Cheryl R. Cooper is Chief Operating Officer of the YWCA USA. She was formerly executive director of the National Council of Negro Women in Washington, D.C., which seeks to improve the quality of life for African-American women and their families.

The Rev. Renita J. Weems was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in Old Testament studies. She taught at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Spielman College. She is one of the founding pastors and chief servants at the Ray of Hope Community Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact through website.

Barbara Harris is a retired Episcopal bishop. Harris was the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion. She is past president of the Episcopal Urban Caucus and has worked on prisoner issues and in other organizations serving the urban poor. She currently is assisting Bishop John B. Chane in the Diocese of Washington, D.C. Contact her […]

The Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook is a distinguished fellow at the Freedom Forum Institute’s Religious Freedom Center. She served as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom from 2011 to 2013. Cook is an ordained Baptist pastor.

Chris Collins is vice president for public policy at the Global Health Council, which has headquarters in White River Junction, N.H., and Washington, D.C. The alliance of health care professionals, organizations, academic institutions, foundations and other entities works for “improvement and equity in global health.”

Ambassador Mark R. Dybul, a physician, serves as the United States’ global AIDS coordinator and carries out the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (known as PEPFAR).

The U.S. Agency for International Development is an independent federal government agency whose mission includes improving the health of citizens in foreign countries while advancing U.S. foreign policy goals. That includes family planning and HIV/AIDS. It frequently works with religious leaders in other countries.

Marilyn J. Keefe is deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and directs the Office of Population Affairs in Rockville, Md.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is a national, nonprofit think tank that conducts research on public policy issues concerning African-Americans and offers training and technical assistance to newly elected black officials.