Richard Viladesau is author of Theological Aesthetics: God in Imagination, Beauty and Art (Oxford University Press, 1999), in which he discusses how beauty can reveal the divine. He is a professor of theology at Fordham University, a Catholic institution in New York, N.Y.

James Youniss is Wylma R. & James R. Curtin Professor of Psychology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Youniss has studied teens’ engagement in community service and politics.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez is is the Associate Director of Latino Affairs and Immigration for the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. She is also programs director at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization that works to engage youth to live out the values of her grandfather, Cesar E. Chavez. A lifelong volunteer, […]

Alexander W. Astin is professor of Higher Education Emeritus at the University of California. He is a co-principal investigator of “Spirituality in Higher Education: A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose,” an ongoing study by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Mark Weldon Whitten is the author of The Myth of Christian America: What You Need to Know About the Separation of Church and State. He teaches religion and philosophy at Lone Star College – Montgomery in Texas. He says new research has shown that the founders had mixed opinions on the role of religion in the […]

Peg Smith is chief executive officer of the American Camp Association, which includes Christian and Jewish as well as secular camps among its 7,000 members. The mission of her camp experiences is to enrich the lives of children and adults.  

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain is co-directors of the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence in Minneapolis. Roehlkepartain specializes in the role of religious institutions and spiritual development in young people’s development.

David R. Bains teaches the history of American Christianity at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

Peter L. Benson and Eugene C. Roehlkepartain are co-directors of the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence in Minneapolis. Benson is investigator and co-director for Search Institute’s new Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. He wrote Sparks: How Parents Can Help Ignite the Hidden Strengths of Teenagers (2008) and has more than a dozen other publications.