Our Staff

Rev. Stephen Avino serves as the Executive Director of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the world’s premier interfaith convening non-profit organization. Rev. Avino became a member of the Staff at the Parliament in 2012 and has remained deeply committed to the success of the global interfaith movement, serving as a key organizer for the 2015 Parliament Convening in Salt Lake City, the 2018 Parliament Convening in Toronto, and the 2021 Virtual Parliament Convening.

An avid seeker of knowledge and a dedicated person of faith, Rev. Avino earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 2015 and became ordained in 2019. He lives in Chicago, USA where he remains deeply committed to advocating for the legacy of the Parliament and a more inclusive interreligious movement.

Emma Carr serves as the Director of Development at the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Emma received her Bachelor’s in Religious Studies, with a concentration in Non-Profit Leadership, from Michigan State University. She is currently earning her Master’s in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University.

Emma started her career interning with a Chicago refugee resettlement agency and cultural association then in 2018 joined the team for the Toronto Parliament. Prior to returning to the Parliament as Development Associate in 2020, Emma worked to support Interfaith Youth Core and coordinated the planning of an interfaith sustainability conference for the Michigan branch of Interfaith Power and Light. Emma works to promote a culture of understanding and collaboration, harnessing the power of diversity for greater impact toward the common good. By drawing from a variety of interdisciplinary, philosophical, and theological perspectives, Emma desires to uncover interfaith intersections that might lead to a more sustainable and peaceful world.

Emily Echevarria serves as the Director of Climate Action at the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

She is a Florida native and an alumna of the University of North Florida. She is currently working towards a Master’s degree in Environmental Diplomacy at DePaul University and has completed field work in Arusha, Tanzania and Mossel Bay, South Africa. With a passion for conservation, Emily is dedicated to helping the planet recover from the effects of pollution and global warming. Her academic focus is on ocean and marine life conservation. 

Emily represents the Parliament as a member of the Faith for Food Coalition, Faiths for Biodiversity, and the Steering Committee of UNEP’s Accredited Faith-Based Organizations. She joined the Parliament as Director of Climate Action in July 2022.

Miriam V. Quezada Mendez serves as the Director of Communications of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Since her tenure on the Parliament staff began in 2015, she has worked closely in the engagement of the organization’s critical constituencies and remains a passionate advocate of immigrant rights, women’s rights, and youth involvement.

Miriam is a graduate of Illinois College where she pursued a double major in Communication & Rhetorical Studies and International Studies with a focus on gender and human rights. She began her professional career at the Parliament of the World’s Religions serving as a program assistant for the Inaugural Women’s Assembly at the 2015 Salt Lake City Parliament Convening.

Dr. Myriam Renaud (PhD University of Chicago) is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Global Ethic Project at the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She also teaches bioethics at DePaul University and world religions at Union Institute & University. In 2017-2018, she led the Parliament’s effort to add to its Global Ethic document a moral directive calling for a commitment to a culture of sustainability and care for the Earth. Dr. Renaud has co-edited and contributed to two volumes on the Global Ethic document: God and the Moral Life (2018) and Multi-Religious Perspectives on a Global Ethic: The Search for a Common Morality (2020). Most recently, she published the monograph Constructing Moral Concepts of God in a Global Age (2022).

Jesse Smith serves as the Staff Accountant of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He has served in this role with the Parliament since 2017.