Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier is a multicultural educator, theologian, writer, and expert in the history and development of Biblical Institutes and pastoral training programs. She is the Director of the Asociación de Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH), as well as the creator of its Network of Theological Entities (ReDET, for its name in Spanish), and served as Vice-President and Dean of Esperanza College. Previously, Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier was a professor of religious education at the Claremont School of Theology and taught Hispanic theology at the Latin American Bible Institute in California. Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier was also the first director of the Orlando E. Costas Latin American Ministries Program at Andover Newton Theological Seminary. Dr. Conde-Frazier holds a PhD in theology and religious education from Boston University, and an MDiv from the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the author of many publications in areas of multicultural education, Latin feminist theology, academic spirituality, and education for justice, including Hispanic Bible Institutes: A Community of Theological Constructions (University of Scranton Press, 2005); Listen to the Children: Conversations With Immigrant Families / Escuchemos a los niños: Conversaciones con familias inmigrantes (Judson Press, 2011); and Atando Cabos: Latinx Contributions to Theological Education (Eerdmans, 2021).

Dr. Mary E. Hess is Professor of Educational Leadership, and Chair of the Leadership Division at Luther Seminary, where she has taught since 2000. She holds a BA in American Studies from Yale, an MTS in theological studies from Harvard, and a PhD in religion and education from Boston College. As an educator straddling the fields of media studies, education and religion, Dr. Hess has focused her research on exploring ways in which participatory strategies for knowing and learning are constructed and contested amidst digital cultures. She is particularly interested in dialogic forms of organizational development, and the challenges posed to communities by oppressive systems such as racism, classism, sexism, and so on. Her most recent book, co-written with Stephen S. Brookfield, is Becoming a White Antiracist: A Practical Guide for Educators, Leaders and Activists (Stylus Publishers, 2021).

Dr. Marjorie Agosín is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. She holds a BA from the University of Georgia and MA and PhD degrees from Indiana University. Raised in Chile and the daughter of Jewish parents, Dr. Agosín is a poet, human rights activist, and literary critic interested in Jewish literature and literature of human rights in the Americas; women writers of Latin America; and migration, identity, and ethnicity. Both her scholarship and her creative work focus on social justice, feminism, and remembrance. Dr. Agosín is the author of numerous works of poetry, fiction, and literary criticism. Her collections include The Angel of Memory (2001), The Alphabet in My Hands: A Writing Life (2000), Always from Somewhere Else: A Memoir of my Chilean Jewish Father (1998), An Absence of Shadows (1998), Melodious Women (1997), Starry Night: Poems (1996), and A Cross and a Star: Memoirs of a Jewish Girl in Chile (1995). Dr. Agosín has received numerous honors and awards for her writing and work as a human rights activist, including a Jeanette Rankin Award in Human Rights and a United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights. The Chilean government honored her with a Gabriela Mistral Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

Poet, storyteller, and essayist Roberto Carlos García is a self-described “sancocho […] of provisions from the Harlem Renaissance, the Spanish Poets of 1929, the Black Arts Movement, the Nuyorican School, and the Modernists.” Rigorously interrogative of himself and the world around him, he conveys “nakedness of emotion, intent, and experience, and writes extensively about the Afro-Latinx and Afro-diasporic experience. García is the author of three collections of poetry: Melancolía: Poems (Červená Barva Press, 2016), black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric (Willow Books, 2018), and [Elegies] (Flower Song Press, 2020). His poems and prose appear in various publications, including POETRY Magazine, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT, Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3, The Root, Those People, Rigorous, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, Gawker, Barrelhouse, The Acentos Review, and Lunch Ticket. He is founder of the cooperative press Get Fresh Books Publishing, A NonProfit Corp. A native New Yorker, García holds an MFA in Poetry and Poetry in Translation from Drew University, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Reyes Ramírez is a Houstonian, writer, educator, curator, and organizer of Mexican and Salvadoran descent. Reyes won the 2019 YES Contemporary Art Writer’s Grant, 2017 Blue Mesa Review Nonfiction Contest, 2014 riverSedge Poetry Prize and has poems, stories, essays, and reviews in: Indiana Review, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, Cosmonauts Avenue, december magazine, Arteinformado, Texas Review, Houston Noir, Gulf Coast Journal, The Acentos Review, Cimarron Review, and elsewhere. He is a 2020 CantoMundo Fellow, 2021 Interchange Artist Grant Fellow, 2022 Crosstown Arts Writer in Residence, and has been awarded grants from the Houston Arts Alliance, Poets & Writers, and Warhol Foundation’s Idea Fund. His short story collection The Book of Wanderers (2022) is part of the University of Arizona Press Camino del Sol series.

Dr. Justo Luis González, retired professor of historical theology and leading voice in the field of Hispanic theology, grew up in Havana as a Methodist. He attended United Seminary in Cuba, where he earned a a Bachelor of Sacred Theology, and was the youngest person to be awarded a PhD in historical theology at Yale University. He went on to join the faculty at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico and later at the Candler School of Theology at Emory, where he was virtually the only Latino scholar in a U.S. Protestant seminary at the time. Over a span of 50 years as a church historian, Dr. González has focused on developing programs for the theological education of Hispanics and has received four honorary doctorates. He helped found three pivotal organizations—the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI), the Hispanic Summer Program, and Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH). In 2011, the AETH inaugurated the Justo and Catherine González Resource Center, along with a lecture series of the same name, in honor of the contributions he and his wife Catherine Gunsalus González have made to the AETH and to the field of theology. He is also the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and the Ecumenism Award from Washington Theological Consortium. Dr. González is the main narrator for the video lessons of the Christian Believer study course from Cokesbury publishing. He is the author of numerous books, some of which are commonly used as college and seminary textbooks, including A History of Christian Thought (three volumes), The Story of Christianity (two volumes), Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes, The Story Luke Tells, Essential Theological Terms, and Mañana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective.

Rev. Dr. Daniel O. Aleshire has served the Association of Theological Schools since 1990 and was its executive director from 1998 to 2017. Rev. Dr. Aleshire holds a BS from Belmont University, an MDiv from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and an MA and a PhD in psychology from George Peabody College for Teachers (now the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tennessee. An ordained minister, he has written extensively on issues of ministry and theological education. His books include Being There: Culture and Formation in Two Theological Schools (Oxford University Press, 1997), co-authored with Jackson W. Carroll, Barbara G. Wheeler, and Penny Long Marler; Earthen Vessels: Hopeful Reflections on the Work and Future of Theological Schools (Eerdmans, 2008); and Beyond Profession: The Next Future of Theological Education (Eerdmans, 2021).

Miguel A. Escobar is Executive Director of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary (EDS at Union). There, he works with the Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of EDS at Union, to build a Master of Divinity in Anglican Studies program aimed at forming social-justice faith leaders for The Episcopal Church. Previously, Escobar served as managing program director for leadership, communications, and external affairs at the Episcopal Church Foundation. He earned a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 2007 and served as the communications assistant to then-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori from 2007 to 2010. Escobar is chair of the board of directors of Forward Movement and serves as secretary of the board of directors of Episcopal Relief & Development. He grew up in the Texas Hill Country and attended Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, where he studied the Roman Catholic social-justice tradition, Latin American liberation theologies, and minored in Spanish. He joined the Episcopal Church in New York City through St. Mary’s in West Harlem, drawn by the congregation’s diversity and commitment to social justice. Escobar divides his time between two parishes–St. Mary’s and San Andres Episcopal Church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Cecilia Ballí is a cultural anthropologist and a journalist who has written about the US-Mexico border and Mexican Americans in Texas for more than twenty years. She holds a BA in American Studies and Spanish from Stanford University and a PhD in cultural anthropology from Rice University. Her work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, and other state and national publications. She is presently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston's Center for Mexican American Studies.

Dr. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (PhD University of Virginia) is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author, translator, and editor of numerous works in the field of Buddhist Studies, on topics ranging from Buddhist philosophy to Buddhism and Science. He has also written extensively on the European encounter with Buddhism. Among anthologies, he is the editor of the Buddhism volume of the Norton Anthology of World Religions (WW Norton, 2017) and Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics, 2004). His recent books include Dispelling the Darkness: A Jesuit’s Quest for the Soul of Tibet (with Thupten Jinpa) (Harvard University Press, 2017); Gendun Chopel: Tibet’s Modern Visionary (Shambhala, 2018); and Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side: A Guide to the Lotus Sutra (with Jacqueline Stone) (Princeton University Press, 2019). In 2008, he was the first scholar of Buddhism to deliver the Terry Lectures at Yale University. In 2014, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (edited with Robert Buswell) (Princeton University Press, 2013) was awarded the Dartmouth Medal for best reference work of the year. In 2000, Dr. Lopez was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Efraín Agosto is currently the Croghan Bicentennial Professor in Biblical and Early Christian Studies at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts; he joined the faculty as a visiting professor for two years (2021-23), appointed jointly to two departments – Latinx Studies and Religion. Dr. Agosto had been Professor of New Testament Studies at New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) in New York City since 2011, and he also served NYTS as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean (2018-19). Previously, he was Professor of New Testament and Director of the Programa de Ministerios Hispanos at Hartford Seminary for a period of sixteen years (1995-2011), which included four years as Academic Dean (2007-11). In his early years in theological education, Dr. Agosto was on the staff of the Center for Urban Ministerial Education of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston (1983-95), serving in a variety of capacities, including the last five years as Director and Dean of CUME. Dr. Agosto, a Puerto Rican born and raised in New York City, received his BA from Columbia University (1977), his MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (1982), and his PhD in New Testament Studies from Boston University (1996). He has published three monographs: Servant Leadership: Jesus and Paul (Chalice Press, 2005) on the theology and practice of leadership in earliest Christianity; Corintios (Fortress Press, 2008), a Spanish-language lay commentary on Paul’s letters to the Corinthians; and Preaching in the Interim: Transitional Leadership in the Latino/a Church (Judson Press, 2018), a book of sermons preached at the historic Segunda Iglesia Bautista de Nueva York (East Harlem). He also co-edited (with Jacqueline Hidalgo) Latinxs, the Bible and Migration (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). In addition to being a Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI) Post-doctoral Fellow, Dr. Agosto has served HTI as a Selection Committee member, mentor, Summer Workshop presenter, and Senior Editor of Perspectivas.

Joel Andrés Ramírez is a philosopher, theologian, and communicator with a degree in law from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was a seminarian in philosophy and theology with the Mennonite Church before serving as General Director of INDOMABLE CANAL 14 in Las Matas de Farfán, San Juan, Dominican Republic. Ramírez currently serves as a technical advisor and community administrator for various schools and organizations.

Beatriz Terrazas is a writer and photographer who believes in the transformative power of story. In 1994, she was part of a Dallas Morning News team that won the Pulitzer Prize for a global project about violence against women. Her writing credits include More, D, Skirt!, The Texas Observer, Texas Highways, and several anthologies, including Wise Latinas, Writers on Higher Education (Jennifer De Leon, University of Nebraska Press, 2014), and Literary El Paso (Marcia Hatfield Daudistel, Texas Christian University Press, 2009). She is a Nieman Fellow as well as a member of the American Society of Media Photographers and the Macondo Writers Workshop.

Dr. Nicolás Panotto graduated from the Superior Evangelical Institute of Theological Studies [Instituto Superior Evangélico de Estudios Teológicos (ISEDET), Argentina]; he holds a Masters in Social and Political Anthropology and a PhD in Social Sciences, both from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences [Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Argentina]. Dr. Panotto is an associate researcher of the Institute of International Studies (INTE) at Arturo Prat University in Chile and a professor at Comunidad Teológica de Chile. His research interests include contemporary theologies, faith and ideology, comparative religions, and systematic Theology. He also serves as director of Otros Cruces, an organization dedicated to inspiring dialogue, democracy and human rights through knowledge exchanges between faith and reality, religious communities and civil-society organizations, and between spiritual paths and political actors. In addition to Decolonizing Theological Knowledge in Latin America: Religion, Education and Theology with a Postcolonial Accent (Editorial JuanUno1, 2021), Dr. Panotto has authored several books and research articles in the field of religion and politics, public theology, and postcolonial theory/theology.

Crystal Cheatham (she/hers) received her MFA from Antioch University. She is an LGBTQ rights activist with a focus on religious liberty. Since 2011, Crystal has worked simultaneously as a ghostwriter and queer rights activist with groups such as Soulforce and the Attic Youth Center. As an entrepreneur, Crystal is the founder of two projects: Our Bible App and The IDentity Kit, both of which provide resources for marginalized communities of faith. An outspoken activist, she has written for The Huffington Post on the intersections of faith and sexual identity, a faith and spirituality column for the Philadelphia Gay News, sat on the steering committee of the HRC as the Faith & Spirituality chair, and partnered with Equality PA to influence clergy to support non-discrimination legislation. Crystal is the host of Lord Have Mercy, a podcast about God, sex and the Bible, and has been featured in TeenVogue, Autostraddle, and LGBTQNation. Contact her at Crystal@ourbibleapp.com.

Jasmin Figueroa (she/her) grew up in New York City, where she was influenced, in one way or another, by different religious and cultural traditions. Her Mennonite, Latinx evangélico, Catholic, and Jewish relatives, her years serving at a mid-sized charismatic church, and her time and internships in seminary instilled in her a deep appreciation for the roles that practical and pastoral theologies play in shaping communities. She is an HTI Scholar and a PhD student in Practical Theology at Boston University School of Theology, where she also serves as the Assistant Director of Contextual Education. Her current research interest focuses on the intersection of systematic oppression and religious trauma that QTPOC millennials of color face and the ways that they are subsequently reclaiming and renegotiating their spiritualities and communities in response.

Dr. Ryan Gladwin is an Associate Professor of Ministry and Theology at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Palm Beach County, Florida, of which he is a second-generation native. He is in charge of the Christian social ministry concentration and minor, and teaches a variety of classes in Christian social ministry, theology, ethics, and cross-cultural studies. His research interests are social ethics, Latin American and Latino/a religion and theology, practical theology, Pentecostalism, Anabaptism, and ecclesiology. Formerly, Dr. Gladwin was the program director of Messiah College’s Philadelphia campus and an assistant professor of theology and ethics. He has also lived and worked in pastoral ministry and community development in urban settings throughout the Americas (Santa Marta and Bogotá, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Londrina, Brazil; Raleigh, NC; Philadelphia, PA; West Palm Beach, FL) and the United Kingdom (Edinburgh, Scotland). Dr. Gladwin is passionate about challenging students and local churches to work for social transformation, peace, and justice. He has published a number of book chapters and is currently reworking his doctoral thesis on Latin American ecclesiology and social ethics for publication. Dr. Gladwin holds a BA in Christian ministries and Spanish from Messiah College, an MDiv from Duke University Divinity School, and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is married to Natalia, a native of Argentina, and they have two children. Dr. Gladwin is an avid fan of Argentine soccer and enjoys reading, running, and long walks on the beach with his wife and kids.

Matheus Reis is a PhD candidate in World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His research investigates the different ways in which Brazilian evangélicos in South Florida understand their identity and mission as an immigrant minority in the US, within their specific diasporic contexts. A native of Brazil who migrated to Florida in his early teenage years, Reis is interested in analyzing the connections and disconnections between areas of identity and concepts of missions amongst Brazilian evangélicos of varied diasporic contexts, and across different generations. Reis also holds a BA in Ministry and an MDiv from Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he is currently an Adjunct Professor in Religious Studies. His additional research interests are in Latinx Christianity in the United States; lived religious migrant experiences; religion and migration; the social responsibility of the gospel; misión integral; social justice, law, and Christianity; racial equity; and contextual theology.

Educator, producer, and screenwriter Jim Nikas is founder and Director of the privately held Posada Art Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacies of Mexican artists José Guadalupe Posada and Manuel Manilla, mainly in the United States but internationally as practicable. Since 2003, Nikas has loaned and curated works from the Foundation’s collection at dozens of venues, including: Stanford University, East Los Angeles College, Museum of Latin American Art, The Mexican Museum, the International Print Center, Mexican Consulates, and the San Francisco Art Institute, to name a few. Beginning in 2019, the Posada Art Foundation formed a joint venture between the Catalina Island Museum and Landau Traveling Exhibitions, establishing an ongoing touring exhibition of Posada’s works. Nikas has lectured in the US and in Mexico on various aspects of the art, from Day of the Dead to the influence of José Guadalupe Posada on today's social-movement imagery. Together with film director Victor Mancilla, Nikas co-produced the first major English-language documentary film about José Guadalupe Posada, Searching for Posada—ART and Revolutions (2014) and is co-screenwriter for the documentary The Needle and the Thread (in post-production by Eravision Films) about the life of Franciscan nun María de Jesús de Ágreda. Nikas is a former member of the Advisory Board of the Documentary Film Institute Board at San Francisco State University and served on the board of directors of the Coro Hispano de San Francisco. He divides his time between San Francisco, CA and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Mark Menjivar is a San Antonio-based artist and Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University—San Marcos. His work explores diverse subjects through photography, archives, oral history and participatory project structures. He holds a BA in Social Work from Baylor University and an MFA in Social Practice from Portland State University. He has engaged in projects at venues including the Rothko Chapel, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, The Houston Center for Photography, The San Antonio Museum of Art, The Puerto Rican Museum of Art and Culture, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, and the Krannert Art Museum. Menjivar is currently the artist-in-residence with the Texas After Violence Project, which uses oral history and archives to create dialogue and action around capital punishment in Texas. He is also a member of Borderland Collective, which utilizes collaborations between artists, educators, youth, and community members to engage complex issues and build space for diverse perspectives, meaningful dialogue, and modes of creation around border issues. In 2019, Menjivar was named a Mid-America Arts Alliance Interchange Fellow, along with other “socially engaged artists making an impact in their communities.”