Michael M. Mendiola was associate professor of Christian ethics for the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. He wrote the article “Human Embryonic Stem Cells: Possible Approaches from a Catholic Perspective” for The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate (MIT Press, 2001). Mendiola passed away in 2008.

Dr. Irving Weissman is head of the stem cell research program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. He opposes an effort to repeal California’s law legalizing embryonic stem cell research.

Jane Maienschein is a professor of history and philosophy of science at Arizona State University in Tempe. She wrote Whose View of Life?: Embryos, Cloning, and Stem Cells (Harvard University Press, 2003).

Roger J. Nemeth is a sociology professor at Hope College in Holland, Mich. He has written about finances and congregations, including an essay, “The Religious Basis of Charitable Giving in America: A Social Capital Perspective” for the volume Religion, Social Capital and Democratic Life.

Steven Jacobs is a professor of religious studies and holds the Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He can comment on altruism as a scholar of modern Jewish thought and from a post-Holocaust perspective.

Ahmad S. Dallal is dean of Georgetown University in Qatar. His research interests include early modern Islamic societies, the causes of 9/11 and the relationship between Islam and science.

Eric M. Woodrum is a professor of sociology and anthropology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He has written about the effects of religion and theology on the environmental movement.

Sharon L. Miller is associate director of the Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. She is a sociologist of religion who specializes in evaluation research and data analysis. Miller co-edited a collection of essays on religious giving titled Financing American Religion.

Loren Swartzendruber is president of Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.