Hugh Byrne directs the Center for Mindful Living, a meditation community in Washington, D.C. He is also a teacher for Insight Timer, a meditation app for smartphones.

Nalika Gajaweera is a cultural anthropologist who specializes in the intricate relationships between religion, race, gender, ethics and social justice, drawing on research conducted in Sri Lanka and the United States. She is assistant director of the Humanities Center at the University of California, Irvine.

Wakoh Shannon Hickey is an assistant professor of religious studies at Alfred University in New York. She serves as co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism in the West unit.

Scott A. Mitchell is a professor of Buddhist studies and dean of student and faculty affairs at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, Calif. He also serves as co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism in the West unit.

Pamela Winfield is an associate professor of religious studies at Elon University. She has written about the rise of nonreligious Buddhism in the U.S.

Caroline Starkey is a sociologist of religion at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. She studies religious practice in Great Britain, religion and gender and contemporary Buddhism.

Kim Lam is an associate research fellow at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. She has written about the transformation of Buddhist meditation into a secular mindfulness practice.