Balaji Hebbar is a professor of religion at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has lectured widely on religion, spirituality and the care of the patient.

Satya Dev Negi is a senior lecturer at Emory University in Atlanta and chairman of the Emory-Tibet Partnership. He has written about traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on health, and he has done other research on the mind-body connection and health. He has studied whether meditation can reduce depression […]

Rabbi Simkha Weintraub is a social worker and director of the National Center for Jewish Healing in New York, N.Y. He co-edited a publication by the center titled Guide Me Along the Way: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Surgery. He is also the editor of Healing of Soul, Healing of Body: Spiritual Leaders Unfold the Strength and Solace in […]

The Rev. John Lundin is a Protestant minister. He has studied Buddhist practice in depth and is interested in using it to help others deepen their own religious practice, whether Christian, Jewish or Buddhist. He is co-author of The New Mandala: Eastern Wisdom for Western Living — a book on Buddhism for Christians — with the Dalai Lama.

Josephine P. Briggs is director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Research into the interconnectedness of the body and mind is funded by the center, which was created in 1992 (as the Office of Alternative Medicine) in response to the public’s growing interest in alternative health therapies, such as yoga […]

Aubrey M. Malphurs, senior professor of leadership pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. He wrote Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Guide for New Churches and Those Desiring Renewal (Baker Books, 2004).

Matt Jones is director of new church development for North Alabama Conference for the United Methodist Church.

Penny Long Marler is a professor of religion at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., with interests in the relationship between church and society and religious change. She has written about measuring growth in church attendance.

Ruud Peters is professor of Arabic law and culture at the University of Amsterdam.  His research includes several books on Egyptian Islamic law.