Speakers

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  Pir Zia Inayat Khan
  

  Pir Zia Inayat Khan

  Pir Zia Inayat Khan, PhD, is a scholar of religion and teacher of Sufism in the universalist Sufi lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Pir Zia is president of the Inayatiyya and founder of Sulūk Academy, a school of Sufi contemplative study and practice. He is the author of Immortality: A Traveler’s Guide; Mingled Waters: Sufism and the Mystical Unity of Religions; Saracen Chivalry: Counsels on Valor, Generosity and the Mystical Quest; and the editor and compiler of Dream Flowers: The Collected Works of Noor Inayat Khan, for which he also wrote the critical introduction. Pir Zia divides his time between Richmond, Virginia and Suresnes, France. inayatiyya.org

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  Jamila Cranston-Buckley
  

  Jamila Cranston-Buckley

  Jamila Cranston-Buckley is a student of life. She has worked in the fields of Well Being for 40 years. A practitioner of Oriental Healing, Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture, Jamila continues to deepen in understanding the Five Elements as they manifest through every aspect of life. She treasures the philosophy of Wholeness and Interdependence of living systems found in approaches such as Sufi teachings, Oriental Medicine and ‘Perma-Dynamics’. Her passions are gardening, exploring wellbeing through movement, eating well, being in community, growing communication skills, cultivating compassion and consciously working with all states of mind. Her focus is tuning and polishing her Heart-Being, to listen more fully and deeply to self, others and life. Jamila is the Inayatiyya’s National Representative for New Zealand and holds the work of the ‘Inner School’. She guides individual and group retreats to tend heart, soul, unfold unique gifts and purpose of life.

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  Alia Eileen Yager M.D.
  

  Alia Eileen Yager M.D.

  Alia Eileen Yager, M.D. is a pediatrician and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Emerita at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is the retired Director of the Integrative Pain/Symptom Management Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She gives workshops on mindfulness practices, meditation, pain relief, and stress reduction. In 2016, Alia received the Outstanding Faculty Service Award from the Medical Staff at Children’s Hospital. Alia serves as a senior teacher in the Inayatiyya Inner School, a Shafayat (senior teacher) in the Inayatiyya Healing Activity, and is a receiver of the Golden Heart Award. She is a long-time meditator (55 years) and meditation teacher (30 years), and knows the breath as an interconnected energy field, a connecting energy to our body-mind-heart complex, and a guide and connection to the Divine. She says that the mystics know that there is only one being and we are part of it, and breath is how we interconnect.

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  Jamia Haqq
  

  Jamia Haqq

  Jamia Haqq (Experienced Farmer and Ziraat Co-Vice President 2024 – ).
  Jamia Haqq (Eila Paul) of Tainui descent has been walking a spiritual path all her life. Introduced to the Inayatiyya in 1997 she was soon initiated by the late Murshida Halima McEwan at the Sharda Centre, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Through her Maori heritage, having a strong connection with nature drew her to the Inayatiyya’s annual Summer Camp in Switzerland in 2002, where she was initiated into Ziraat by Pir Zia. In the last 15 years she has been a trustee, and at times custodian and kaitiaki/guardian, of the Sharda Centre, caring for the beautiful natural native forest, stream and visitors with an outward expression of her inner path.

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  Raqib Misha Kogan M.D.
  

  Raqib Misha Kogan M.D.

  Raqib Misha Kogan, M.D. received his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine. He’s the medical director of the GW Center for Integrative Medicine and associate professor of medicine in the division of Geriatrics and Palliative Care at George Washington University. Raqib has been on the Sufi path since 2001 and is a Conductor in the Inayatiyya Healing Activity. Together with his wife Rafia, he completed Suluk training in 2007. Raqib has been working closely with Devi Tide and other Healing Activity leaders for over 10 years and has assisted in organizing and running many annual Leadership Retreats. Raqib’s goal is to bring healing wisdom and practices of the Inayatiyya to more people, especially those who are vulnerable. To achieve this goal, Raqib founded AIM Health Institute, a non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area that provides integrative medicine services to low-income and terminally ill patients regardless of their ability to pay.

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  Jessica Bromby
  

  Jessica Bromby

  Jessica Bromby is a Healing Cherag and offers all generations Universal Services. She’s a Canadian born on a farm in Quebec and now living with her husband and daughter in Sarasota by Rising Tide International. She is a singer and often shares songs in her services. She guides and facilitates healing retreats in person and online. She is a guide in the Inayatiyya and shefayat and healing retreat guide serving in the Healing Order. She’s a mentor in the current life transitions Healing Cherag program and healing retreat guide training program. She is soon hosting an interfaith group for babies and parents this fall.

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  Amina Georgia Feliou
  

  Amina Georgia Feliou

  Amina Georgia Feliou is the Kefayat and Emeritus Vice President of the Inayatiyya Healing (IH) for Europe and Pakistan. She is the leader of the IH in Athens, Greece and a representative for the Inayatiyya Inner School. She is a psychotherapist following Murshid’s path since 2008. Before working as a psychotherapist, she was working for more than 10 years at the United Nations and in particular the United Nations Information Center for Greece, Cyprus and Israel, stationed in Athens, Greece. She has studied philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy, and library and information science. She enjoys swimming, hiking and practicing fascia exercises. She is dedicated to the service of fellow human beings, non-human friends and Mother Earth to the best of her abilities.

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  Maryam Neil
  

  Maryam Neil

  Maryam Neil was Initiated into the Inayatiyya in 2016. Prior to this she was active in the Ruhaniat within the Dances of Universal Peace. Maryam completed Suluk in 2022. She participates as a Coordinator, Healing Conductor, Cherag and is active in the Music Activity in Oceania. Maryam lives in Brisbane, Queensland and has 4 children and 4 grandchildren.

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  Nur Alima Smith
  

  Nur Alima Smith

  Nur Alima Smith is a Shefayat, a Cherag, a Healing Conductor and a Raphaelite Healer in the Inayatiyya Healing Activity. She is adept with various breathing techniques, having studied this for over 40 years. Nur Alima brings the Inayyati philosophy and practices to community groups. She has run many trainings for staff and volunteers at Hospice and multiple Veteran Organizations, focusing on these techniques and how to heal oneself with the breath. Since 2015, Nur Alima has also led a weekly meditation group at the VA for Veterans who have PTSD. Her additional work with the Veteran Community includes teaching meditation and relaxation techniques to those on active duty about to be deployed and to those who have just returned from combat. She serves on the Inayatiyya Healing Senior Teacher Committee and lives in Syracuse, New York. Currently, Nur Alima is serving as the co-Vice President, the Bayt-ul-Haram, of the Inayatiyya Healing Activity.

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  Sitara Mitten-Lewis
  

  Sitara Mitten-Lewis

  Sitara Mitten-Lewis founded the first Sufi Order center in Sydney, Australia in the 1990’s and served as Regional Representative for Australia until 2010. As a Senior Teacher, she also serves as a Shafayat in the Healing Activity and a Mentor in the Dances of Universal Peace. She coordinated the Inayati Order Leaders Training Committee from 2010-15 and helped develop the training module on Sacred Sound. She guides murids and offers retreats and workshops on meditation, music and movement in the US, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

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  Ushi Darena Burgess
  

  Ushi Darena Burgess

  Ushi Darena Burgess is a long-time murid in the Inayatiyya. She grew up in small towns in the forests of the rural Pacific Northwest.
  A deep longing brought her to this spiritual path and the Inayatiyya. She is a Shafayat in the Healing Activity, a Cherag in the Universal Worship, and served on the national Board for five years. She brings spirituality into the world in a very real way, with clarity, acts of kindness, compassion and heart.
  Her career spanned decades of public service. Currently, she co-leads Wings of the Message Sufi Center in Seattle, Washington and facilitates a weekly Healing Service for the World. She acknowledges the interconnectedness of all humanity with the biosphere, and includes a global perspective in all her work.

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  Haqqiqa Noor Gail Stephenson
  

  Haqqiqa Noor Gail Stephenson

  Haqqiqa Noor is a Shafayat and holds the Healing Concentration for Australia.
  Driven by a passion to empower others to help themselves, Haqqiqa Noor taught yoga for 16 years in ashrams as well as in the wider community. More recently, having been present during the deaths of close family and friends over the years, she was led to volunteer in palliative support, trained as a death doula, and continued this work for 11 years. She feels privileged to be able to sit with people who have a life ending condition, in the sacredness that exists at that time. Haqqiqa Noor has a family of adult daughters and a newly adult granddaughter with whom she treasures spending joyful times and going on many adventures.

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  Jalila Chris Botsford
  

  Jalila Chris Botsford

  Jalila Chris Botsford has been a student, facilitator and teacher of many forms of holistic healing for over 25 years. As a holistic health practitioner, working both in person and long-distance, she utilizes energy healing, cranial sacral and the foundational Sufi practices of presence, breath, light and guided meditation in her Spiritual Energy Sessions. She also leads individual sessions, workshops and retreats based on Carolyn Myss’s Archetypal Sacred Contracts course. Jalila’s passion for healing and service has led her to Africa, Haiti and Guatemala working in hospitals and clinics in impoverished communities.