Our alumni continue to apply their learning in diverse contexts of service, research, education, and community building. This page highlights a selection of graduates and the paths they are forging beyond the Certificate Program.
Neda Farabi
Fall 2025 Graduate
With nearly four decades in education, I see teaching as a form of service rather than merely a profession. I strive to contribute meaningfully to society by nurturing active, dynamic, and caring communities. The courses I completed at this institute opened new doors, offering insights and knowledge that continue to guide my service to the community.
Carolyn Spain
Fall 2025 Graduate
I am a retired pharmacist living in coastal South Carolina, where I enjoy organic gardening. Community engagement guides my daily life through children’s and junior youth groups and a neighborhood study circle. As a Bahá’í, I see community building as vital to peace, deepened through Wilmette Institute courses.
Byron Menking-Hoggatt
Fall 2025 Graduate
My wife, Cristi Menking, and I continue homefront pioneering on Charleston’s West Side, co-teaching children’s classes. Since AmeriCorps in 1997 and creating a Unity Garden, we’ve applied the Ruhi process locally. The certificate program transformed my view of field research into a living framework for action (CARS).
Cristina Menking-Hoggatt
Fall 2025 Graduate
I was born in Cape Verde and now live in Charleston, WV, serving as Bahá’í pioneers. A nurse-midwife and educator, I view my profession as a divine calling. With my husband and community, I support children’s classes and accompany mothers and infants through compassionate, long-term service.
Gwendolyn “Goldie” Turnage
Spring 2025 Graduate
I am an ordained minister and public health scholar-practitioner bridging spirituality, social justice, and holistic healing. Based in Baltimore, I bring decades of experience serving underserved communities through trauma-informed approaches. I created wellness tools promoting healing and justice and founded The Healing Commons, supporting intergenerational and BIPOC community wellness.
Chloé Greene
Spring 2025 Graduate
I am a racial justice consultant, liberation historian, and love practitioner. Through founding Sowing Love, I support individuals and communities in returning to love as a transformative practice. The Certificate Program deepened my frameworks of soul work and nonviolent change, continuing to inform my coaching, facilitation, and commitment to collective healing and love-centered futures.
Brandon Reintjes
Spring 2025 Graduate
I am the executive director of the Missoula Art Museum and previously served as senior curator for a decade. My work spans multiple museums nationwide. Trained in fine arts and curatorial studies, I am a lifelong artist and writer whose Bahá’í faith shapes my view of art as worship and social transformation.
Anissa Kamaye Moussa
Spring 2025 Graduate
I am Anissa Kamaye Moussa, originally from Niger in West Africa, and I live in Wilmette with my husband. I am grateful to be part of this program, which has empowered me to engage more thoughtfully in societal discourse and to serve my community more effectively.
Neyssan Gnampa
Spring 2025 Graduate
The certificate program has strengthened my commitment to material and spiritual excellence. In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, I collaborate with local women and youth, applying course principles to build just systems, community resilience, and sustainable initiatives. Through study, action, and reflection, the Institute continues to ground my work and inspire hope for social transformation.
Elga Agbaw
Fall 2024 Graduate
I am an education and community leader advancing equity, unity, and sustainable development through scholarship and service. The Certificate Program deepened my capacity for non-adversarial social change, racial unity, and environmental stewardship, strengthening my ability to design inclusive programs, translate theory into practice, and support communities as active agents of their own development.
Sue Ballew St. Clair
Fall 2024 Graduate
I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and am partially retired as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I am blessed with three sons and five grandchildren. The Certificate Program deepened my engagement in social action and public discourse, strengthening my ongoing efforts to advance racial justice and contribute meaningfully to society.
Megan Victory
Fall 2024 Graduate
The WI Certificate was life-changing. Completing it brought deep accomplishment, and as a disabled veteran, my life is now shaped by the perspectives gained. Months of learning transformed my worldview. My family, neighbors, and projects benefit. The teaching style, art, essays, community engagement, and music gave me tools to express ideas and connect.
Arlene “Eliza” Cooper
Summer 2024 Graduate
I am a wife, mother, and Community Anchor serving overlooked communities. As a Natural Health Educator and Director of Thriving Communities Collaborative (ThriveBMore.org), I promote prevention, shared leadership, and shared power. Graduating from the WI certificate program strengthened my commitment to advancing dignity, equity, and humanity for all.
Susan Crossley
Summer 2024 Graduate
I find renewal in nature, especially caring for plants. With over 40 years in mental health, I value restorative practices. Now semi-retired, I offer clinical supervision, volunteer with people experiencing homelessness, and serve with Copper to Gold. Guided by Bahá’í principles, I strive to translate learning into action for the oneness and betterment of humanity.
Robert Blecher
Fall 2024 Graduate
My life’s work centers on community, education, and social justice. After coaching youth soccer for 35 years, I taught high school social studies for over two decades. Since retiring, I’ve engaged in FUNDAEC-inspired educational work, serve with the Association of Bahá’í Studies, and teach with the Wilmette Institute.
Geri Lynn Peak
Fall 2023 Graduate
I apply spiritual principles and a liberatory lens to community-building through Two Gems Consulting Services. I co-founded multiple learning and research initiatives and advise arts and wealth-building organizations. My training includes the Virtues Project and Wilmette Institute. I also enjoy crafting, dancing, drumming, organic gardening, and poetry.
Susan Wolfe
Fall 2023 Graduate
I am a Bahá’í, community and developmental psychologist, consultant, and CEO who has worked in communities for over forty years. Since completing the Social Transformation Certificate, I’ve integrated its insights into my practice, strengthening coalition training and consultations, and shifting my work from a change mindset toward collaborative, grounded transformation.
Emily Chou
Fall 2023 Graduate
After completing the Wilmette Institute Certificate Program, I developed a profound sense of education’s higher purpose. In Las Vegas, I help cultivate a community centered on spiritual and material learning, hosting weekly classes and gatherings. As an elementary teacher, I strive to apply these principles in my classroom and encourage constructive thinking, unity, and service to others.
Wilmette Institute values the ongoing relationship with its alumni and the many ways they contribute to the advancement of knowledge and society.
