Rev. Alex Evangelista is the Designated Pastor at the Church On The Mall in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania and former Associate Pastor of Christian Formation and Technology Ministries at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church. He was born to two Salvadorean immigrant parents in Calgary, Alberta. At the age of five, his family moved to Tulare, CA. He spent his adolescence at the church, which empowered him and led him to affirm that he was being called to ministry. Rev. Evangelista holds a BA in Theology/Biblical Studies from Azusa Pacific University and an MDiv and an International Certificate in Youth, Theology, and Innovation, both from Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS). After his undergraduate studies, he worked as a Program and Outreach Intern at the first nonprofit immigration resource center of the San Gabriel Valley in Monrovia, CA, during which he began to see how his theology in action could make a difference in people’s lives. He later accepted the call to serve as Assistant Student Minister at Mannofield Church in Aberdeen. Rev. Evangelista has also served as Seminary Intern at San Marino Community Church; and as Chaplain Intern at Penn Medicine Princeton Health and at the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. Passionate about Latin music, he plays guitar and bass, and enjoys spending time either teaching other people how to dance or dancing to bachata and salsa at home with his fiancé Andrea or away (he led dance-fitness courses at PTS and learned L.A. salsa from a Polish dance teacher in Aberdeen, Scotland). The couple’s cat is named after King Nebuchadnezzar, though Nebbie is the name he meows to.

Norma Ortíz McCormick is a retired educator who served in the public education sector for 28 years. For 18 of those years, she served at the regional non-profit Region One Education Service Center, which provides educational opportunities to the 38 districts and 10 charter systems served. During her tenure, she occupied various roles, the latest as Director of the Office of College, Career and Life Readiness, where she supported the growth of staff from 13 to 50. Additionally, she directly managed the Center for Excellence in College and Career Readiness, providing ongoing leadership and support. As an administrator for various multi-million dollar federal grants, McCormick also served as the budget manager, ensuring that local, state, and federal guidelines were followed. During her years at Region One, McCormick, along with the leadership team, was able to secure nearly $200 million in funding.  Brought up in poverty on the Texas/Mexico border, McCormick was an altar server and a member of the youth group at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas. In 2008, she joined the Episcopalian Church and, in 2021, was received as a “Daughter of the King” at St. Matthew’s Church in Edinburg, Texas. After retirement, McCormick and her husband Michael of 25 years followed God’s guidance and moved to Nevada, where she joined the Trinity Episcopalian Cathedral, continuing her work as a “Daughter of the King,” and is a national education consultant who also provides business-strategy coaching to select clients. The McCormicks have two adult daughters and currently live with their pets in Reno, Nevada, enjoying God’s creations, especially North Lake Tahoe. 

Rita Gail Cedillo was born in Austin, Texas to Ernestina and Ramiro Rodríguez, Pastor Emeritus of the Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus. There, Cedillo began her ministry at the age of 16 as a Sector Youth President, then as District Youth Treasurer, Federation Ladies Vice-President, Federation Ladies President, Treasurer, National Ladies Treasurer, and National Ladies President. Together, she and her husband Rufino Cedillo, Jr. have continued to work in God’s Kingdom on the local, district, and national levels. She has also taught several classes at South Texas District International Bible College. In 2013, the Cedillos were called to be Pastors at New Beginnings Apostolic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, where they served for eight years. In 2021, the Lord called them to be Missionary Presidents in Paraguay, where they serve in expanding the gospel of Jesus Christ; with servants’ hearts, they also serve the people in Paraguay, the majority of whom are underrepresented and underserved. Cedillo holds a Bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Studies (with a minor in Bilingual/Bicultural) and in Theology; a Master’s in Education, and a Mid-Management Certificate. Her hobbies include singing, traveling with friends and family, and bike riding and swimming.

Edgar Sandoval is a National Correspondent for The New York Times, writing about Texas and the nuances of the U.S. Latino experience. A graduate of the University of Texas Pan-American, he began his career in journalism at The McAllen Monitor, his hometown newspaper, where he wrote obituaries while still in college. He went on to complete a training program at The Los Angeles Times, then worked as a reporter for The Morning Call in Allentown, PA, and at The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. He spent almost three years writing about the assimilation of Latino immigrants in Pennsylvania; the articles are anthologized in The New Face of Small-Town America: Snapshots of Latino Life in Allentown, Pennsylvania (Penn State University Press, 2010). The Nieman Storyboard Notable Narrative blog, affiliated with Harvard University, featured his 2004 Sun-Sentinel story about mothers behind bars, “Learning Their Lessons.” Sandoval worked for the New York Daily News for a decade, before joining The New York Times in 2019.

T.I. Frazier is a writer of inspirational books and children’s stories. Born on the East Coast and partly raised in Southern California, Frazier served ten years with the United States Army National Guard in various roles, including Chaplain Assistant, and was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Calvin University and an MBA from Western Governor’s University. He has worked in a variety of financial-related roles, including business banking, private banking, analysis, and procurement in the healthcare and food industries. Currently, Frazier works for a trust company as he continues to write, teach, motivate, and serve others, empowering them to strive past the unknown and to explore their passions. He is the author of Faith Arising (Timothy Frazier, 2022), the forthcoming devotional Faith Growth Stages (Timothy Frazier, 2023), and the children’s book Lauren the Cow (Timothy Frazier, 2022). He lives with his family in Michigan; when he isn’t running around, playing with his three-year-old son and wife Lauren, he may be on a farm with his faithful dog Rocky and cat Al.

Sandra Cisneros is a celebrated poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, national and international book awards, including the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts. More recently, she received the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized with the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and won the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature; recently, she was honored by the Poetry Foundation with a 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets and one of the nation’s largest literary prizes, in recognition of her outstanding lifetime achievement. In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two nonprofits she founded: the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. As a single woman, she made the choice to have books instead of children. A citizen of both the United States and Mexico, Cisneros currently lives in San Miguel de Allende and makes her living by her pen. She has authored over ten books in different genres and translations, including the acclaimed, best-selling The House on Mango Street (Knopf, 1994) and, most recently, the poetry collection Woman Without Shame (Knopf, 2022).

Ray Santisteban has worked for the past 26 years as a documentary filmmaker, teacher, and film curator. His work consistently gravitates toward political subjects and artist profiles, addressing the themes of justice, memory, and political transformation. A graduate of NYU’s Film and TV production program, he has explored a variety of subjects, including the New York-based Black Panther leader Dhoruba Bin Wahad (Passin' It On, co-producer), the roots of Puerto Rican poetry (Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 1994, director, producer, editor), and Chicano poetry (Voices from Texas, director/producer). Santiesteban was senior producer of Visiones: Latino Art and Culture in the U.S.., a three-hour PBS series nationally broadcast in 2004. Honors he has garnered include a 1992 Student Academy Award, a 1993 New York Foundation for the Arts Media Fellowship, a 1996 “Ideas In Action” Award from the National Tele-Media Alliance, a 1996 “Faculty of the Year” Award from the Chicano Studies Program at University of Wisconsin–Madison, a 2005 Rockefeller Film and Video Fellowship, a 2008 and 2016 San Antonio Artists Foundation Filmmaker Award, and a 2016 Tobin Award for Artistic Excellence. Santiesteban is based in San Antonio, Texas.

Eve Fairbanks writes about change: in cities, countries, landscapes, morals, values, and our ideas of ourselves. A former political writer for The New Republic, her essays and reportage have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Born in Washington, DC, and raised in Virginia, she has lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, for thirteen years. She holds a BA in Political Science and Government from Yale University. The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa's Racial Reckoning (Simon & Schuster, 2022) is her debut, winner of the 2023 PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.

Noemi Córdova is the founder of FLORA, a grassroots ministry supporting immigrant families and mobilizing the church to build with their communities. She is currently pursuing her MDiv at Fuller Theological Seminary. A pastor, mobilizer, and Spanglish speaker, Cordova is an immigrant from Lima, Peru and rooted in Queens, New York. Her faith is what fuels her heart for advocacy and community development.

Dr. Wanderley Pereira da Rosa holds a degree in Theology from the Rev. José Manoel da Conceição from São Paulo/SP; a degree in philosophy from the Federal University of Espírito Santo; a Master in Theology from Faculdades EST de São Leopoldo/RS; and a Doctorate in Theology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro/RJ. He is professor of History of Christianity in the Bachelor of Theology and of Religion, Democracy, and Public Sphere in post-graduate studies at the Faculdade Unida de Vitória, which he helped found in 1997, serving as General Director since then. His main research interests are the social and political theology of the Reformation and the history of Protestantism in Brazil. After his training, he was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (1992). His publications include O Dualismo na Teologia Cristã [Dualism in Christian Theology] (Fonte Editorial, 2010); Cristo e o Processo Revolucionário Brasileiro: A Conferência do Nordeste 50 anos depois (1962-2012 ) [Christ and the Brazilian Revolutionary Process: The Northeast Conference 50 Years Later (1962-2012)] (co-edited with Prof. José Adriano Filho – Mauad X, 2012); Religião e Sociedade (Pós) Secular [Religion and (Post) Secular Society (co-edited with Prof. Osvaldo Luiz Ribeiro – Academia Cristã, 2014); World Christianity as Public Religion (co-edited with Professors Raimundo Cesar Barreto and Ronaldo Cavalcante – Fortress Press, 2017); and Por uma fé encarnada: uma introdução à história do Protestantismo no Brasil [For an Incarnate Faith: An Introduction to the History of Protestantism in Brazil] (Editora Recriar, 2022). He currently coordinates the Research Group Intellectual Origins of Mission Protestantism in Brazil. He is a member of the Board of Directors of CETELA - Latin American and Caribbean Ecumenical Theological Education Community for the Quadrennial 2018-2021, of Society of Theology and Science of Religion (SOTER), and of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). Dr. Pereira da Rosa is also editor for Editora Unida.

José A. Pérez is a poet, actor, and foster-care reform/abolitionist advocate. A native New Yorker, he grew up in Queens as a systems-impacted person in foster homes, group homes, and other juvenile institutions. For Pérez, the arts have been synonymous with freedom, fostering spaces where relationships are forged under the common love for lyrics and unfettered expression. He especially found writing poetry and acting on stage to be his catalysts not only to survive in those institutions but also to thrive. While incarcerated, Pérez earned an AA from Bard College, a BS from Nyack College through HudsonLink, and capped his academic career with an MPS from the New York Theological Seminary. He has facilitated theater and poetry workshops, including the Harvest Moon Poetry Collective with Beat poet Janine Pommy Vega, and hosted poets like Naomi Shihab Nye and Amiri Baraka. As an actor, Pérez recently performed at the Bushwick Starr Theater in Quince (One Whale’s Tale Productions, 2022). He has also been a servant leader as an alternatives-to-violence facilitator, including work with gang-involved youth at the Center for Alternatives Sentencing and Employment Services as a community Benefits Project Supervisor. Currently, Pérez is Project Manager of YouthNPower: Transforming Care for the Children’s Defense Fund.

Rev. Dr. Lis Valle-Ruiz is Assistant Professor of Homiletics at McCormick Theological Seminary. She holds a PhD in Homiletics and Liturgics from Vanderbilt University, where she also studied gender and sexuality. Her dissertation, “As One Among Many: Affirming a Multitude of Embodied Preaching Practices,” analyzes pulpit preaching through public speech, street preaching through symbolic action, and preaching through theater and proposes that these are three paradigms among many others in the repertoire of embodied Christian preaching practices among which preachers may choose. Originally from Puerto Rico, Rev. Dr. Valle-Ruiz has researched the theology of the sermons of Latina clergy and is also the author of “Toward Postcolonial Liturgical Preaching: Drawing on the Pre-Columbian Caribbean Religion of the Taínos” in Homiletic Online Journal (2015).

She is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 2013 who has served as Professor of Theology and Scripture at the Lux Summer Youth Institute in Monmouth College, IL and possesses a background as both an actor and a lawyer. Rev. Dr. Valle-Ruiz holds a ThM in Homiletics from Princeton Theological Seminary, an MDiv from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, as well as a JD from the University of Puerto Rico. With a BA in Education with an emphasis in Theater, Rev. Dr. Valle-Ruiz has continued to combine her study of theology and passion for justice with her work as an actress and an artistic director. She is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Academy of Homiletics, and the ARC Creative Collaborative for Theopoetics, among other professional organizations. Dr. Valle-Ruiz has been a fellow with the Forum for Theological Exploration and the Hispanic Theological Initiative/Consortium.

Jung Mo Sung is a Roman Catholic lay theologian trained in theology, ethics, and education. Born in South Korea and has been living in Brazil since 1966, he teaches in the Graduate Program in Religious Studies at Methodist University of São Paulo, Brazil. He works within the paradigm of liberation theology and is considered a "next generation" theologian-practitioner. His research focuses on the relationship between theology and economics, especially the theological aspects of capitalist economics and the economic aspects of Christian theology. He has written many books on theological critique of political economy, including the following titles in English: Desire, Market and Religion (SCM Press, 2007); Beyond the Spirit of Empire (SCM Press, 2009), co-authored with Néstor Miguez and Joerg Rieger; and The Subject, Capitalism and Religion: Horizons of Hope in Complex Society (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

Dr. Filipe Maia is Assistant Professor of Theology at the Boston University School of Theology. His research and teaching focus on liberation theologies and philosophies, theology and economics, and the Christian eschatological imagination. Dr. Maia's scholarship pays special attention to how imaginaries about the future shape politics, economics, cultural patterns, and religious practices. Employing sources in Marxist and continental philosophies, his current book Trading Futures: A Theological Critique of Financialized Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2022) offers an analysis of the debate in critical theory, addressing the “financialization” of capitalism to show how future-talk is ubiquitous to financial discourse and how contemporary finance engenders a particular mode of temporality. In this context, he suggests that the language of hope, as approached by Latinx liberation theologians, is a subversive social force that can continuously question and resist the hopes and expectations conjured by hegemonic economic discourses. Dr. Maia holds BTh and BPh degrees from Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, and a ThD from Harvard Divinity School.

Rev. Dr. Joanne Rodríguez is Executive Director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA. Since 1999, Rev. Dr. Rodríguez has collaborated with students, faculty, deans, presidents, and directors of non-profit educational programs to ensure that HTI doctoral students graduate as influential leaders in theological and religious education and the broader educational landscape. She holds an honorary doctorate from the Iliff School of Theology, where she served as the Commencement Speaker for the class of 2024. She also earned ThM and MDiv degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and a BA from Pace University. The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) recognized her contributions with a 2024 Women in Leadership Trailblazer Award. Additionally, Rev. Dr. Rodríguez is a teaching elder at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey.

Rev. Dr. Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi is Assistant Professor of Leadership and Formation and Director of the Office of Professional Formation at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado; she also co-directs the Doctor of Ministry in Prophetic Leadership and coordinates the Certificate in Latinx Studies for the Iliff and the University of Denver Joint PhD in the Study of Religion. Rev. Dr. Lizardy-Hajbi is an Ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ and has served in a variety of ministry roles, including as a hospital chaplain, youth leader, multicultural student affairs director, and denominational researcher. Her research interests include organizational leadership, liberative theological and decolonial approaches to ministry, congregational studies, young adult spirituality, and intersectional pedagogical practices. She is co-editor of Explore: Vocational Discovery in Ministry (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) and has written several book chapters, journal articles, and national and denominational research reports. At present, she is a regional advisor for the Exploring the Pandemic Impact on Congregations (EPIC) National Research Project through Hartford Institute for Religion Research and a research fellow with the Center for Church Management at Villanova University.

Dr. Adriana Nieto is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She has been with the university for over 15 years, first starting out as an adjunct professor and then becoming a full-time faculty member in 2009. Her teaching and research interests include Latina spiritualities and practices; women of color feminisms; mental health among Xicanas in early 20th-century New Mexico; Chicana protestants in the US-Mexico Borderlands; oral history and water in the ‘West’, with special interest in acequia culture and practices in southern Colorado. Dr. Nieto received her PhD in religious and theological studies from the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, her master’s in Latin American studies, with a focus on gender studies and borderland history from the University of New Mexico, and her bachelor’s in Latin American and women studies, also from the University of New Mexico. Dr. Nieto is also currently on the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) Steering Committee and is an HTI alumna.

Rev. Mickey Correa, a native of Brooklyn, NY, is of Puerto Rican descent. A bi-vocational and bilingual pastor, he serves as clergy at Christ Church Washington Heights, leading worship in English and Spanish, and providing pastoral care. In addition to ministry, his professional experience includes working as a licensed psychotherapist and, currently, as the Chief Program Officer at Blanton-Peale Institute & Counseling Center in New York City. He also serves as a lecturer at the City College of New York and has lectured at Fordham University. Rev. Correa earned a BA in History and Religion from Hunter College; an MSW at Fordham University, focusing on Clinical Social Work and specializing in the treatment of addiction; and an MDiv from New York Theological Seminary.

Dr. Angela Valenzuela is a professor in both the Cultural Studies in Education Program within the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, and the Educational Policy and Planning Program within the Department of Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also serves as the director of the Texas Center for Education Policy. Her research and teaching interests are in urban education from a sociological and multicultural perspective, with a focus on minority youth in schools, particularly at the K-12 level, culturally relevant curriculum, Ethnic Studies, and indigenous education. A Stanford University graduate, she has held appointments at Rice University, the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston, and most recently at the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Valenzuela served as co-editor of the Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and the Anthropology and Education Quarterly, and founded the education blog “Educational Equity, Politics, and Policy in Texas.” She is the award-winning author of Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring (SUNY Press, 1999), Leaving Children Behind: How "Texas-style" Accountability Fails Latino Youth (SUNY Press, 2005), and Growing Critically Conscious Teachers: A Social Justice Curriculum for Educators of Latino/a Youth (Teachers College Press, 2016).

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God (Fiction Collective 2, 1998) and The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital (University of New Orleans Press, 2022) is the first book in his series on Community Organizing.