Gerard Connors is director of the Research Institute on Addictions at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has studied Alcoholics Anonymous participation, spirituality and alcohol outcomes.

Margaret Ensminger is a professor and associate chairwoman of the department of health, behavior and society at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. She has studied inner-city youths and families and has done research on the effect of family religiosity on young adults’ alcohol use.

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and is executive editor and executive vice president at Random House. His books include American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation. Contact Barbara Fillon at Random House.

Teresa Morrow is vice president for external relations and marketing with the Minneapolis Foundation which works on various community issues including immigration.

Greesh C. Sharma of Morrisville, Pa., has been a practicing psychologist for 30 years. He works at the Institute of Behavior Modification. Sharma, who was born in India, has written for Hinduism Today magazine on psychotherapy, addictions and Hinduism.

Kevin Griffin is a meditation teacher in the San Francisco Bay area and former addict who uses meditation, the 12 steps and Buddhist precepts of free will and mindfulness to help addicts recover. He is also one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network.He is the author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve […]

G. Alan Marlatt was a professor of psychology and director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle. His major focus was in both research and clinical work is addictive behaviors; he conducted research on Buddhist meditation as a treatment for substance abuse in and out of prisons and wrote […]

Oscar Chacón is the executive director of the National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities (NALACC) whose mission is to bring about a more equitable and sustainable way of life for Latin American immigrant communities in the U.S.A.

Judith K. Muhammad is vice president of Islamic Health & Human Services in Detroit, which provides a full range of social services, primarily for Muslims, and training in Islamic health care for non-Muslim health care providers. Muhammad is also a contributing writer to IslamOnline.net and has presented at many workshops and conferences around the country […]