The Certificate in Religion and Public Life (CRPL) is designed to prepare MDiv and MTS students with the tools, skills, and experience to explore professional pathways outside of traditional ministry or academic scholarship.

Through the CRPL, students explore the challenges and opportunities that arise when a nuanced understanding of religion is employed within a particular professional or vocational arena of focus. Upon completion, candidates will earn a Certificate in Religion and Public Life in one of the following areas of concentration: Education, Government, Journalism, Humanitarian Action, Arts and Popular Culture, Community Organizing.

Earning Your Certificate

To meet the certificate requirements, over the course of two years MTS and MDiv students must

• Complete all MTS or MDiv degree requirements

• Complete the three certificate courses with at least a B grade

• Complete an approved internship

• Complete a final project

See the CRPL Student Handbook (PDF) for full details on requirements, compensation and timelines. 

Internship in Area of Concentration

The CRPL internship provides an opportunity for students to apply and develop their study of religion in public life to the work of advancing just peace within an organization. It requires 280 hours of work and can be fulfilled as follows:  

• Full-time summer placement (35 hours per week for 8 weeks)

• Extended part-time placement (10 hours per week for 28 weeks)

Students pursuing the CRPL can begin their internship after completing the first of the required CRPL courses. They are supported by RPL in finding opportunities at settings within their chosen professional track.

Examples of sites where students interned in Summer 2022 are:  

• Cambridge Rindge and Latin School 

• International Committee of the Red Cross 

• Religion News Service 

• DeeperDive 

• U.S. Institute of Peace 

• Independent Jewish Voices Canada 

Note: A Field Education placement or other internship may meet the CRPL internship requirement. Consult with the Associate Director of Religious Literacy and the Professions for information on which internships qualify and the requirements to fulfill both simultaneously.

Current or incoming HDS students can access further about the requirements of the Certificate in Religion and Public Life program on the HDS Intranet.  

Requesting the Certificate

Students will apply for the CRPL to the RPL Faculty Director and the Registrar in the spring semester of their final year upon successful completion of all requirements. The responsibility for applying for the CRPL rests with the student and must be made no later than the end of the final examination period of the spring semester. The Faculty Director of the RPL and the Registrar will verify that requirements have been fulfilled. The Registrar will post receipt of the Certificate on the student’s transcript.

Meet the 2023-2024 CRPL Fellows

Cynthia Wilson: RPL Native and Indigenous Rights Fellow

Cynthia Wilson is a tribal member of the Navajo Nation, born and raised in Monument Valley, UT. She is of the Folded Arms People clan and born for the Towering House clan. Cynthia holds a MS in Nutrition from the University of Utah. She serves as the Traditional Foods Program Director for Utah Diné Bikéyah, a native-led nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve and protect the cultural and natural resources of ancestral lands. She is also a founding member of the Women of Bears Ears initiative. Her work encompasses traditional knowledge that addresses the environmental, cultural, nutritional and spiritual health of the land and the people.

Deborah Jian Lee: RPL Journalism Fellow 

Deborah Jian Lee is an award-winning journalist, radio producer, and author of Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism. She is an editor and reporter at The Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a nonprofit journalism organization supporting independent journalists covering economic inequality in America. She has worked as a staff reporter for the Associated Press, taught journalism at Columbia University, and contributed to many publications, including Esquire, Fast Company, Foreign Policy, ELLE, Slate, Playboy, TIME, WBEZ, WNYC, and others. She was named a finalist for the Livingston Awards and won a Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Award.

Álvaro Huerta: RPL Organizing Fellow

Álvaro Huerta, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Urban & Region Planning and Ethnic & Women’s Studies at California State Polytechnic University. He researches the intersecting domains of urban planning, Chicana/o-Latina/o studies, immigration, religion, social movements, social networks, and the informal economy. Huerta is the author of the forthcoming book, Jardineros: Cultivating Los Angeles’ Green Landscapes with Brown Hands, Migrant Networks and Technology. He is also the author of the award-winning book, Defending Latina/o Immigrant Communities: The Xenophobic Era of Trump and Beyond (2019). Huerta has received numerous awards for his social/racial justice and civic engagement, such as the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s 2016 Edward Blakely Award and the American Planning Association’s 2011 National Planning Leadership Award. 

Sarabinh Levy-Brightman: RPL Education Fellow

Sarabinh Levy-Brightman has worked with Religious Literacy Project (RLP) and Religion and Public Life (RPL) since 2016. Levy-Brightman served as the initial Coordinator of the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative and then as the Senior Fellow for Curriculum and Workshop Development for the RLP. Prior to working with the RLP, she was a high school humanities teacher. She has long standing expertise in integrating the academic study of religion into the humanities in both public and private schools and currently represents RPL on IB’s team to redevelop their global world religions curriculum. Levy-Brightman is also interested in pedagogy that cultivates and nourishes an embodied intellect in the service of personal and communal transformation. To that end she is currently building an organization called ThoughtCraft/LifeCraft to develop and support innovative curriculum and teacher training. Levy-Brightman holds an MDiv from HDS, an MA from The Divinity School of the University of Chicago, and a BA in History and Religion from Vassar College.

Mike Delaney: RPL Humanitarian Action Fellow

Michael Delaney has worked in international development and humanitarian response for his entire career. During his 25 years with Oxfam America, he led humanitarian emergency responses for some of the largest scale disasters of this century. Delaney champions the primacy of local community involvement on both long-term development projects and emergency response programs, advocating that the voices of those affected by disasters are included in the design, implementation, and evaluation of emergency response. Delaney was also Executive Director of Perkins International and founded Crescendo International in response to the increasing demand for humanitarian action from the intensified climate crisis and global conflicts.

Maytha Alhassen: RPL Arts and Popular Culture Fellow

Maytha Alhassen, PhD, is a historian, TV writer + producer, journalist, social justice organizer, and mending practitioner. Alhassen was an on-air host for Al Jazeera English and TYT, and did field reporting for such outlets as CNN and Huffington Post. She co-edited Demanding Dignity: Young Voices from the Front Lines of the Arab Revolutions and wrote Haqq and Hollywood: Illuminating 100 Years of Muslim Tropes and How to Transform Them. In 2017, Alhassen was awarded a TED residency that culminated in the TED talk “A Poem for Syria: Beyond a Geography of Violence” about her ancestral relationship to Syria and work with displaced communities in the region. Currently, Alhassen produces and writes for Golden Globe and Peabody-winning Hulu series Ramy and serves as an Executive Producer for the upcoming docuseries American Muslims: A History Revealed. 

Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart: RPL Government Fellow

Rev. Washington-Leapheart is the Strategic Partnerships Director at the social justice research and strategy center Political Research Associates. From 2019 to 2023, she served the city of Philadelphia as the Director for Faith-Based and Interfaith Affairs in the Mayor's. Prior to working in municipal government, she was the Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force, the country's oldest national LGBTQ justice and equality group. Rev. Washington-Leapheart serves on the boards of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, Pride in the Pews, and Healing Communities PA. She is also an appointee to the Faith-Based Security Advisory Council of the US Department of Homeland Security and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Rev. Naomi is an adjunct professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and Arcadia University. She is also the founder of Salt | Yeast | Light, a ministry grounded in facilitating spiritual candor, theological rigor, political disruption, deep reflection, radical action, and communal transformation.

Resources

Refer to the CRPL Student Handbook for further information on the Certificate of Religion and Public Life and how to navigate the process. You can also visit the HDS Website for further information about the Religion and Public Life program.

For further information, contact Religion and Public Life Academic Programs Coordinator, Tammy Liaw at tliaw@hds.harvard.edu.