Tahil Sharma

Tahil Sharma is a Southern California native born to a Hindu and Sikh Indian family. He is a nationally recognized leader promoting religious and secular pluralism, human rights, social justice. Tahil serves as a Religious Director from the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California working on local initiatives to promote inter-religious dialogue and community engagement with students of diverse religious and secular backgrounds, with emphasis on South Asian and Hindu students, with support of the Germanacos Fellowship through the Interfaith Youth Core. He also serves as an Interfaith Liaison for Sadhana: The Coaition of Progressive Hindus and the Vice Chair for the Committee on Human Relations for the city of Claremont. He has worked as the Hope Not Hate Campaign and Culturama Coordinator for AMP Global Youth, a project of Americans for Informed Democracy, to create an intercultural, virtual exchange between students in the United States and the Middle East with the support of the Aspen Institute and the US State Department and has served as a Youth Representative to the United Nations DPI NGO for the Parliament of the World’s Religion. Tahil was also recently appointed as the youngest Board Member of the Southern California Committee for the Parliament of World's Religions. He previously worked as a Co-Chair for the Claremont-La Verne Relay for Life, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Recognized for his work in issues of social justice and interfaith cooperation, he was named a member of the Future50 cohort, a collaborative of the Interreligious Council of Southern California and USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture that recognizes interfaith members within Southern California who will impact the landscape of religious diversity and service for the next half century. Tahil was named a Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact for engaging diverse communities while working for food security in his local communities by building and maintaining garden beds that grow organic fruits and vegetables that are donated to food banks.