Read a July 7, 2013, News-Gazette article about teachers working to overcome generational poverty by understanding the “culture of poverty.”

Paul Koch is an economics professor at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. He has written and presented on Christianity and economics.

James Halteman is the Carl R. Hendrickson Professor of Business and Economics at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago. His work emphasizes the dimension of moral reflection in economics.

John Transue is an associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield. His research primarily involves social identity, public opinion, political participation and the relationships between political events and financial markets. His expertise includes the political participation of youth.

Bishop Carlton Pearson is senior pastor of New Dimensions Worship Center in Chicago, a Pentecostal Christian church.

Craig Mousin is director of the Center for Church-State Studies at DePaul University law school in Chicago. The nondenominational center promotes debate and discussion about the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause.

Paul Jarzembowski is the USCCB representative to the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association, which is an outreach to singles and couples in their 20s and 30s.

Michelle McKinney Hammond of Chicago is a cable show co-host, public speaker and the author of several Christian books on living single, including Secrets of an Irresistible Woman: Smart Rules for Capturing His Heart and Ending The Search For Mr. Right: How to Be Found by the Man You’ve Been Looking For. She founded HeartWing Ministries.

Dan P. McAdams is a professor of psychology and director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. McAdams’ research examines how people develop their identities, and he has studied “generativity,” adults’ concern for the next generation. His book The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By, which finds personal redemption a major […]