Why Religious Literacy Matters for Business Professionals

Dr. Barbara McGraw founded and directs the first and still only interfaith leadership program housed within a school of business in the U.S. In this conversation, Dr. McGraw will discuss this program at her home institution of Saint Mary\u27s College of California, the core competencies it strives to instill in its graduates, and why she believes religious literacy is crucial for navigating the professional world. Barbara McGraw, J.D., Ph.D. is the director of the Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism, founder and director of the Interfaith Leadership Minor, and professor of social ethics, law and public life in the School of Liberal Arts and School of Economics and Business Administration at Saint Mary\u27s College in Moraga, California. Before becoming an academic, she was a corporate finance attorney with the famed international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom. Dr. McGraw holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. in religion and social ethics, both from the University of Southern California. She served as the president of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Western Region from 2001-2002, is the recipient of the Hindu American Foundation\u27s Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism, is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, and is an Affiliate of The Pluralism Project at Harvard University. She is also an activist for prison inmates\u27 religious rights and for fair representation of the world\u27s religions in California K-12 textbooks. Recently, she served on AAR\u27s standing Committee for the Public Understanding of Religion 2011-2015. She is the editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Politics in the U.S. (2016), and lead co-editor (with Jo Renee Formicola) of and contributor to Taking Religious Pluralism Seriously: Spiritual Politics on America\u27s Sacred Ground (2005). Other authored publications include Rediscovering America’s Sacred Ground: Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America (2003), and (with Robert S. Ellwood) Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men in the World Religions (1999-2014). Sponsored by: Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning Muslim-Christian Dialogue Center Business 200 Program in the Opus College of Business Interreligious Curriculum for Business Education Grant Initiative (funded by the Interfaith Youth Core and the Teagle Foundation) To make an accessibility request, call Disability Resources at (651) 962-631