Maia Ferdman (she/her) is the staff director of the UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative and deputy director of the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute. She is also the founder of Bridges Intergroup Relations Consulting, a firm that supports organizations and communities to build vibrant spaces of belonging – celebrating our complex identities, proactively exploring our differences, and fostering resilient relationships between groups.
Maia has worked with and consulted for agencies and organizations including the California State Water Boards, the City of Los Angeles, Pepperdine University, the Western Justice Center, Abrahamic House, Resetting the Table, and NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change. She has trained government and nonprofit groups in cultural competency, and facilitated conversations across differences about policing, homelessness, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and more. She was formerly the program manager of the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate and the assistant director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy.
Maia loves studying and is a product of globalization; she is a Jewish Argentinian Southern Californian who has lived in Bulgaria and Argentina and has spent extensive time in India and Israel. She received her B.A. in Global Studies and M.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA.