citizens Oversight committee, the local NAACP Foothill chapter, ACLU, and National Lawyers Guild, and serves on the board of the Tiyya Foundation for Refugee Relief. Tarek has also worked on interfaith relations in Los Angeles with New Ground, A Muslim Jewish Partnership, where he completed the fellowship program and later served as a facilitator.
Tarek lives in Pasadena and represents clients in state and federal court in LA, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties.
Bruce Reyes-Chow
Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow is a 3rd Generation Filipino/Chinese American and an active speaker, writer, and coach consultant. His writing, teaching, and speaking have taken him to Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Canada, and across the United States as he addresses topics of faith, leadership, activism, culture, race, and technology.
Author of six books, most recently, In Defense of Kindness: Why It Matters, How It Changes Our Lives, and How It Can Save the World (Chalice Press, 2021) Everything Good about God is True: Choosing Faith (Broadleaf Books, 2024). Bruce also has a broad online video and audio presence but writes and podcasts through his Newsletter & Podcast, The Amalgamation.
Bruce has been an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 1995 and has pastored seven congregations throughout California. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, works with Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center to lead delegations to Palestine, is a Senior Consultant and Coach with Convergence, is a Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, and is the Church Relations and Development Officer at Zephyr Point Conference Center.
Bruce and his wife, Robin, have three adult children, two senior pups, too many houseplants, and a thriving empty-nester life in San Jose, CA.He is present on most social platforms, but he is most active on BlueSky via @breyeschow.com. Find out more at www.reyes-chow.com.
Sergio Jaime
Sergio is a Community Defense Coordinator with the Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance (CCIRA), supporting individuals facing deportation proceedings at the Concord Immigration Court.
Originally from Nicaragua, Sergio graduated with a degree in business administration before immigrating to the U.S. in 2018. He then became involved with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI) as a Community Leader and joined the Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Program in 2019. He personally experienced the Remain in Mexico policy and the border shutdown under the Trump administration. Upon entering the U.S., he was detained for several months during the COVID-19 outbreak. After two years of waiting for a work permit and four years on an ankle monitoring GPS device, he finally won his asylum case.
Sergio has contributed to immigrant justice advocacy through research, writing, and storytelling. He interned with IM4HI to evaluate the Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Program, co-authored an article on migrant buses , and wrote his own piece on the Biden administration’s Humanitarian Parole program and its exclusion of the most vulnerable. He also played a role in IM4HI’s visual storytelling project, We Are Movement.
Before joining CCIRA, Sergio worked for two years as an Eligibility Support Clerk for Alameda County Social Services, assisting with benefits applications. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and an active volunteer with a Nicaraguan support organization in the U.S.