Judy Fentress-Williams is in bi-vocational ministry in Alexandria, VA as the Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) and the Senior Assistant to the Pastor for Teaching and Preaching at the Alfred Street Baptist Church.

Congressman Elijah E. Cummings was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where he still resides today. He obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Howard University, serving as Student Government President and graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and then graduated from the University Of Maryland School Of Law. Congressman Cummings has also received seven honorary doctoral degrees from Universities throughout the nation.

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie is the new interim General Secretary/President of the National Council of Churches representing 37 communions, 100,000 churches and 35.5million people. She is also the 117th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is the first female elected to episcopal office in the more than the twocentury-old AME Church and is the first female to serve as President of the Council of Bishops and President of the General Board.

Dr. Susie C. Owens is a native Texan and a product of the Boston Public School System. She is a graduate of Bethel Bible Institute, where she earned an Associate of Arts degree in New Testament Studies in 1970. Understanding her call to teach, she pursued the field of education, graduating from Brooks College in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Early Childhood Education. In May of 1999, she received a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies from Howard University School of Divinity.

Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is  is a former Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Georgetown University’s Edmund A Walsh School for Foreign Service  where he worked in the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, advancing an alternative paradigm to the inertia of Orthodoxies in the face of Extremisms. 

Dr. John W. Kinney is a native of Wheeling, West Virginia. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia and Virginia Union University of Theology in Richmond, Virginia, respectively. He was awarded the Ph.D. from Columbia University/Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Bishop Yvette A. Flunder founded the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in 1991 in order to unite a gospel ministry with a social ministry. City of Refuge is a thriving inner-city congregation that celebrates the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ. Preaching a message of action, the church has experienced steady numerical and spiritual growth and is now located in the south of Market area of San Francisco at 1025 Howard Street.

The Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry was installed as the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church on November 1, 2015.

He was elected and confirmed at the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, UT, on June 27, 2015. He is the Chief Pastor and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society and chair of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church.

Bishop Moore is a native of Mt. Vernon, NY and began his college education at Livingstone College, graduating from Purchase College, in Purchase, NY with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology. Theological studies were done at Yale University Divinity School obtaining the M.Div. from United Theological Seminary (UTS). He received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from UTS as well as an honorary Doctorate from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina.

The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery is the Dean of Duke University Chapel and Associate Professor of Homiletics at Duke Divinity School. A national leader in the theological study of the art of preaching (homiletics), Powery regularly delivers sermons at Duke Chapel as well as at churches throughout the United States and abroad. He is often a keynote speaker and lecturer at educational institutions, conferences, symposia, and retreats.