RNS Editorial Staff
Kevin Eckstrom, Editor
Kevin Eckstrom joined the RNS staff in February, 2000 and became editor in 2006. Prior to coming to RNS, he worked as religion editor at the Stuart/Port St. Lucie News in Florida. He was the winner of the 2000 Cassels Award for small newspapers from the Religion Newswriters Association. Under his leadership, RNS was named Best Wire Service by the Associated Church Press for both 2006 and 2007 - the only time RNS has won back-to-back years. Eckstrom holds a M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from The George Washington University.
In 2007, he was elected president of the Religion Newswriters Association. His work was featured in Changing Boundaries: The Best Religion News Writing of 2003.
David E. Anderson, Senior Editor
David E. Anderson has been covering religion and social issues for more than 30 years. He began his career with United Press International in 1967 and shortly thereafter began covering the civil rights and antiwar movement. He was named religion reporter in 1972, and continued to cover the ethical and moral issues ranging from the decline of America's urban areas to church-state issues at the Supreme Court. As part of UPI's political coverage, he attended political conventions from 1972 on and wrote election night analysis pieces
He has covered half a dozen papal trips as well as meetings of most major denominations and such international organizations as the World Council of Churches. He joined RNS as its Washington correspondent in 1991 and was named editor in 1997. In 2004 Anderson moved to Montana, where he now serves as RNS's senior editor. He is the author of three books and also serves as a senior consultant to the public television program ``Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.''
Adelle M. Banks, Senior Correspondent
Beats: Evangelical churches, African-American churches, Pentecostal Christians, the White House, congregational issues, church-state issues, religion and schools, music, chaplains
Adelle M. Banks joined the Religion News Service staff in 1995 after working for more than 10 years at daily newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Binghamton and Syracuse, The Providence Journal, and the Orlando Sentinel.
Before coming to RNS, she was a full-time religion reporter for six years in Orlando, covered the beat during part of her time in Syracuse and contributed to religion coverage at the other papers. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., Banks was a third-place winner in the Religion Newswriters Association's Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year contest in 1997. She also has been honored by Associated Church Press.
Daniel Burke, National Correspondent
Daniel Burke joined Religion News Service in May 2006. Before working for RNS, he was a reporter for the Lancaster New Era, in Lancaster, Pa. In 2006, Burke won second place in the Cassels Award for religion reporters at small newspapers from the Religion Newswriters Association. He holds an M.S. in journalism and an M.A. in religion from Columbia University and a B.A. from Georgetown University.
Francis X. Rocca, Vatican Correspondent
Francis X. Rocca is Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service. He is also a Rome-based correspondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education, and a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal; and his writing has appeared in USA Today, Time, Forbes, BusinessWeek, the Boston Globe, and the Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. Rocca is co-author, with Rockwell A. Schnabel, of The Next Superpower? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). An associate fellow of Berkeley College, Yale, and a former Fulbright fellow in Spain, he is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B.) and Yale University (Ph.D.).
Religion Reporters with Newhouse News Service, RNS' Parent Organization
Kay Campbell, Huntsville, Ala.
A former high school and college teacher, Kay Campbell has been religion reporter and Faith & Values editor at The Huntsville (Alabama) Times since 2005. In 2007 and 2008, the section she edits was recognized as one of the three best religion sections in the U.S. and Canada by the Religion Newswriters Association.
Jeff Diamant
Jeff Diamant has covered religion for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., since 2003, writing about the various ways religious communities adapt to 21st-century life in the United States, especially in religiously diverse New Jersey. His assignments have included Pope John Paul II's funeral and the ensuing papal election in 2005; the effort to confirm Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003; and, also as a Star-Ledger reporter, the presidential election recount in 2000. A Yale College graduate, he also has been a reporter for the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina and the Palm Beach Post in Florida. In 2002, he published a true-crime book, Heist!, based on a $17 million theft he wrote about in North Carolina.
Renee K. Gadoua
Renee K. Gadoua covers religion and spirituality for The Post-Standard in Syracuse, NY. Her recent work includes stories about the decline in women joining religious communities, a jailhouse interview with a local Muslim held without bail since February 2003 after being charged with sending money to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions, and a feature on actor/evangelist Stephen Baldwin. She writes a weekly notebook and contributes regularly to the A and B sections of the 150,000+ Central New York paper. She is a graduate of LeMoyne College and earned a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University's Newhouse School.
Greg Garrison
Greg Garrison, a reporter for The Birmingham (Ala.) News, grew up on a farm in Bourbon, Mo., the oldest of nine children. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, where he was assistant sports editor of a campus newspaper and won a Hearst College Journalism Award for sports writing. He began covering religion in the South at The Anniston (Ala.) Star, where he won a Cassels Award for religion writing. He has been a finalist several times for the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award.
Bruce Nolan
Bruce Nolan is the religion beat reporter at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Nolan came to religion reporting after 23 years in journalism covering urban and suburban issues as a reporter and suburban bureau chief. He has covered religion full-time since 1994, traveling to the Vatican and Northern Ireland in the process. He is a board member of the Religion Newswriters Foundation.
Stringers & Correspondents
Sara Shereen Bakhshian, Los Angeles
Sara Shereen Bakhshian is a reporter, writer and editor with experience covering religion, entertainment, the environment, local news, politics, current affairs and other topical issues at major dailies, community newspapers and on the radio. In addition to RNS, she has been published in The Hollywood Reporter, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, The Malibu Times, The Seattle Times, The Ventura County Star, among others. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University and a master's degree in religious studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
William Bole, Andover, Mass.
William Bole is a freelance journalist who spent ten years (1982-1992) as Washington correspondent of RNS. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Commonweal magazine, and other publications. His books include Forgiveness in International Politics: An Alternative Road to Peace and Organized Labor and The Church: Reflections of a "Labor Priest" (written with the late George Higgins). He has taught journalism at The Catholic University of America, where he earned a master's degree in religious studies. He is a fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and a senior correspondent of Our Sunday Visitor.
Elizabeth Bryant, Paris, France
Elizabeth Bryant worked as a freelance reporter in Cairo for two years, before moving to Paris in October 2000. Besides Religion News Service, she has reported on a freelance basis for Voice of America, United Press International, Newsweek, the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle. Previously, she worked for several newspapers and wire services in Florida, New York and Washington DC. Bryant was raised in Africaand Europe and worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia. She has a master's degree in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University, and master's degrees in International Affairs and Journalism from Columbia University.
Michele Chabin, Jerusalem
RNS Middle East correspondent Michele Chabin has covered events in the region for 18 years. In addition to her work at RNS, Chabin writes regularly for the New York Jewish Week and National Catholic Register and is a contributor to USA Today and numerous other publications. She has won several awards from the American Jewish Press Association for Jewish journalism (including one for a first-hand account of the evacuation of Jewish, Muslim and Christian residents from war-torn Sarajevo) as well as first-place honors from the Catholic Press Association. A graduate of Brandeis University, Chabin was awarded a British Chevening Scholarship and Press Fellowship at Cambridge University, England. The home she shared during the fellowship contained a Hindu, a Sikh, two Muslims, a Jew, an Orthodox Christian and a Catholic, "a harmony that deepened my love for religion-based reporting," she says.
Benedicta Cipolla, New York City
Benedicta Cipolla is a magazine editor and freelance writer who has contributed to RNS since 2001. Previously she spent six years in Italy, first as a Fulbright scholar in Rome studying film, and then as a reporter at Vatican Radio and Catholic News Service. Her work has appeared in Commonweal, The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other publications. She graduated from Princeton University.
Shona Crabtree
Shona Crabtree is a freelance journalist who writes about religion in America. She covered religion for CBS Radio's national show The Osgood File, doing stories ranging from croning ceremonies to transgender clergy to Christian yoga. She also has worked as a newspaper reporter in South Carolina and Massachusetts on a variety of beats. She graduated from Princeton University with a degree in English literature and has an master's degree in Religious Studies from the University of California-Santa Barbara, where she co-taught an undergraduate class on "Religion and Journalism."
Ron Csillag, Toronto
Ron Csillag joined RNS in March 2002 and covers eastern Canada. Based in Toronto, he contributes feature stories. He also writes about religion for the Toronto Star, and is a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail and a variety of religious publications. His work has also appeared in the National Post. For 10 years, he was a reporter for the Canadian Jewish News, where he won a Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. In 2002, he was awarded an Eli Lilly Fellowship to complete the Specialized Reporting Program in Religion, Spirituality and Ethics at Northwestern University in Chicago. In January 2003, he was nominated by the Globe and Mail for a National Newspaper Award. He has also worked as a television news producer in Montreal and Toronto. Csillag was born in Montreal and is a graduate of Concordia University's journalism program.
Marcia J. Davis, Dallas, Tex.
Freelance journalist, media specialist and 30-year career veteran Marcia J. Davis has worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer, government information officer and media relations professional for corporate, faith-based and social service agencies. She currently manages a select group of faith-based media clients, and writes for Charisma magazine, Christian Retailing, RNS and the North Texas United Methodist Conference. Her issue-oriented articles and interviews with politicians, celebrities and national and international public figures have been used by print and broadcast media across the country. Davis received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Texas Tech University.
Judy Edelhoff, Rome, Italy
Judy Edelhoff is a writer, reporter, photographer, and editor that divides her time between Rome and Washington D.C. Her articles on culture, art, and religion have been published in International Herald Tribune’s Italy Daily and the Hartford Courant. As travel writer and photographer she has been published by Penguin, Random House, and Avalon. She has broadcast live from Rome for CNN television on Italian law and politics and in Italian for RAI television. At the National Archives in Washingon, D.C., she launched and ran a lively speaker’s series on history and politics that included topics such as law and ethics.
David Finnigan, Los Angeles
David Finnigan has covered religion for Catholic News Service, Associated Baptist Press, Agence France-Presse, the local CBS all-news radio station KNX, as well as RNS. He interviewed the Dalai Lama in L.A. for AFP and has written film and TV reviews for Daily Variety, and reported on marketing of religious films while a staff writer at The Hollywood Reporter. Before returning to his hometown nine years ago, Finnigan spent eight years at general assignment, business and police reporting jobs at daily and weekly newspapers in Louisiana, New Jersey, Las Vegas and Budapest.
Amy Green, Orlando, Fla.
Amy Green is a journalist in Orlando, Fla., whose work has appeared in PEOPLE, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor and many others. She specializes in faith, the environment and social issues, and her stories also have appeared in Sojourners, Christianity Today, Spirituality and Health and with Religion News Service. She is a former Associated Press reporter in Nashville, Tenn., and in 2006 she worked for a month in Boston as an editor on the national desk of the Monitor. She is an active member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and she is chairwoman of the freelance committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2008 she traveled to Taiwan with an SPJ delegation to foster a professional exchange with journalists there. She is an occasional speaker on journalism and writing. She graduated from the University of Florida.
Chris Herlinger, New York City
Chris Herlinger is a New York-based stringer for RNS, and his RNS reporting has appeared in The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, among other publications, and his other freelance reporting appears regularly in The Christian Century, National Catholic Reporter and the Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Chris has worked as a freelancer in New York for more than a decade, following studies at Union Theological Seminary as a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, earning an M.A. degree. He also holds a master's degree in international relations from Cambridge University. A graduate of Macalester College, Chris has also been a resident fellow at Harvard Divinity School and a visiting fellow at Yale Divinity School. He is the co-author of Where Mercy Fails: Darfur's Struggle to Survive, published by Seabury Books. He has twice won the Egan Award for Journalistic Excellence from Catholic Relief Services; he has also won the Religious Communicators Council's DeRose-Hinkhouse Award three times and his international reporting has been honored by the Catholic Press Association.
Cecile S. Holmes, Columbia, S.C.
Cecile S. Holmes is a storyteller and writer, who has specialized in religion reporting for 28 years. After 23 years as newspaper reporter and editor, she left her job as religion editor of the Houston Chronicle to return to her hometown of Columbia, S.C. She teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications where she is an assistant professor. She is the author of a book about the Nazi Holocaust and is working on another about common themes in women's spiritual experiences. A public speaker and workshop leader, she is a past president of the Religion Newswriters Association. Since coming to USC, she developed the seminar, "The Media and the Message," to assist nonprofit and religious groups with communications, marketing and new media technology. She has worked with more than 150 leaders through that seminar over the past several years.
Celeste Kennel-Shank
Celeste Kennel-Shank's reporting career began with an internship at Religion News Service in 2005, which included having The Washington Post run her full-page article about Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. Since then, she has spent a year on the editorial staff of Sojourners magazine, earned a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism and reported bilingually for community newspapers in Chicago. Having traveled to four continents, she has reported from El Salvador and Nicaragua and spoken on the radio show Interfaith Voices. The Evangelical Press Association honored her article on a Washington, D.C., organization building friendships between senior citizens and punk rockers. She graduated from Goshen College, a Mennonite school in Indiana, and is assistant editor of Mennonite Weekly Review, an independent newspaper covering Anabaptist Christians.
G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Mass.
G. Jeffrey MacDonald is an award-winning reporter and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. His work has appeared in five books as well as TIME magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, USA Today and the Washington Post, among other national publications. For in-depth coverage of religion, he's received six awards from the Religion Newswriters Association and the American Academy of Religion. He is the author of Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul (Basic Books, March 2010). He received his Master of Divinity degree cum laude from Yale Divinity School in 2000. He lives in Massachusetts.
Achal Narayanan, India
Achal Narayanan, who lives in Chennai, India, has been a stringer for RNS for some years. He cut his journalistic teeth working for The Associated Press in its news bureau in the Indian capital, New Delhi, as an editorial staffer. He later moved to the Australian diplomatic mission where he was engaged in press and public relations work. But the bulk of his working life was spent with the British diplomatic mission in New Delhi, working for Brtitish Information Services. He joined them as a sub-editor and in due course became Senior Editor of the Information Services, from which position he retired in 1987. For his services to the organization over a 40-year period he was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). Since his retirement, Achal has been engaged in freelance writing work, contributing articles to the Indian press on a wide range of subjects. He finds his work for RNS a rewarding experience, and enjoys his interactions with its editors and supporting staff.
Marcia Z. Nelson, Chicago
Marcia Z. Nelson's articles about religion and spirituality have appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including The Christian Century, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune. She is the author of three books, most recently The Gospel According to Oprah. She is the religion reviews and news editor for Publishers Weekly, the trade magazine for book publishing. She has taught journalism at two colleges and led workshops for professionals on religion journalism. She has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago.
Nicole Neroulias, Seattle
An alumna of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Nicole Neroulias has covered Judaism, Orthodox Christianity and other faiths since 2002. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, USA Today and other outlets. After creating a Faith section for the San Mateo County Times in California, she was awarded the Cassels prize from the Religion Newswriters Association and was among 17 religion reporters selected to participate in the 2006 Gralla Fellows Program at Brandeis University. Her reporting has taken her to the former Soviet Union, Cyprus and Vietnam, and she has worked as an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia. Currently based in Seattle, she also writes the Belief Beat blog for Beliefnet.
Robert Nowell, London
Robert Nowell became a Roman Catholic while a student at Oxford. As assistant editor of The Tablet, he reported part of the last two sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1964 and 1965). Nowell was also editor of Herder Correspondence, and as a freelance journalist specializing in religious affairs since 1970 has reported for The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Irish Times. He was London correspondent for the Catholic Review, London correspondent for NC News Service (later Catholic News Service), and has been a London-based correspondent for Religion News Service since 1992. He has written many books, including What a Modern Catholic Believes about Death; What a Modern Catholic Believes about Mysticism and A Passion for Truth - Hans Kung and his Theology.
Dennis P. O’Connor, Cincinnati
Dennis O'Connor, an award-winning freelance writer and veteran journalist based out of Cincinnati,Ohio, has more than 30 years writing experience and hundreds of bylines in the United States and Canada for periodicals such as The Christian Century, Our Sunday Visitor, Revista Maryknoll, Columbia Magazine, as well as newspapers from coast-to-coast. O'Connor recently logged more than a decade as an editor and writer in the Catholic press, and currently he frequently travels to Central America (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua) covering religion and politics in that region as a freelance writer and photographer. His 2005 books, Bridges of Faith and Building Bridges of Faith, about establishing international Sister Parish partnerships, were published by St. Anthony Messenger Press. His forthcoming book is titled Listening to Romero.
Rich Preheim, Elkhart, Ind.
Rich Preheim is a freelancer who has written for, in addition to RNS, The Christian Century, Sojourners, Mennonite Weekly Review, South Dakota Magazine and others. He previously spent six years on the editorial staff of The Mennonite, the magazine of Mennonite Church USA, winning awards from Associated Church Press for news and editorial writing. He has also served on the staffs of Mennonite Weekly Review and Freeman (S.D.) Courier. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Bethel College, North Newton, Kan., and a master's degree in journalism from Indiana University, Bloomington, and has studied at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart.
Steve Rabey
Steve Rabey has covered religion, spirituality and culture for a quarter century. A former religion editor for the Gazette in Colorado Springs (that's where God lives), Steve's articles have appeared in newspapers (New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News), magazines (Christianity Today, Charisma, Sojourners, New Age, Publishers Weekly) and online (beliefnet). He has written for Religion News Service since 1994.
Steve is a member of the adjunct faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary and has an M.A. in church history from Denver Seminary. He and his wife Lois, an author and speaker, live in Colorado. (More info at http://www.rabeywords.com/)
Omar Sacirbey, Boston
Omar Sacirbey is a Boston-based correspondent for the Religion News Service and other publications. In 2008, he was a finalist for the Religion Newswriters Association Templeton Reporter of the Year award, and in 2007, he placed third in the American Academy of Religion news writing contest. In 2005, he was an Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellow, focusing on Muslims in North America. Before journalism, he was an advisor with the Bosnian Foreign Ministry, serving at the United Nations in New York, and in Sarajevo and The Hague. He holds masters degrees from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and the Columbia University School of Journalism. He also writes about business, foreign affairs, politics, and food. His website is http://www.omarsacirbey.com.
Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons is a religion writer living in New England. She has written about faith for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. She holds an MA in Communication and a BS in print journalism, with a minor in theology. In 2009 Simmons was awarded the American Academy of Religion Award for Best In-Depth Reporting on Religion. Also in 2009, Simmons founded http://www.creedible.com/, an online religious magazine.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver, B.C.
Douglas Todd has received more than 50 journalism and educational honours for his work on religion and philosophy. He has twice won the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, which goes to the top religion reporter in the secular media in North America. As well, he received the highest award for opinion writing from the American Academy of Religion. In addition, Todd took first place in 2006 for the James O. Supple Religion Feature Writer of the Year Award, which honours the best in-depth writing and analysis of religious issues on the continent. Todd is the author of several books, including Brave Souls: Writers and Artists Wrestle With God, Love, Death and the Things That Matter (Stoddart), which consists of spiritual profiles of noted artists, from John Irving to Robert Munsch. He is editor of the 2008 book, Cascadia: The Elusive Utopia, in which 15 thinkers explore the connection between spirituality and landscape in the Pacific Northwest.
Andrea Useem, Northern Virginia
After graduating in Religion from Dartmouth College, Andrea Useem moved to Nairobi, Kenya, where she spent one year reporting for a Kenyan-run news wire service and three more years reporting across Eastern Africa for a wide range of U.S. publications including the Dallas Morning News, the Boston Globe, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2001, she earned her Master’s of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Useem also studied Arabic intensively at Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Middlebury College’s Summer Language School. She moved to Muscat, Oman, for two years and has studied Islam informally with Muslims in Kenya, Sudan, Egypt and the United States. A member of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, Useem lives in northern Virginia with her husband and small children.
Jackie Walker
Jackie Walker is a Chicago-area writer/editor and freelance journalist. Her religion-related articles have appeared in magazines like Relate and Publishers Weekly. In the past she has worked for Guideposts publications, Relevant Media Group, and World Wisdom world religion book publishers. She also maintains Religion Transcends (http://www.religiontranscends.com/), a religion news blog. Jackie earned a bachelor of arts in journalism and religious studies from Indiana University.
Al Webb, London
Al Webb works as a freelance journalist. In addition to writing for Religion News Service, he covers news and writes features for United Press International and the Washington Times, is an op-ed contributor to the Baltimore Sun and is weekend co-editor at the London bureau of the Voice of America. Previously he was a reporter-writer for 28 years with UPI in North Carolina, Cape Canaveral, and the Houston Space Center. He was a war correspondent in Vietnam, and latterly in Iran, Iraq and Beirut, for UPI and later with U.S. News and World Report. He has also served on news assignments in Hong Kong, Brussels and London, and has worked as a freelance journalist for the past six years. Webb was raised in North Carolina and Tennessee, was educated at Duke University and began his journalist's career at The Knoxville Journal.
Kimberly Winston, San Francisco
Kimberly Winston is a freelance religion reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, USA Today, The Washington Post, The San Jose Mercury News and Newsweek. She is also a frequent contributor to Beliefnet.com and ReligionLink.org. In 2005, she was the recipient of the American Academy of Religion's award for best in-depth religion reporting. She is the author of three books, including Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads (Morehouse, 2008) and blogs at www.kimberlywinston.wordpress.com. She is a 1994 graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Columnists
Dale Hanson Bourke
Dale Hanson Bourke has traveled extensively in the developing world and often writes about cultural, religious and humanitarian issues. A consultant to nonprofit organizations, she was formerly publisher of RNS, and was a regular weekly columnist for five years. The author of seven books, her latest is "Second Calling" (Integrity). She also founded the AIDS Orphan Bracelet Project. A graduate of Wheaton College (Ill.), Bourke earned an MBA from the University of Maryland and did additional studies at The Sorbonne. She was editor of Today's Christian Woman magazine for 10 years, president of Publishing Directions, Inc. and also served as senior vice president of World Relief. She currently serves on the board of Opportunity International and previously served on the board of World Vision.
Tom Ehrich
Tom Ehrich is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who served as an Episcopal pastor for 18 years, partner in a computer consulting firm for six years, and now writes and teaches full-time through Journey Publishing Company, Durham, NC. (www.onajourney.org) A native of Indiana and graduate of Williams College and Columbia University, Ehrich has published 19 books and done extensive work as a church consultant. His book "With Scripture as My Compass" was published in September 2004 by Abingdon Press. "Just Wondering, Jesus," came out in April 2005. His RNS column won a 2001 Associated Church Press award.
Cathleen Falsani
Cathleen Falsani is a religion writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and author of The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People (FSG 2006) and the forthcoming Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace (Zondervan 2008). She is a graduate of Wheaton College and holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a master of theological studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. A Connecticut native who lives in the Chicago area with her husband, the journalist and author Maurice Possley, Cathleen won the 2005 Supple Religion Writer of the Year award from the Religion Newswriters Association.
David P. Gushee
David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, where he is based in the McAfee School of Theology. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at the College of William and Mary, Master of Divinity at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and both the Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Gushee came to McAfee from Union University where he served for 11 years, most recently as University Fellow and Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy. He is the president of Evangelicals for Human Rights, a columnist for Associated Baptist Press, and a contributing editor for Christianity Today. He was recently named a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar by Morehouse College and a visiting member of the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton. Dr. Gushee also currently serves as co-chair of the Biblical/Contextual Ethics Consultation of the American Academy of Religion, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and on the Christian Ethics Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. He has published ten books, over 75 scholarly essays, book chapters, articles, and reviews, and hundreds of magazine articles and opinion pieces. His books include the award-winning Kingdom Ethics, as well as Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust and Only Human. His next book project, with Eerdmans Press, explores the theological and ethical roots and implications of belief in the sanctity of human life.
A. James Rudin
The American Jewish Committee's Senior Interreligious Adviser, A. James Rudin received his master's degree and rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Prior to joining the AJC staff in 1968, Rabbi Rudin was a United States Air Force chaplain in Japan and Korea and he served congregations in Kansas City, Mo., and Champaign, Ill. A long-time leader in interreligious affairs, Rabbi Rudin has participated in meetings with Pope John Paul II as well as conferences with the World Council of Churches. In 1997 Rabbi Rudin was awarded the "Person of Reconciliation" Award from the Polish Council of Christians and Jews, and two years later he received the Interfaith Medallion from the International Conference of Christians and Jews. Rabbi Rudin is the author of Israel for Christians: Understanding Modern Israel and is co-author of Why Me? Why Anyone? and Prison or Paradise -- The New Religious Cults. He is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.
Dick Staub
Dick Staub is an award-winning broadcaster, writer, and speaker, whose work focuses on understanding faith and culture and interpreting each to the other. After hosting the Chicago-based, nationally syndicated Dick Staub Show, he returned to Seattle and launched The Kindlings Muse, podcast at http://www.thekindlings.com. He is author of The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture in an Age of Christianity-Lite, Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters and Too Christian, Too Pagan. His blog can be read regularly at http://www.dickstaub.com/. In 2007 he joined the pastoral staff of the Orcas Island Community Church.
Phyllis Zagano
Phyllis Zagano is a Senior Research Associate-in-Residence at Hofstra University and an expert in Catholic Studies. She has written or edited 12 books and hundreds of articles for a wide range of publications, including the Boston Globe, USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times Magazine. Her awards include the College Theology Society Book Award and two Catholic Press Association Awards. Her book Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church (Crossroad, 2000) has caused conversation and consideration around the world of the ordination of Catholic women as deacons. Some of her other books have been variously translated into Czech, Spanish, Indonesian and Italian. Dr. Zagano lectures nationally on the future of women in the Catholic Church, and she is a frequent guest on national and local television and radio, commenting on Catholics and Catholicism. Her latest book The Dominican Tradition (Liturgical, 2006) is the first of her Spirituality in History Series. She is currently working on a book about communion and authority in the Catholic Church. http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/Phyllis_Zagano/