Shanta Premawardhana, Ph.D.

Shanta Premawardhana is president of OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership.

Prior to OMNIA, he served as the Director for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. He was also the Associate General Secretary for Interfaith Relations at the National Council of Churches, USA.

The OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership trains faith leaders – clergy and lay, women and men – to counter religious extremism and religion-based oppression, domination and violence. OMNIA has trained over 3500 peacemakers around the world, who are organized into Interfaith Peacemaker Teams. In Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh there are 166 Interfaith Peacemaker Teams – 94 in Nigeria, 39 in Sri Lanka, 30 in Bangladesh, 2 in Uganda, and 1 global virtual IP Team.

To learn more about peacemaker training or to donate to OMNIA's work, visit the OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership website.