Avrel Seale is an editor and writer in Austin, Texas. A Bahá’í, he journeyed to Haifa to visit Bahá’í holy sites, and his essay about the trip was published by the Austin American-Statesman.

Michael McMullen is a sociology professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. He wrote The Bahá’í: The Religious Construction of a Global Identity.

Brian D. Lepard is a law professor at the University of Nebraska; one of his specialties is international human rights law. He wrote In the Glory of the Father: The Bahá’í Faith and Christianity. He also served at the United Nations Office of the Bahá’í International Community.

Elizabeth Gatorano is a lifelong advocate for children and troubled youth. Her husband is Rwandan. After the war in Rwanda she became actively involved in promoting racial unity. She wrote Waiting for the Sunrise: One Family’s Struggle Against Genocide and Racism. She is a Bahá’í who lives with her family in northwest suburban Chicago.

Winfried Corduan has written about the Bahá’í Faith in several world religions texts he has authored. He taught religion and philosophy for many years in the department of biblical studies, Christian education and philosophy at Taylor University in Upland, Ind.

Gary L. Matthews is a Bahá’í author, publisher and lecturer. His publications include numerous short works on the Bahá’í Faith, Christianity and Islam, and the book He Cometh With Clouds: A Bahá’í View of Christ’s Return. He manages Stonehaven Press, which publishes Bahá’í literature, in Knoxville, Tenn.

Susan Maneck is an associate professor of history at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. She’s written extensively about various aspects of the Bahá’í Faith, including women in the faith.

Michael Penn is a member of the Bahá’í Faith and a psychology professor and licensed clinical psychologist at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. His research interests and publications include works in the pathogenesis of hope and hopelessness, adolescent psychopathology, the relationship between culture and psychopathology, and the epidemiology of gender-based violence.

Michael Lazich is an associate professor in the department of history and social studies education at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, N.Y. He wrote the entry on the Bahá’í Faith in the Encyclopedia of Religious Ritual.