Love Lazarus Sechrest is associate provost for program development and innovation and professor of theology at Mount St. Mary's University. Her scholarship is centered on womanist and African American biblical interpretation and New Testament ethics; she co- chaired the Society of Biblical Literature's African American Biblical Hermeneutics Section from 2012 to 2017 and gives presentations on race, ethnicity, and Christian thought in a variety of academic, church, and business contexts. She is the author of A Former Jew: Paul and the Dialectics of Race and Can "White" People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission. A second-career scholar, she previously worked as a senior manager in the aerospace industry at General Electric.

Dr. Grace Hamman is a writer, independent scholar, and podcaster (Old Books with Grace). She has a doctorate in English, specializing in medieval poetry and contemplative writing, from Duke University. Her first book, Jesus Through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages comes out in October 2023 with Zondervan Reflective. She lives with her husband and three young kids near Denver. She writes on history and literature at gracehamman.substack.com. 

Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, PhD, is a writer and professor who studies storytelling, creativity, contemplation, and wonder. She is the author of Nautilus Award winner Afoot and Lighthearted: A Journal for Mindful Walking and Kickstart Creativity: 50 Prompted Cards to Spark Inspiration. A lifelong Episcopalian, she has spent the last twenty years as a lay leader of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel at Vanderbilt University. Bonnie is professor of English and director of the honors program at Belmont University, and she lives in Nashville with her family.

Stefanie Tokiyama is the lab manager for a research lab at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She's a born and bred Californian who misses the Pacific Ocean but LOVES autumn in N.C.

Audrey completed her MS in Applied Mathematics and teaches math at a community college in northern California. She previously worked with InterVarsity as a campus minister, where her time investing in students, faculty, and the university paved her way back to academia and the classroom. She enjoys cooking, hosting, and being with her family.

Eeva Sallinen Simard is the project director (chief of party) at SCOPE Project at World Relief and has more than ten years of experience working with missional NGOs from research to ministry. She is cofounder of BE Development Partners, a consulting firm that trains organizations to develop belonging cultures. Eeva holds an MSc in international politics from the University of Helsinki and an MBA from John Hopkins University, and she is a coconvener of the Wheaton Consortium for Development, Gender, and Christianity.

Beth Birmingham is an NGO leadership and organizational consultant, development researcher, trainer, and former tenured professor (Eastern University). She is cofounder of BE Development Partners, a consulting firm that trains organizations to develop belonging cultures. Beth holds a PhD in leadership and change and an MBA in economic development, and she currently serves as a member of Wheaton’s Consortium on Gender, Development, and Christianity.

Lakeya (Omogun) Afolalu, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture at The University of Washington. She is also a creative writer and speaker. Her artistic nature is infused in all her roles, which have one common goal — to shift static ideas about identity.

Her hybrid identity as a Nigerian and Black American coupled with her experience as a former middle school teacher influenced her current research project, which explores Black African immigrant youth schooling experiences in the United States. She focuses on how their new experiences with race in America (re)shapes their identity, language, and culture.

Her creative writing and public speaking have fostered public conversations and social impact in relation to identity and race, reaching over 180,000 readers and listeners. She has been featured in ESSENCE Magazine and ZORA Magazine. She has also spoken on TEDx and NPR.

Outside of work, Lakeya loves to visit her favorite people and new places. She enjoys hitting the gym or going for a peaceful walk. When she is not on the move, she is either trying a new recipe or slowly moving through a TV series. She likes to think that she has mastered anti-binge-watching shows. In fact, she considers it an art.

Kat Armas (MDiv and MAT, Fuller Theological Seminary), a Cuban American writer and speaker, hosts The Protagonistas podcast, where she highlights stories of everyday women of color, including writers, pastors, church leaders, and theologians. She is the author of Abuelita Faith and has written for Christianity Today, Sojourners, Relevant, Christians for Biblical Equality, Fuller Youth Institute, Fathom magazine, and Missio Alliance. Armas speaks regularly at conferences on race and justice and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.