Christopher J. Mathews was born in Twin Falls, Idaho and grew up in Connecticut. He attended Muhlenberg College for two years, but later graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in economics and a master’s degree in business finance.
Chris is a member of the Latter-day Saint faith community. He served as a full-time missionary in Germany for two years from 1970-1972 . Currently, He has served in a variety of roles including for his faith community including – serving from 2013 to 2020 as the Bishop of the Germantown, MD congregation, as the Community Affairs Director, Public Affairs Outreach Director, as the teacher of the adult Sunday School class and currently as the Sunday School president.
Chris spent his professional career in the Washington DC area from 1977-2015 as a consultant in the population health management field advising states and corporations on their employee health benefit plans. His expertise dealt with identifying health risk factors in client populations and developing strategies to reduce those health risk factors and improve population health.
Since 1995, he has been active in the local interfaith community working on a variety of issues related to poverty, homelessness and interfaith dialogue.
He serves on the board of the Interfaith Council of Greater Metropolitan Washington where he chairs the Nominations Committee and serves as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. Chris also serves as a member of the Faith Community Advisory Group and advises Montgomery County Executive Ehrlich on issues related to the interfaith community. Previously, Chris served in a variety of roles with Interfaith Works including – Board Chair, President of the Council and twice on the Search Committee.
His great love is for his wife Susan, his two daughters and four granddaughters. He also finds time to take dance classes and compete in ballroom dance competitions.
Dr. Seetaramayya Nagula was born in 1949 in rural India and completed his medical degree in India and landed in Washington, DC for specialty training in 1973. He received a Gastroenterology Fellowship at Georgetown University Hospital. He began a Gastroenterology practice in southern Prince Georges County and Charles County in 1979 and ran a successful practice with 8 Gastroenterologists in the group. After serving the community for 35 years, he retired in 2015. Since 2015, he has been providing free gastroenterology care for uninsured patients in Arlington.
Sri Siva Vishnu Temple: – He developed great interest in building a Hindu temple in our area starting in mid-1980’s and ultimately as one of the 17 founding Trustees and hundreds of dedicated devotees built one of the largest temples in USA in late 1980’s and is located in Lanham, MD.
Upakar: – Indian American student Scholarship project: – He along with 8 other like- minded people established this philanthropic activity to help college bound financially underprivileged students of Indian origin in 1997. Thus far, it has provided $700,000 as scholarships to the students and the founding members have passed the management to the younger leaders.
Hindu American Community Services Inc (HACSI): –There was an unprecedented global recession including in USA in 2008 and many have lost their jobs creating acute food insecurity in our region. Having seen the ravages, six of his close friends established an organization, HACSI, to provide “food for the needy” in our Metro area regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or color. To date we have served 1,500,000 meals to alleviate food insecurity in our community. Our organization works with 25 local Indian groups and Temples and stand as a friend in need. During the Covid pandemic, we conducted 13 Grab and Go type of food drives and served 150,000 pounds of groceries to 5000 families in 2020-2021. In 2019 We expanded our food for the needy program to Montgomery County Maryland and to Fairfax County, Virginia.
Marla Schulman is a lifelong member of the Washington, DC area Jewish community and is committed to its continuity and growth, focusing on racial and social justice, and interfaith and intergroup relations. She recently helped to create SEA Change, a network of DMV synagogues working together to foster relationships and to organize internally and externally to create more equitable and inclusive communities. SEA Change congregations work with each other and with multiracial and interfaith organizations to take actions that promote social, racial, environmental and economic justice.
Marla is a board member and active leader with Action in Montgomery (AIM), a broad-based community power organization whose member institutions include congregations of different faiths. She has been actively involved in relationship-building efforts across AIM congregations, as well as campaigns around affordable housing and early childhood education.
Marla serves on the Steering Committee for the Scotland Juneteenth Heritage Festival, and chaired its inaugural Interfaith and Social Action Pavilion for the newly expanded Festival in 2023. The Pavilion brought more than 50 Montgomery County, MD-based faith communities together around the theme “What it means to be a good neighbor.” The Festival raises funds and promotes awareness for the 2nd Century Project to rebuild the Scotland AME Zion church, which was destroyed by a flood in 2019, as well as for the Scotland Community and the many Historically Black Communities across Montgomery County.
Marla is a Past President of B’nai Israel Congregation, where she is still actively involved, currently serving as Chair of the Faith Community Outreach Committee. She is also member of the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, serving as Co-Chair of the Maryland Interfaith and Intergroup Commission, and a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
Marla Schulman is the Owner of Schreiber Translations, Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of foreign language translation and interpreting services. She brings her expertise in corporate strategy, organizational planning and structuring organizations for maximum efficiency to her many volunteer endeavors. She and her husband Bruce live in Bethesda, Maryland and have two young-adult children, Sophie and Sammy.