The Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder is a United Methodist minister in San Diego and coordinator of Mental Health Ministries, an effort that grew from her own experience of depression. She is the author of a paper, “Mental Illness and Families of Faith: How Churches Can Respond.”

Monica A. Coleman is associate professor of constructive theology and African-American religions at Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, Calif. Among her interests is disability theology.

Zen Buddhist teacher Joseph Bobrow founded the Coming Home Project in San Francisco to help veterans returning from combat.

The Miracle Project, which runs arts programs for special needs children in the Los Angeles area, offers a bar and bat mitzvah program for kids with autism.

The CEC- Faith Based Schools and Organizations is a network of those interested in advancing the field as to how children with disabilities are served in faith based schools and organizations. The chair is Dr. Julie M. Lane.

Joni and Friends is an international disability ministry and advocacy group in Agoura Hills, Calif., founded in 1979 by Joni Eareckson Tada. It has a number of field service branches. Melany Ethridge handles media queries.

Jeff McNair is professor of education at California Baptist University in Riverside. He directs the Center for the Study of Religion and Disability and maintains the blog Disabled Christianity.

Virginia Trimble is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. She specializes in the history of science, including the history of human understanding of the evolution of galaxies.

George F. Smoot is co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize; a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley; and research physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His publications include, as co-author, the popular book Wrinkles in Time: Witness to the Birth of the Universe.