Rich Draeger is the press officer for the Salvation Army’s Heartland Division, which covers central Illinois.

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.

Robert H. Stockman is an adjunct faculty member of the department of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He is a Bahá’í who has written about the history of the faith in America.

Kenneth Bowers is secretary-general of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. He is chief administrative officer of the Bahá’í Faith in the U.S. and author of God Speaks Again: An Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith.

The official website of the Bahá’ís of the U.S., which has its headquarters in Evanston, Ill., is a treasure trove of basic information about the faith’s beliefs and practices. Its online press kit includes statistical information and story ideas.

Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry is a U.S.-Canadian grass-roots network.

Diane Nilan of Naperville, Ill., is a former shelter director who founded the nonprofit group Hear Us, to allow the voices of homeless children and youth to be heard. In 2005, Nilan sold her home and set off across the country to interview more than 70 homeless children and teenagers in 16 states, mostly in […]

Scott W. Allard is an associate professor in the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. He is the author of Out of Reach: Place, Poverty and the New American Welfare State. His research focuses on social welfare policy, poverty and nonprofit organizations in the United States.

Stewart Winger is an assistant professor of history at Illinois State University in Normal. His dissertation, written under Martin Marty at the University of Chicago, was titled Lincoln’s Religious Rhetoric: American Romanticism and the Antislavery Impulse. It was published as the 2003 book Lincoln, Religion and Romantic Cultural Politics.