John Iceland is professor of sociology and demography at Penn State University. He is the author of Poverty in America: A Handbook and has authored numerous papers and reports on poverty patterns, causes and measurement.

Lisa Sharon Harper is co-founder of New York Faith & Justice, a network of churches, organizations and individuals that work to end poverty and poverty-related violence in New York City.

Michael N. Nagler founded the Peace and Conflict Studies program at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is an emeritus professor. He is the author most recently of The Search for a Nonviolent Future: A Promise of Peace for Ourselves, Our Families and Our World (Inner Ocean, 2004), and he is a follower of the Indian […]

Arm in Arm, the Crisis Ministry of Princeton and Trenton, N.J., sponsors “Community Action Poverty Simulations,” in which people of different faiths learn what it is like to live in poverty. The organization targets hunger, homelessness and poverty with a variety of programs.

Jan G. Linn is author of Big Christianity: What’s Right with the Religious Left (Westminster John Knox, 2006) and a co-pastor of Spirit of Joy Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Minneapolis. A former college and seminary professor, Linn calls himself a “recovering fundamentalist” who wants to reclaim the idea of Christianity as generous, or liberal, and tolerant.

Stephen Wizner is William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law and Supervising Attorney at Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn. One of his areas of expertise is poverty law, and he has participated in conferences on law and religion.

Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, lecturer and writer, has been especially active on peace issues. She was a guest on an April 16 Meet the Press panel about faith and politics.

Aviva Luz Argote is executive director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

Project ORE serves emergency kosher meals and provides counseling, case management and other supportive services to isolated, poor, homeless, mentally ill, elderly Jews (including Holocaust survivors) in New York City. It is a program of the Educational Alliance.