The Rev. Jennifer Jones-Bridgett is executive director the Louisiana chapter of People Improving Communities through Organizing, also known as PICO Louisiana or PICO LIFT (Louisiana Interfaith Together). This network of more than 100 faith communities has developed a “Covenant to Rebuild Louisiana,” which calls for clergy to work together with government leaders.

Jim Pate is executive director of New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, which worked to clean up homes damaged by Katrina and to build hundreds of new houses.

Roberta Avila is executive director of Steps Coalition and former executive director of the Interfaith Disaster Task Force of South Mississippi.

Diana Jones Wilson is president of Faith Partnerships Inc., a network of congregations based in Raleigh, N.C., that works collaboratively to address issues of poverty.

Andrew Billingsley is a professor of sociology and African-American studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and senior scholar-in-residence at the university’s Institute for Families in Society.

Robin F. Finegan is regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Denver location. She oversees operations in Colorado, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Finegan is highly experienced in crisis management and community preparedness.

John A. Powell is executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University in Columbus. He also holds the Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the university’s Moritz College of Law. Contact powell through Tara McCoy.

Mark R. Rank is a professor of social welfare at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All (Oxford University Press, 2004). His focus is on poverty, social welfare and economic inequalities.

Gilbert Reyes is associate dean of the school of psychology at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara. His focus is on crisis intervention and psychological health after disasters.