Karima Vargas Bushnell
Director, Light Upon Light Sufi Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Karima Vargas Bushnell, MA, is an intercultural relations trainer who teaches Intercultural Communication at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has trained or taught courses for clients including the National Science Foundation, HealthPartners, MN Department of Employee Relations, the Center for Cross-Cultural Health, the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, Minnesota Humanities Commission, Antioch University and University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis and St. Paul Public Schools, the City of St. Paul, St. Paul Area Council of Churches and the Minnesota Catholic Education Association. Published writings include multiple articles for the Center for Cross-Cultural Health's Cross-Winds, an exercise for ASTD's Training and Performance Sourcebook, and a film script and manual, Keys to the Global Village, with the University of St. Thomas. She is also a recipient of the University of St. Thomas Student of Color Ally Award. A lifelong student of world religions, Karima embraced Islam in 1993 and has been speaking, writing and leading experiential sessions on Islam and Islamic Sufism since the 1980's. Other outreach activities include serving on interreligious panels and teaching the salat (Islamic prayers) to new Muslims. Karima is an advocate for the depth and breadth of traditional Islam, which for 1400 years has included a rich spectrum of scholars, lawgivers, mystics and ordinary people. She has presented her Honey of Islam workshop at churches and at the 2004 conference of SIETAR-U.S.A. Karima comes from a multi-ethnic, multicultural background.
Co-author of Cultural Detective Islam