Joel P. Okamoto is an associate professor of systematic theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He studies contemporary theology, Lutheranism and issues at the intersection of science and faith.

Dean Blevins is a professor of practical theology and Christian discipleship at Nazarene Theological Seminary. His research interests include neuroscience and technology.

Barry Young is the vice president of operations for Strategos International, which provides safety training for businesses, schools, hospitals and churches. He previously served as director of security at two churches in Kansas City.

Leonard Zeskind is president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. He is the author of Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream, in which he explores white nationalism’s relationship to religion. He lives in Kansas City, Mo.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia, Mo., is new to the sanctuary movement. Its pastor, the Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, called the decision to join “a process of discernment.”

Abram Van Engen is an associate professor of english and a faculty affiliate of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, where his interests include early American literature and culture, Puritanism, sentimentalism, and religion.

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics advances the study of the intersection of religion and politics and publishes the journal Religion & Politics. It is based at Washington University in St. Louis. Mark Valeri is interim director.

Tobias Winwright serves as an associate professor of health care ethics and is an associate professor of theological ethics at St. Louis University. He is a Roman Catholic moral theologian who has co-authored After the Smoke Clears: The Just War Tradition and Post War Justice, and he edited Green Discipleship: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Environment.

Leah Gunning Francis is associate dean for contextual education and assistant professor of Christian education at Eden Theological Seminary. She is based in St. Louis and was present in Ferguson, Mo., during the unrest in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death.