Our Team
David N. Myers
Director
David N. Myers is the director of the Bedari Kindness Institute, the Initiative to Study Hate, and the Dialogue Across Difference Initiative. He is a Distinguished Professor of History and holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History in the UCLA History Department. He is also the founding director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy and is the former president of the New Israel Friend.
Maia Ferdman
Deputy Director of BKI and Staff Director, Dialogue Across Difference Initiative
Maia Ferdman is the deputy director of the Bedari Kindness Institute. Maia is a dedicated bridge builder and educator. She is the founder and principal of Bridges Intergroup Relations Consulting, which supports organizations and communities to build vibrant spaces of belonging. Throughout her career Maia has developed numerous interfaith programs, trained government and nonprofit groups in cultural competency, and facilitated conversations across differences about policing, homelessness, racial equity, and more. She holds a B.A. in Global Studies and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA.
Felicia Graham
Graduate Fellow, Dialogue Across Difference Initiative
Felicia is a sixth year PhD candidate in UCLA’s Graduate School of Education in the division of Social Science and Comparative Education. Her research and teaching focus on youth civic engagement, Global Studies, and Indigenous/Decolonizing pedagogies and epistemologies of the Americas. Guided by chicana feminist theory, her current research engages youth in a political and economic critique of contemporary digital media to become advocates for culturally, historically, and politically responsive education based on human dignity, earthly respect, and rooted in the practice of love. She is a Graduate Fellow for the Dialogue across Difference Initiative at the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute. Felicia received her Master’s in Global and International Studies, Political Economy and Sustainable Development from UCSB, and her BA in Political Science and History from UCSD.
Interns
Martin
Martin is a fourth year Education and Anthropology student interested in applying qualitative research methods
Alyssa Carmona
Alyssa Carmona is a fourth year Political Science major and pre law student. She also serves as a Bruin Guardian Scholars Academy Youth Coach and was an inaugural student fellow in the Dialogue across Difference Student Leadership Program.
Stephany Cartney
Stephany Cartney is a fourth year Political Science Major, and History Minor, Stephany currently serves students as a Resident Assistant and an intern on UCLA Residential Life First Year Experience Team. She was an inaugural student fellow in the Dialogue across Difference Student Leadership Program.
Celie Fischer
Cecelia (Celie) Fischer is a fourth year double major in history and Arabic and the current co-president of J Street U at UCLA. She studies Jewish history with a special interest in the philosophy of religious pluralism.
Shreya Sundar
Shreya Sundar is a third-year undergraduate studying Public Health at UCLA. She is actively involved in the Dialogue Across Difference initiative and has a strong interest in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, along with broader research interests in international development.