Bill Patenaude is a special lecturer of theology at Providence College in Rhode Island. He is the chief author of Catholic Ecology, where he has speculated about what Pope Francis’ encyclical might contain. Contact via Chrissy Centazzo.

Michael Peppard is an assistant professor at Fordham University in New York City.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan is a distinguished professor of atmospheric and climate sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and an “ordinary academician” at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome. His work is expected to have contributed to Pope Francis’ encyclical.

Marc Morano is executive director of ClimateDepot.com and communications director at Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a conservative think tank in Washington that is skeptical of man-made climate change. He has been critical of Pope Francis’ involvement in climate change issues and his reliance on United Nations climate change data.

Thomas Peters started and runs the American Papist blog and works with Catholic Vote. He speaks about Catholicism and politics, pro-life issues and pro-family activism, the future of social media and youth activism.

Lisa A. Keister is a professor of sociology at Duke University in Durham, N.C. She has written several books examining the link between religion and poverty as well as prosperity.

Karma Lekshe Tsomo is a lecturer in the department of religion and ancient civilizations at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her research interests include women in Buddhism, death and identity, Buddhist feminist ethics, Buddhism and bioethics, Buddhist social ethics and Buddhist transnationalism.

Mucahit Bilici is an assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is the author of Finding Mecca in America and a columnist for Taraf, a daily publication in Turkish.

Douglas Kysar is a professor of law at Yale Law School. His areas of scholarship and research include torts, environmental law, and risk regulation. He recently took part in a panel discussion hosted by the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies entitled, “Pope Francis and the Environment: Why His New Climate Encyclical Matters.”