Interspiritual Companioning & Counseling Program Faculty
ISCC Program Facilitators
Rev. Nathan Brisby: ISCC Facilitator
Rev. Nathan Brisby is an ordained Interfaith Minister and Interspiritual Companion and Counselor. For his primary vocational service, he leads the learning and organizational development functions for a large labor rights organization. As a spiritual teacher, he has led workshops on a variety of topics, including building self-care practices, Biblical studies for the LGBTQIA+ experience, mindful leadership, leading change, compassion fatigue, giving and receiving feedback, meditation as social change, mindful leadership, high impact communication, dismantling white supremacy, and many others. Prior to his service in the labor movement, he worked professionally in the performing arts and animal welfare spaces. Nathan founded a not for profit, Broadway Gives Back, which connects non-profit organizations with the Broadway community. He is also a certified grief counselor He grew up in a deeply evangelical Christian home, going back for generations. He currently lives in Astoria, NY with his husband, Stephen, and their dog, Dewey.
Rev. Dr. Khadijah Matin: ISCC Facilitator
Rev. Dr. Khadijah Matin has established a solid record of commitment to education and faith-based organizations, serving in multiple leadership roles. Building upon her interests in her family history and social justice work, Khadijah’s work looks at the role family and faith history plays as identity and transformation models. Along with her experience in nonprofit governance, and in recognition of her works in intercultural dialogue and civic engagement she was appointed as an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow. Khadijah has an MS from Fordham University; certificates from One Spirit Seminary (2006); ISC Program (2010). She earned her D.Min. In 2012, from New York Theological Seminary, in Multi-faith ministry. Always inspired by her children, Khadijah is called by some as a “woman who walks through walls” and calling as a continuation of her family’s traditions, fulfilling the social justice dreams of her ancestors.
Rev. Dr. Ed O’Malley: ISCC Facilitator
Rev. Dr. Ed O’Malley has been a senior Dean in the One Spirit Interspiritual Counseling Program for the past several years. He is a One Spirit ordained Interfaith/Interspiritual Minister, trained Shamanic energy medicine practitioner and a certified Nature Awareness Trainer. Ed also holds a PhD in neuroscience from Cornell University and board certification in Sleep Medicine and neurofeedback. Ed uses his broad background and training as a way to bring all facets of current knowledge to bear on our spiritual journey. He strives to extend deep awareness of the Natural World and integrate it with our inner world, emphasizing our interconnection with all life and the Spirit that moves through all things. As an ordained Interfaith Minister and Shaman with neuroscientific knowledge, Ed helps people to expand their spiritual awareness by reacquainting them with their own Divinity using practices centered on meeting body, mind and soul in Nature.
ISCC Supervisors
Rev. Dr. Ruqaiyah Nabe: ISCC Supervisor
After more than three decades as a Registered Professional Nurse, and more than twenty years as
adjunct faculty in a college setting, Rev. Dr. Ruqaiyah Nabe answered to a different calling.
She graduated from the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary where she was ordained an interfaith/inter-
spiritual minister (2006), and an interfaith/inter-spiritual counselor (2009). She volunteers as a
mentor in the One Spirit mentoring ministry program (since 2006); has appeared in a video for
Spiritual Directors International (SDI), wrote two blogs, and conducted a workshop, Sowing Seeds of
Love: Reaping Blossoms of Compassion, which was followed by an article of the same title for the
Presence journal of SDI.
Rev. Ruqaiyah also completed her doctorate in multi-faith ministry in 2010 from the New York
Theological Seminary (NYTS) where she was one of the first two Muslim women to earn the doctor of
ministry degree in the seminary’s one hundred and ten year history (2010). At least two additional
Muslim women followed suit. She is also the first One Spirit graduate to earn the doctor of ministry
degree from NYTS. Her doctoral thesis, Faith to Faith: Spiritual Direction with a Multi-faith Context,
focused on a Muslim spiritual counselor offering service to devotees of other faiths traditions and
spiritual practices. Rev. Ruqaiyah served on five site teams for doctor of ministry candidates of NYTS, one of which she
served as advisor. She received from the Rev. Dr. Eleanor Moody-Shepherd’s Women’s Center of
NYTS, the award, Women on the Front Line.
As an independent practitioner, Rev. Ruqaiyah responds to requests to speak at houses of worship;
colleges, universities and community organizations, and panel discussions/round tables. In addition,
she presides over rites and rituals of life-cycle events, and is a contributing author to two
anthologies—Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color, and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody
Turn Me Around: Stories of Contemplation and Justice
Dr. Ruqaiyah Nabe holds memberships in several organizations, and is involved in community
activities. She recently appeared in the podcast, Voices of Hagar, the story told from the perspectives
of the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Rev. Salima Ira Swain: ISCC Supervisor
Salima Ira Swain is a music educator, opera singer, poet, author, Therapeutic Touch practitioner
and Spiritual Counselor. She has a Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music in vocal
performance and is ABD toward a Doctorate of Musical Arts. She traveled throughout Europe
and The United States performing Opera as well as Classical Music Recitals of English, French
and German Art Songs Sacred Music and African American Art Songs and Spirituals. Ms. Swain
was a Therapeutic Music Specialist for Long Term Care patients and she is a retired NYC music
educator. She teaches private voice and piano lessons to students of all ages and levels of
performance. Salima facilitates ACIM study groups, Weight Loss and Spirituality Groups and she
is an active participant in Sufism and InterSpiritual daily practices. Ms. Swain serves on the
Board of Directors of “Opera On Tap”, a music education and performance organization. She is
an advocate for the elderly in her personal community and takes Joy in communicating and
assisting with their needs.
Her experience with One Spirit began with ordination in 2004. The devastation and isolation of
the COVID Pandemic inspired her to reconnect with One Spirit so that she could become an
effective Spiritual presence for her personal community and others who seek professional
Spiritual Counseling. She started with Companions in Care and realized that ISCC would provide her with more
experience in Spiritual Counseling competencies. The realization that there is a
“Companionship” with the Counselor and the Counselee was one of her most important
lessons. Salima was honored to be chosen as the speaker for the first ISCC graduation class of
2022. Her Spiritual and personal oath since ordination, “I will live my life in the Truth that
Everything is in Divine Perfect Order” continues to be her life’s guiding principle.
Rev. Heidi Tessmer: ISCC Supervisor
Reverend Heidi Tessmer, BA, MBA, is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister of the One
Spirit Interfaith Seminary (OSIS) graduate Class of 2020. She holds a BA in Economics from
the University of Vermont and an MBA from Northeastern University. She is a certified Spiritual
Director from Still Harbor, where spirituality meets social justice. In December 2020, she
completed the Companions in Care program from OneSpirit Learning Alliance. Currently, she is
a candidate in the Thanatology certificate program from the Art of Dying Institute at OneSpirit.
Heidi’s spiritual path began with twelve step spirituality. She agrees with Richard Rohr that,
“The twelve steps is America’s most significant and authentic contribution to the history of
spirituality.” It is by utilizing these principles with an intersection of compassion and justice that
she ministers to individuals. As the activist and educator, Ruby Sales asks, “Where does it
hurt?” Getting to people's heartbreak is the key to reaching their spirit. Heidi believes the
human soul needs to be witnessed and listened to with an open heart filled with compassion.
She is an active member of OneSpirit in Action (OSIA) and has participated in co facilitating the
series of “Remembering our Forgotten Community, Our Brothers and Sisters Behind the Bars.”
Since 2020, she has been an active member of Transforming LIves New York, a writing
mentorship program with incarcerated citizens. Heidi currently resides in Amesbury Massachusetts.
Lyena Strelkoff: ISCC Supervisor
Lyena’s affinity for earth-based spirituality began as a very young child, backpacking on the Stanislaus River with her father. Wandering its rugged shores by day, climbing its rocks by moonlight, she felt a profound sense of belonging in this wild place. She became an avid hiker, returning to the land whenever possible to seek again this sense of connection. When she began reading spiritual writings as a young adult, looking for something that might articulate her experience, she discovered the Transcendentalists. A few years later, her innate resonance with the wild world found its most vital expression in the nature-based practices of Wicca. Perhaps ironically, at the age of 33, Lyena was paralyzed in a fall from a tree while hiking. Contrary to the presumed tragedy, she experienced a spiritual awakening in the 20 feet between the branch that broke and the ground. The unprecedented peace, clarity, and purpose it brought guides her to this day, more than 20 years later, living with a spinal cord injury. Lyena served for 16 years as lay clergy at Circle of Aradia, the largest and oldest Dianic Wiccan community in the world. Her current spiritual practice is contemplative, earth- and body-based, rooted in devised ritual and the Feminine Divine, and informed by additional wisdom traditions including Taoism and secular Buddhism. She is the subject of an award-winning short documentary and her inspiring story has been featured on NPR, CNN Headline News, and dozens of blogs, podcasts and other media. A compelling writer and beloved storyteller known for sharing personal stories with universal meaning, Lyena is a contributing author to the anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom, and her acclaimed autobiographical one-woman play, Caterpillar Soup, has toured throughout the US and received recognition from an affiliate of the Kennedy Center. She is a graduate of One Spirit’s Interspiritual Counseling and Companioning program and the founder of Lantern Soul Care, a private practice providing online spiritual companioning to family caregivers, healthcare workers, and people living with chronic illness or injury. She holds a Master’s Degree in human development and, as a former life coach and current facilitator, has more than 30 years experience creating transformational events. She lives with her husband of 20 years, their 13 year-old son, her 91 year-old mother, two sweet rabbits, and her much adored service dog, Grant, in her native California.
Rev. Wendy Jo Cole: ISCC Supervisor
We create transformative, resilient new realities by becoming transformed, resilient people.
- Krista Tippett