R. Skyler Oberst, is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Office of Global Initiatives at Eastern Washington University. He is an active leader in the interfaith movement, both locally and nationally. Recently, he attended NAIN Connect in Atlanta and had the opportunity to meet with Ambassador Andrew Young on interfaith issues. Oberst has been a research contributor for the Pluralism Project at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he worked closely with Diana Eck and other faith leaders.

He wanted nothing to do with religious diversity, until one day he saw attackers assault a group of his Muslim peers.

“Something shifted inside of me after that evening. I realized that the anguish and torment occurring in front of me was happening all over the world, and that in order to create a lasting peaceful world, action started not on the floor of the United Nations or the United States Senate, but in my heart and through my actions,” Oberst wrote in a recent letter to Harvard.

That event, he said, prompted him to start the Compassion Interfaith Society at EWU. He described the student group as a forum for understanding and appreciation. He’s also involved in Friends of Compassion, a group of Spokanites interested in exploring compassionate action.