Duncan Williams, associate professor of East Asian languages and literature at the University of Southern California, specializes in Asian-American Buddhism and its relationship to the environment.

Kat Liu is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, growing up with a mixture of Christian, Buddhist and Taoist/Confucian influences.  She has been a Unitarian Universalist for about seven years and is assistant director of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Washington Office for Advocacy.

A. Hiro Nishikawa of Haverford, Pa., is a third-generation Japanese American and a national board member of the Japanese American Citizens League. As a child, he was incarcerated during World War II with his family in a concentration camp in Poston, Ariz. Raised Buddhist (Shin-shu), he is active in the Unitarian Universalist Church.

Chung Hyun Kyung is associate professor of ecumenical theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. A lay theologian of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, she was once a temporary Buddhist novice nun. Her interests include feminist and eco-feminist theologies and spiritualities from Asia, Christian-Buddhist dialogue and Zen meditation. She wrote Struggle to Be the Sun Again: […]

John J. Thatamanil, who emigrated from India to the United States as a child, is assistant professor of theology at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. He teaches courses on Hindu-Christian dialogue and Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and wrote The Immanent Divine: God, Creation and the Human Predicament — An East-West Conversation.

Jonathan Y. Tan, who was born in Malaysia, is a theology professor at Xavier University, Cincinnati. He teaches courses on Islam, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

Irene Lin is associate director of the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

Adherents.com provides a list of the numbers of people who self-identify as members of major world religions.

The Rev. Jana Drakka is a senior Zen Buddhist priest, calligrapher and community activist. She provides meditation, memorials and harm reduction groups for marginally housed people and those who work with them in San Francisco. She also advocates for the rights of those living in poverty.