Biography
ONE PAGE BIO (GENERAL)
Samir Selmanovic, Founder, and Director of Community Engagement at Faith House Manhattan, knows how to identify, engage, and organize the internal and external stakeholders of an organization, create synergy, and manage it for success. Samir was born into complexity. Growing up with a Muslim father, Christian mother, and an atheist school system—with capitalism to the West and communism to the East—he learned at an early age to see the best in the other. It was in high school in the former Yugoslavia, while producing George Orwell’s Animal Farm when he first discovered the power of synergy between unlikely stakeholders (business leaders, public officials, and independent artists) to achieve together what none of them could do alone—ideologically, relationally, and financially. Samir’s passion for ideas and problem solving propelled him through a B.Sc. in Engineering, an M.A. in Psychology, an M.Div, and a Ph.D. in Education.
Samir worked as a Christian pastor and community organizer for ten years. In 2002, the organization Muslims Against Terrorism honored him for his community leadership on the Upper East Side of Manhattan during the aftermath of 9/11. He then transferred to Southern California where he co-founded a vibrant young-adult congregation based on community engagement and shared leadership. It took Samir four years to come to terms with his complicated love relationship with New York City. He returned in 2007, to start the non-profit organization called Faith House Manhattan, an inter-religious “community of communities” and a co-laboratory of interdependence.
Samir is the author of It’s Really All About God, a book about understanding and collaboration with the “religious other.” He writes and lectures about leadership, interdependence and community engagement at universities and other institutions nationally and internationally, and has been profiled in The New York Times. None of these achievements however compare with his 30 minutes of awesomeness (or a stroke of parenting luck), explaining to his two tween daughters the relationship between a girl’s self-image, the fashion industry, and development of adolescent males.
Through solving problems, creating new initiatives, and forming partnerships at the intersection of community, business, and not-for-profits, Samir has managed 1,000+ active volunteers, raised over $2 million for worthy causes, designed 100+ events and programs, organized relief efforts nationally and internationally. One of the most challenging learning experiences in his professional career has been his work as a consultant for strategic planning and community relations for Cordoba Initiative, at the center of the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ controversy in 2010. One of his current passions is corporate re-enchantment with and commitment to the common good. He writes and speaks about community engagement, corporate responsibility, and conscious capitalism.
Samir tends to miss subway stops while reading, tries to revive his lost marathoner’s mojo, and has been romancing his wife Vesna every day since they met more than 20 years ago. If he had to do it all over again, Samir would talk less and cook more.
ONE PARAGRAPH BIO (GENERAL)
Samir Selmanovic, Founder, and Director of Community Engagement at Faith House Manhattan, knows how to create synergy among the stakeholders of an organization and manage them for success. A dynamic community leader since his high school days in former Yugoslavia, Samir was born into complexity with a Muslim father, Christian mother, and an atheist school system, with capitalism to the West and communism to the East. Samir’s passion for problem solving propelled him through his B.Sc in Engineering, M.A. in Psychology, M.Div, and Ph.D. His ten years of community leadership as a progressive Christian pastor include a recognition by the organization Muslims Against Terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 in New York City, co-founding a vibrant young adult congregation in Southern California, founding the non-profit Faith House Manhattan, and authoring of It’s Really All About God, a book about collaboration with the “religious other.” His work has been profiled in The New York Times. Samir consults, writes and lectures nationally and internationally but no communication achievement compares with his 30 minutes of awesomeness explaining to his two tween daughters the relationship between a girl’s self-image, the fashion industry, and development of adolescent males. Samir has managed 1,000+ active volunteers, raised more than $2 million for worthy causes, and designed 100+ events and programs. He is passionate about community engagement, conscious capitalism, and corporate re-enchantment with common good. Samir has a complicated love relationship with New York City, tends to miss subway stops while reading, and continues to romance his wife Vesna every day since they met more than 20 years ago. If he had to do it all over again, Samir would talk less and cook more.
ONE SENTENCE BIO (GENERAL)
Samir Selmanovic, Founder, and Director of Community Engagement of Faith House Manhattan is an accomplished community and thought leader who speaks and writes about religious interdependence, community engagement and corporate re-enchantment.
ONE PAGE BIO (INTER-RELIGIOUS WORK AND PUBLISHING)
Samir Selmanovic, Ph.D, (SAH-meer Sel-MAHN-ovich) is an author, activist, leader, and lover. He is a founder of Faith House Manhattan, an interfaith “community of communities” that brings together Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists and others who seek to learn from the teachings, practices, sufferings and joys of people from different belief systems.
Selmanovic is also the director of a Christian community called Citylights and serves on the Interfaith Relations Commission of the National Council of Churches. He has been profiled in the New York Times and identified by Read the Spirit as one of the “10 People to Watch in 2010,”
Selmanovic grew up in an intellectual urban atheist milieu in the capital of Croatia in a European Muslim family. During compulsory service in the communist army, his quest for countercultural ideas led him to join a Christian church through an underground network of believers. After his conversion he was shunned by his family and friends, and eventually expelled from his home for several years, sending him off on a long personal journey geographically, culturally, and spiritually. He worked his way back into his family and social network after much emotional, intellectual and spiritual struggle. Through these challenges he found strength in his religious convictions while learning to value the worldviews of the people who opposed it.
After coming to the United States and completing graduate degrees in theology, psychology, and education, Selmanovic pastored a multi-ethnic church in Manhattan for six years. This ministry experience provided him with an understanding of professional urban America, Western attitudes towards religion, and how monotheistic religions and their critics can work together for the good of the world.
His experience in Manhattan includes the events of 9/11 and a number of projects helping the city in its aftermath, including interfaith efforts in assisting the public in their understanding of Islam. He was honored by the organization Muslims Against Terrorism for his contribution to interfaith understanding and cooperation.
Selmanovic has been integral to the birth of emerging church movement, serving on the Coordinating Group for Emergent Village and co-founder of Re-church, a network of church leaders meeting for a yearly conference for theological exploration. He has been a speaker at seminars, conferences and colleges around the country and abroad.
Selmanovic also helped launch and grow CrossWalk church, a creative and growing suburban church in Southern California. In the course of this work, Samir has traveled to Africa and has worked with Roman Catholic and Protestant local congregations both in the United States and in Ethiopia on ecumenical relief projects.
He has published many articles on topics such as the role of religious organizations and faith in postmodernity and their relationship with culture, spirituality, diversity, and leadership. He is a contributor to book “Emergent Manifesto of Hope” (Baker, 2007) and “Justice Project” (Baker, 2009). Reviews, interviews, and comments on his book and work have also appeared in USA Today, Christian Century, Patheos, Religion Dispatches, Houston Chronicle, The Book Studio, Spirituality and Practice, Huntsville Times, Englewood Review, The Guardian, Huffington Post, and many others. Samir speaks nationally and internationally at conferences, universities, and in congregations.
Selmanovic lives in New York with his wife Vesna, and their two daughters Ena and Leta.
