Dr. Carmelo Santos was born in Puerto Rico and grew up by the beach across the bay from San Juan, in a small town called Catano. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Rico, where he specialized in Organo-metalic synthesis. His academic interests are in the intersection of science (specifically brain and cognitive science) and theology (particularly Liberation and Postcolonial theologies with an emphasis on Pneumatology and Theological Anthropology). He has taught undergraduates at Georgetown University the course “God & the Brain.” He is fundamentally interested in the question of how concrete religious practices, symbols and narratives actually shape the ways our brains (and nervous system in general) and how they can facilitate the decolonization of colonized people’s imaginaries. Dr. Santos is senior pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Annandale, VA and serves on the board of directors of the immigrants’ rights organizations CASA de Maryland and CASA in Action. 

Dr. Angela Tarango is Associate Professor of Religion at Trinity University (TX). Her first book is Choosing the Jesus Way: American Indian Pentecostals and the Fight for the Indigenous Principle (University of North Carolina Press, 2014). She is currently writing a book on material religion and Latino Methodism at San Antonio’s La Trinidad United Methodist Church.

Dr. Xochitl Alvizo teaches in the area of Women and Religion and the Philosophy of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality at California State University, Northridge. She is committed to bringing an intercultural feminist approach to theology and the study of religion. Her interests include feminist and queer theologies, congregational studies, ecclesiology, and the emerging church. Her work is inspired by the conviction that all people are inextricably connected and what we do, down to the smallest thing, matters. She makes her church home with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Dr. Alvizo is co-founder of Feminism and Religion (feminismandreligion.com) and The Pub Church, Boston. Dr. Alvizo, along with Gina Messina, is co-editor of the volume Women Religion Revolution (FSR Books, 2017).

Dr. Leopoldo A. Sánchez M. is the Werner R.H. and Elizabeth R. Krause Professor of Hispanic Ministries, Professor of Systematic Theology, and Director of the Center for Hispanic Studies at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his PhD from Concordia Seminary and his MDiv from Concordia Theological Seminary. His latest books are T&T Introduction to Spirit Christology (T&T Clark, 2021) and Escatología: La esperanza cristiana (Concordia, 2020). Other works include Sculptor Spirit: Models of Sanctification from Spirit Christology, with a foreword by Oscar García-Johnson (IVP Academic, 2019), and two Pickwick titles, Receiver, Bearer, and Giver of God’s Spirit: Jesus’ Life in the Spirit as a Lens for Theology and Life (2015) and Immigrant Neighbors Among Us: Immigration Across Theological Traditions (2015), which he co-edited with M. Daniel Carroll R. Dr. Sánchez is Principal Double Bass with the St. Louis Civic Orchestra, the bassist for Di Kamer Kapelye, and an avid listener and student of the music of Rubén Blades.

Dr. Sophia A. Magallanes is currently an independent scholar who is an Adjunct Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Seminary. She also teaches a course in Spanish at El Centro Latino. Dr. Magallanes served as an Assistant Professor of Theology & Biblical Studies at Life Pacific University for six years. She holds BA and MA degrees in Biblical Studies from Azusa Pacific University; a Masters in Theology from Fuller Seminary; and a PhD in Divinity, with an emphasis in Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, from the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Magallanes specializes in Hebrew Wisdom Literature and Old Testament studies. She has authored several articles in dictionaries, the Wisdom Commentary Series, peer-reviewed journals, and is currently writing a commentary on the Book of Job.

Dr. Jacqueline M. Hidalgo is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. Formerly, she served as Professor of Latina/o/x Studies and of Religion; Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and Director of the Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Williams College. She is a past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) and Vice President of the New England/Eastern Canada Region of the Society of Biblical Literature. Dr. Hidalgo has written several essays that examine the intersections of gender, sexuality, ecology, Latine studies, and biblical studies. She is the author of Latina/o/x Studies and Biblical Studies in Brill Research Perspectives in Biblical Interpretation 3.4 (2020), as well as Revelation in Aztlán: Scriptures, Utopias, and the Chicano Movement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). With Efraín Agosto, she also co-edited the collection of essays Latinxs, the Bible, and Migration (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Dr. Hidalgo holds an AB from Columbia University, an MA from Union Theological Seminary, and a PhD from Claremont Graduate University.

Dr. Néstor Medina is Assistant Professor of Religious Ethics at Emmanuel College, University of Toronto. He engages ethics from contextual, liberationist, intercultural, and post/decolonial perspectives. Dr. Medina explores the ethical implications of religious/theological debates, and how these shape concrete social structures and notions of ethnoracial and cultural identity. He also studies how lived religious experiences shape/transform people’s understandings of ethics on the ground, especially reflecting from Latina/o/x (Canadian and USA), Latin American, and Latina/o/x Pentecostal perspectives. Dr. Medina is the author of Mestizaje: (Re)Mapping ‘Race,’ Culture, and Faith in Latina/o Catholicism (Orbis, 2009), the commissioned booklet On the Doctrine of Discovery (Canadian Council of Churches, 2017), and Christianity, Empire and the Spirit (Brill, 2018).

Dr. Mariana Alessandri is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where she teaches ethics, existentialism, religious studies, and the history of philosophy. She also engages in public philosophy, publishing in The New York Times, Times Higher Ed, Chronicle of Higher Ed, Yahoo Parenting, New Philosopher Magazine, and Womankind. Dr. Alessandri volunteers with the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, as well as with the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights.