Michael Lazich is an associate professor in the department of history and social studies education at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, N.Y. He wrote the entry on the Bahá’í Faith in the Encyclopedia of Religious Ritual.

Hussein Rashid is a visiting professor of Islam at the religion department at Hofstra University and a prolific blogger and commentator on Islam in America. He has written about Islamophobia, for example in this June 3, 2009, column for the website Religion Dispatches.

Chung Hyun Kyung is associate professor of ecumenical theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. A lay theologian of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, she was once a temporary Buddhist novice nun. Her interests include feminist and eco-feminist theologies and spiritualities from Asia, Christian-Buddhist dialogue and Zen meditation. She wrote Struggle to Be the Sun Again: […]

Su Yon Pak, vice president for institutional advancement at Union Theological Seminary in New York, is co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Asian North American Religion, Culture and Society Group.

Courtney Bender is a professor of religious studies at Columbia University and sociologist. She studies new religious movements, religious pluralism and is currently writing about the religion of the future.

Janet Reitman is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, where she wrote an article on Scientology that was a finalist for a 2007 National Magazine Award. Reitman is also the author of Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion.

Interfaith Impact of New York is a statewide coalition of congregations and individuals from mainline Protestant, Reform Jewish, Unitarian Universalist and other faith traditions that work for compassion and justice in New York state public policies.

Alexie Torres-Fleming is founder and executive director of Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice, which rebuilds neighborhoods by developing leaders among youth to work on community issues, including poverty. It’s based in the Bronx, N.Y. She spoke at the 2009 Mobilization to End Poverty event in Washington, D.C.

The Coalition for the Homeless implements programs to help end mass homelessness in New York City. According to their website, they provide services to more than 3,500 homeless people in New York each day.