The Inter-Religious Council at Emory University in Georgia organized the university’s first campus-wide interfaith service project, helping families affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of international relations and history at Boston University.

Steve Ridgway is interim CEO of Open Doors USA, which supports persecuted Christians in 60 countries. It’s based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Richard H. Seager is an associate professor of religious studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. He is studying the globalization and Americanization of Buddhism and is the author of Buddhism in America and Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai and the Globalization of Buddhism Humanism.

Jay P. Greene is endowed chair and head of the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a nonprofit public policy institute in New York.

William M. Bodiford is professor of Asian languages and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism and editor of Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya. He can speak about Japanese Buddhism, including rituals and worship of local gods.

James G. Dwyer is a law professor at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He has worked on issues such as school choice, family law and children’s rights.

Carl W. Bielefeldt is a professor of religious studies and director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University in California. He specializes in East Asian Buddhism and is editor of the Soto Zen Text Project, which is preparing annotated translations of the scriptures of the Soto school of Japanese Zen.

The Rev. Patrick J. Ryan is a Jesuit priest at Fordham University in New York, where he serves as McGinley Professor of Religion and Society. Ryan is an expert on Islam and the tensions with the West.