Theodore Brelsford is a former assistant professor of theology at Emory University in Atlanta and is now a pastor at Orchard Park Community Church in New York. He is co-editor of Contextualizing Theological Education.

Ann Pellegrini is an associate professor of religious studies at New York University in New York City. Among her areas of interest is religion and sexuality and gender.

Anne Lapidus Lerner is director and founder of the Jewish Women’s Studies Program, director of the Jewish Feminist Research Group and assistant professor of Jewish literature at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. She is also faculty adviser to its Isha El Akhota: The Women’s Center.

Moshe Sokol is dean of Lander College for Men and Beis Medrash L’ Talmud at Touro College in New York City. Sokol has participated in, taught at and delivered papers at several conferences and sessions on Judaism and the environment.

Ismar Schorsch is a professor of Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City. He worked with former Vice President Al Gore to create the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

The Rev. Peter Colapietro is pastor at St. Malachy’s Catholic Church in New York City. The church calls itself “the actors’ chapel” and ministers to a large number of actors who live and work in New York City.

Shira Gabriel is an assistant professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., who has conducted three studies on celebrity worship, one of which focused on how it boosts the worshipper’s self-esteem.

The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the City University of New York has done research into philanthropy among some religious and ethnic groups in the New York area. Kathleen D. McCarthy is the director.

Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of The (New York) Jewish Week. He and other reporters at the paper have written extensively about the effects of the recession and the Madoff scandal on Jewish philanthropies.