Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, with his family from Puerto Rico, Reverend David Ramos was brought up Catholic, but at age 16, he had a “born again” experience on the streets of Brooklyn and began to attend a “hippie-like” church that was part of the historical Jesus movement. Rev. Ramos is pastor of Third Christian Church Disciples of Christ in Hamilton Heights and a teaching pastor at the NYC hub of the Passion Center, a Phygital Faith Community and Missional Training Center. As Founder and Facilitator of the Latino Leadership Circle – a network of leaders that provides spiritual, emotional, and moral support and training for established and emerging leaders – he produces podcasts and conducts advocacy on theological and social-justice issues. Rev. Ramos has worked intimately with trauma, death & dying, and grief as a Hospice Chaplain with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. He provides training and technical assistance to churches, corporations, networks, and non-profit organizations on trauma, grief and loss, conflict resolution, and resiliency. His faith journey has roots in the Hispanic Assemblies of God Pentecostal church; the Quaker church; the Presbyterian and Reformed churches, conducting pulpit supply; the emerging church, where he participated in dialogues; and a megachurch, serving as a staff minister. Rev. Ramos served as Chancellor of Faith International Bible School and the Director of Covenant Ministries International, Inc., where he conducted global and regional support work and provided training to international pastors and emerging leaders. In addition, he was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the American Bible Society. Rev. Ramos holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and a Master of Social Work from Rutgers University. He enjoys hiking, trail running, and motorcycle riding and lives in the Bronx.

George McWhirter is an Irish-Canadian writer, translator, editor, and teacher, as well as Vancouver’s first poet laureate. He has translated works by Mario Arregui, Carlos Fuentes, and José Emilio Pacheco. He was awarded the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2024 for his translation of Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence (New Directions, 2023).

One of Latin America’s foremost literary figures, Homero Aridjis was born in Contepec, Michoacán, Mexico. He has written fifty-one books of poetry and prose and has won many important literary prizes. Formerly Mexico’s ambassador to Switzerland, the Netherlands, and UNESCO, he is also the president emeritus of PEN International and the founder and president of the Group 100, an environmentalist association of artists and scientists.

Miriam Guadalupe Juárez is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English at New York University where she specializes in Chicanx and Latinx literature and culture through the lens of space, migration, and power. Juárez is the 2022 recipient of the Urban Doctoral Fellowship, and proudly served as the coordinator of The Latinx Project Graduate Working Group at NYU for four years. She is a 2024-2025 Public Humanities Doctoral Fellow at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center.

Dr. Ish Ruiz is an assistant professor of Latinx and Queer Decolonial Theology at Pacific School of Religion and holds a PhD in Theology and Ethics from the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Ruiz is also the coordinator of the Latinx Roundtable of the Center for LGBTQ+ and Gender Studies in Religion housed at PSR. His prior appointments include a post-doctoral fellow at Candler School of Theology at Emory University and an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton. He also worked at the secondary school level for 11 years, chaired the Marianist LGBTQ+ Initiative team, served as a union activist to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ Church employees, and presented at various pastoral conferences throughout the US. A native of Puerto Rico and a queer Catholic theologian, Dr. Ruiz’s research interests explore the intersection between Catholic moral theology, queer theology, Latinx theology, ecclesiology, sexual ethics, liberation, human rights, and Catholic education. He is the author of LGBTQ+ Educators in Catholic Schools: Embracing Synodality, Inclusivity, and Justice (Rowman & Littlefield, fall 2024) and a co-editor of Cornerstones: Sacred Stories of LGBTQ+ Employees in Catholic Institutions (New Ways Ministry, fall 2024). He has published several academic and public theology articles in the field of Catholic theological ethics and has ministered in Catholic schools and parishes on matters of LGBTQ+ and Latinx inclusion throughout the nation.

Dr. Colleen Mary Mallon, OP, is a theologian, educator, and animator of mission formation. Sister Mallon holds a PhD in systematic and philosophical theology from the Graduate Theological Union and has taught systematic theology at the university level, including at Aquinas Institute of Theology. She currently serves as a director of adult mission formation for the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose.

Jacinto Zarabata, a young Kogi from Colombia, showcased his short film “Home Among the Clouds” at the biodiversity COP16 in Cali, Colombia (Oct/Nov 2024), with the help of the Tairona Heritage Trust. Like many Indigenous people, Jacinto has deep-seated concerns about the environmental changes impacting his community and felt driven to share a message in the hope of reshaping perceptions of the physical world. As guardians of ancient Indigenous wisdom, the Kogi maintain that they have divine responsibility to care for the earth, given to them by the Great Mother, Aluna. The Kogi message is simple, We must take care of our planet because it is the Home of All. Jacinto’s film offers a raw, authentic Indigenous perspective on the climate crisis, and presents a youthful plea and message of hope, reminding us of what sustains our existence.

Alan Ereira studied Law and History at Queen’s College, Cambridge. Ereira is a historian and  Professor of Practice at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David (Athro Ymarfer Prifysgol Cymru Y Drindod Dewi Sant). He is founder of the Tairona Heritage Trust, working to amplify the voice of the Kággaba (Kogi) people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. In 1962, he began a career as a radio and television producer, specializing in history. His credits include Battle of the Somme, which won the Japan Prize in 1978; Armada, which was winner of the Royal Television Society’s Best Documentary Series of 1988; and numerous history documentaries. He is the author of The People’s England, The Invegordon Mutiny, The Heart of the World and co-author with Terry Jones of the Crusades and Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives. His most recent book is Gold: How it Shaped History (Pen and Sword History, 2024).

A migrant from Chinandega, Nicaragua, Father Flavio Bravo, SJ arrived in Miami, Florida in 1985 and entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1992. Fr. Bravo graduated from Saint Louis University in Missouri with a BA in philosophy and a minor in Spanish/ Latin American literature (1999) and then taught high school Spanish at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston, Texas. He earned an MDiv in Pastoral Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (2005), where he was ordained a Catholic priest. He returned to Strake Jesuit College Preparatory to teach and serve as pastoral services director (2005-2015). Fr. Bravo went on to serve as Superior de la Compañia de Jesús, then President of Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola, and soon after as pastor of the Parroquia San Ignacio de Loyola, all in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since 2022, he has served as the pastoral assistant for the itinerant team ofDel Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, and as Superior of the Jesuit community in Brownsville, Texas.

Cinthya Santos Briones is a visual artist, educator, and cultural organizer with indigenous Nahua roots in New York.  Briones serves as adjunct faculty at the Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and as a Visiting Critic artist at Columbia University. She holds an MFA in creative writing and photography from Cornell University and a certificate in Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism from the International Center of Photography (ICP). She has studied ethnohistory and anthropology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in México and worked as a researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, focussing on indigenous migration, codex, textiles, and traditional medicine. As a writer, her texts have been published in academic and journalistic magazines such as NACLA and The Nation and newspapers such as La Jornada. She is co-author of The Indigenous Worldview and its Representations in Textiles of the Nahua community of Santa Ana Tzacuala, Hidalgo, and the documentary, The Huichapan Codex. As an artist, her work focuses on a multidisciplinary social practice that combines participatory art and the construction of collective narratives. Through non-linear storytelling mediums, she juxtaposes photography, historical archives, writing, ethnography, drawings, collage, embroidery, and popular education. Briones has been awarded fellowships and grants from the Magnum Foundation (2016/2018/2020), En Foco (2017/2022), National Geographic Research and Exploration (2018), We Woman (2019), City Artist Corps (2020), National Fund for Culture and the Arts of México (2009/2011), Wave Hill House Winter Residency (2023), Mellon Artist Fellow at Hemispheric Institute in NYU University (2023-24), BricLab Contemporary Art (2023), etc. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Pdn, California Sunday Magazine, Vogue, Open Society Foundations, Buzzfeed, The Intercept, New Yorker, and The Nation Magazine, among others. Briones has exhibited her work individually and collectively in galleries and museums such as Sky Blue Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Latinx Project, NYU, International Center Of Photography, Museo del Barrio, Museum of the City of New York, Trout Museum in Wisconsin, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, and Stony Brook. She has worked at pro-immigrant organizations in New York as a community organizer on issues such as detection, education, and sanctuary and has volunteered in programs accompanying migrants to the courts and asylum applications. Briones is a guardian of unaccompanied migrant children and a member of Colectiva Infancias, anthropologists who work through ethnographic and visual research on studies around childhood about migration, violence, urban studies, and epistemologies of the Global South.

Father Brian Strassburger, SJ, grew up in Denver, CO, and went to college at Saint Louis University, where he graduated with honors in mathematics, a certificate in business administration, and a minor in philosophy. In 2011, Fr. Strassburger joined the U.S. Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus (the "Jesuits") to begin his formation to become a Catholic priest. After professing vows, he earned a master’s degree in international political economy and development (IPED) from Fordham University and spent a summer working for Jesuit Refugee Service in South Africa. Fr. Strassburger holds an MDiv and a Master of Theology from Boston College, and while in Boston, was the chaplain to the Boston College men’s basketball team, worked as a prison chaplain, and served as a deacon at St. Mary of the Angels Parish. Throughout his formation, he has contributed to and is editor-in-chief of The Jesuit Post (TJP). In 2021, Fr. Strassburger was ordained a Catholic priest in New Orleans and missioned to the Diocese of Brownsville, TX, where he currently serves as the Director of Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries. Their mobile team visits migrant shelters on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to celebrate Mass, accompany people, and bring humanitarian aid. He also co-hosts The Jesuit Border Podcast, which shares on-the-ground stories and includes interviews with religious leaders and advocates for migrants.

Daniel Borzutzky is a poet and Spanish-language translator from Chicago. His most recent books are The Murmuring Grief of the Americas (2024), and Written After a Massacre in the Year 2018 (2021). His 2016 collection, The Performance of Becoming Human, received the National Book Award. Lake Michigan (2018) was a finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. His most recent translations are Cecilia Vicuña’s The Deer Book (2024); and Paula Ilabaca Nuñez’s The Loose Pearl (2022), winner of the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. His translation of Galo Ghigliotto's Valdivia received the American Literary Translator’s Association’s 2017 National Translation Award, and he has also translated collections by Raúl Zurita, and Jaime Luis Huenún. He teaches English and Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Alejandra Mejía is an Assistant Editor and Editorial Operations Coordinator at Duke University Press, where she acquires books in Latinx history. Her politics and devotion to migrant justice are largely informed by being the daughter of a single, working-class immigrant mother. She is also the Chief Editor of Migrant Roots Media, an independent media platform that centers the analyses of migrants and children of migrants to unearth the root causes of global migration. She served as co-lead of the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Scholarly Publishing, hosted by the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications. Mejía holds a BA in Comparative Literature with a concentration in Latinx studies from Williams College. 

Rev. Dr. Aizaiah G. Yong is an administrative faculty member and practical theologian at the Claremont School of Theology. There he also co-directs professional doctoral programs related to contemplative leadership & the Center for Engaged Compassion (CEC). The CEC is devoted to co-repairing the world through the teaching, study, and cultivation of compassion. Ordained as a Pentecostal Christian minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and with strong ties to the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM), he has over 15 years of experience in religious and higher education leadership, healing, and advocacy work informed by psychospiritual practice, and international public speaking. Together he, his life partner Nereyda Yong, and his father Amos Yong, have co-founded Spirited Renewal, an organization devoted to transforming 21st-century spirituality, culture, and relationships. Rev. Dr. Yong is a trusted thought leader on issues at the intersections of spiritual, cultural, and relational transformation. His forthcoming book, Trauma and Renewal: Toward Spiritual, Communal, and Holistic Transformation (Orbis Books, 2025) received the nationally acclaimed 2023 Louisville Institute Book Grant for Scholars of Color. Multiracial Cosmotheandrism: a Practical Theology of Multiracial Experiences (Orbis Books, 2023) received the 2020 Hispanic Theological Initiative Dissertation Prize and the 2022 Raimon Panikkar Prize. Rev. Dr. Yong holds a PhD in Practical Theology: Intercultural Education and Formation, from Claremont School of Theology; an MA in Theology and Culture from Northwest University; and a BS in Organizational Leadership and Management from Regent University. His greatest joys are being in a life partnership with Neddy and being a parent to awe-inspiring children.

Dr. Yohana Junker is an Associate Professor of Art, Spirituality, and Culture and Associate Dean for Spiritual Life at Claremont School of Theology. Dr. Junker’s research and publications probe the intersections among the fields of art history, eco-criticism, and decolonial studies, with special attention to contemporary Indigenous and diasporic art practices. In her writing, art, and activism, she explores the human capacity to imagine and retrieve generative ways of being even in the face of impossibility. She also investigates the ways artists create poetic spaces that allow viewers to come together, reclaim agency, and restore a sense of purpose, a thirst for justice, and a desire for transformation. Her artwork is central to her scholarship and activism. Dr. Junker holds a  PhD in Art and Religion from Graduate Theological Union; an MTS in Visual Arts and Spirituality, Theological Aesthetics and Art History from Christian Theological Seminary; and a BA in Journalism and Communications from Universidade Metodista de São Paulo. She is co-editing, with Dr. Aaron Rosen, Modern and Contemporary Artists on Religion: A Global Sourcebook (Bloomsbury).

Dr. Edwin Hernández serves as President of Antillean Adventist University. With extensive experience in higher education, philanthropy, and scholarship, he is recognized for his advocacy of theological education and commitment to advancing scholarship. Before his current role, Dr. Hernández was the Executive Director of the Louisville Institute, based out of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and served as President and Provost at AdventHealth University. His career includes positions as Senior Program Officer at the DeVos Family Foundations, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at the University of Notre Dame, Program Officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Antillean Adventist University. He also taught as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Andrews University. Dr. Hernández earned his PhD and MA in Sociology of Religion from the University of Notre Dame, an MDiv from Andrews University, and a BA in Theological Studies from La Sierra University. He has led significant research initiatives on theological education, congregational studies, and philanthropic strategies. Throughout his career, Dr. Hernández has remained a dedicated scholar and writer, authoring and contributing to five books and over 60 articles and reports, establishing him as a thought leader in his discipline.

Dr. Johanna Fernández is an Associate Professor of History at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Fernández specializes in 20th Century U.S. history and the history of social movements and is the author of The Young Lords: A Radical History (UNC Press, 2020). The book explores the Puerto Rican counterpart of the Black Panther Party and has received the American Book Award, the Frederick Jackson Turner Award, the New York City Book Award, the Merle Curti Award, and the Liberty Legacy Foundation Award. Dr. Fernández's recent research and litigation have significantly advanced the field, particularly through her successful Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) lawsuit against the NYPD, which recovered the "lost" Handschu files. This archive, containing over one million surveillance records compiled by the NYPD from 1954 to 1972, includes crucial primary documents on New Yorkers, including Malcolm X, making it the largest repository of police surveillance records in the U.S. She is the editor of Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal (City Lights, 2015) and with Abu-Jamal co-edited a special issue of Socialism and Democracy titled "The Roots of Mass Incarceration in the US: Locking Up Black Dissidents and Punishing the Poor" (Routledge, 2014). Her scholarly contributions have earned her multiple accolades, including the Fulbright Scholars grant for research in the Middle East and North Africa and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her writings have been featured internationally, from Al Jazeera to the Huffington Post, and she has appeared in various media outlets, including NPR, The New York Times, and Democracy Now! As an accomplished filmmaker, she directed and co-curated the exhibition ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York, recognized by The New York Times as one of 2015’s Top 10 Best in Art. She also wrote and produced Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (BigNoise Films, 2010). Dr. Fernández holds a PhD in U.S. History from Columbia University and a BA in Literature and American Civilization from Brown University. During the pandemic, she hosted WBAI’s radio morning show, “A New Day” and currently hosts their morning show, “What’s Going On!Friday.” Her current research focuses on U.S. fascism.

Macarena Hernández is a multimedia journalist and educational consultant. Formerly, she was an editorial columnist at The Dallas Morning News; the Rio Grande Valley Bureau Chief for The San Antonio Express-News; the Fred Hartman Distinguished Professor of Journalism at Baylor University; and the Victoria Advocate Endowed Professor in the Humanities at the University of Houston-Victoria. She served as founding content editor and production manager for HTI Open Plaza. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and PBS.

Nelly Rosario is the author of Song of the Water Saints: A Novel, winner of a PEN/Open Book Award. She holds an MFA from Columbia University. Her fiction and creative nonfiction work appears in various journals and anthologies, including Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women (Amistad Press/Harper Collins, 2023), Critical Dialogues in Latina and Latino Studies (New York University Press, 2021), and Teaching Black: Pedagogy, Practice, and Perspectives on Writing (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). She has been on faculty at Texas State University-San Marcos, Medgar Evers-CUNY, The City College of New York-CUNY, Columbia University, and was a Visiting Scholar in the MIT Comparative Media/Writing Program. Rosario has served as Assistant Director of Writing for the MIT Black History Project and as founding content editor/webmaster for HTI Open Plaza. Currently, Rosario serves as Chair and Associate Professor in the Latina/o Studies Program at Williams College.

Amanda Bolaños is the Stanley Hauerwas Scholar and a ThD candidate of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Her research interests include offering a real, pastoral, and critical perspective in the systematic success and harm of religion in communities through the praxis of Latinx liberation theology, feminist theology, Catholic Social Teaching, and virtue ethics. Bolaños was born in Palm Springs, California to a Guatemalan father and an Italian-Canadian mother. She is a Roman Catholic who aspires to converse about the present effects of a diaspora space, to offer a critical perspective of euro-centered aestheticism, and to shed light on those who have complex, beautiful, and multifaceted identities. She holds an MTS degree from Duke Divinity School (2022), an MA in Theology from the University of Notre Dame (2020) and BA in Political Science and Perspectives (Theology/Philosophy) from Boston College (2018) where she received the George F. and Jean M. Bemis Award. Bolaños currently serves as the Young Adult Minister at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, NC.