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Eboo Patel is the founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core.  He is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation.  Eboo holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. He serves as an online panelist for the "On Faith" blog, co-hosted by The Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine.  Eboo also serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA, the Advisory Board of Duke University's Islamic Studies Center, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Dr. Martin Marty is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, and has taught since 1963.  In recognition of Dr. Marty’s contributions to the study and practice of religion, the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago was established founded to promote “public religion” endeavors.  An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Dr. Marty has also been a columnist for The Christian Century and a weekly contributor to Sightings, as well as authoring over 40 books.  He is the past president and director of many associations, institutions, and projects including the American Academy of Religion. 

 Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah is an American Muslim, born to a Protestant family in Nebraska.  Dr. Abd-Allah earned a Bachelors degree from the University of Missouri and a Doctorate from Cornell University.  While at Cornell, Dr. Abd-Allah read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which inspired him to embrace Islam.   Dr. Abd-Allah has taught at the Universities of Windsor (Ontario), Temple, Michigan, and King Abdul-Aziz (Jeddah), and taught Arabic in Spain.  While abroad, Dr. Abd-Allah studied with a number of traditional Islamic scholars. He returned to Chicago as chair and scholar-in-residence of the Nawawi Foundation.  He is also currently teaching, lecturing, conducting research, and writing in Islamic studies and related fields.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf was born in Washington State and raised in Northern California. In 1977, he became Muslim and subsequently traveled to the Muslim world and studied for ten years in the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, as well as North and West Africa. He received teaching licenses in various Islamic subjects from several well-known scholars in various countries. After ten years of studies abroad, he returned to the USA and took degrees in Religious Studies and Health Care. He also founded Zaytuna Institute which has established an international reputation for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam. Shaykh Hamza is the first American lecturer to teach in Morocco’s prestigious and oldest University, the Karaouine in Fes. In addition, he has translated into modern English several classical Arabic traditional texts and poems.

Ronit Avni is the Founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, a non-profit that widens the influence of Palestinian and Israeli grassroots peace builders. Ronit has trained non-governmental organizations from Honduras to the Gambia to produce videos as a tool for public education and grassroots mobilizing, as a deterrent to further abuse and as evidence before courts and tribunals. She wrote and produced a short documentary film, Rise, with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. She was among eight American-based recipients of the 2003-2005 Joshua Venture Fellowship for young Jewish social entrepreneurs. She was recently selected to receive the Auburn Seminary's 'Lives of Commitment' Award.

Gibran Bouayad was born and raised in Los Angeles to parents of mixed ethnic and religious backgrounds.  Gibran received his BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, Following graduation, Gibran joined the United States Peace Corps and served for two years in Morocco as a Youth Development Volunteer. Upon completion of his Peace Corps assignment, he remained in Morocco and taught English as a second language (ESL) at the American Language Center in Fes, while simultaneously studying Modern Standard Arabic as well as the culture of Morocco. Gibran, after returning in 2005, served as the Co-Executive Director of Abraham's Vision through January 2007, where he now serves as Director of Operations.

  Sally Mahé is Director of Organizational Development with the United Religions Initiative, an international interfaith organization. In that role, Sally helps lead URI from vision to practice, travels widely, and helps lead cross-cultural interfaith assemblies. She is co-author of Birth of a Global Community: Appreciative Inquiry in Action, 2003; and, A Greater Democracy Day by Day, 2004.  Sally holds an M.Ed from Harvard and a MA in Theology from General Episcopal Seminary. Prior to serving as core staff for URI, Sally developed a nationally recognized curriculum in the basic principles of democracy.

Ji Hyang Sunim graduated from Wellesley in 1991. She was ordained as a Zen nun in Korea in 1993. She served as Abbot of Cambridge Zen Center for five years as well as serving as chaplain at several universities, including Harvard University and Boston University. She has served as Buddhist Advisor and a member of the Religious Life team at Wellesley College.  Ms. Sunim has also served on the Advisory Boards for the Boston Clergy and Religious Leaders Group for Interfaith Dialogue (including two years as its Coordinator), Ruah Spirituality Institute and the Cambridge Zen Center. She also teaches at Omega Institute and UCLA Extension.

Eliyahu McLean is the director of the Jerusalem Peacemakers, a network of religious leaders and grassroots peacebuilders in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Eliyahu is a leader in such bridge building projects as the Abrahamic Reunion, a group of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Druze religious leaders working together to re-claim religion as a source for peace. Eliyahu was initiated as a 'Rodef  Shalom', 'Peace Pursuer' by Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi.  His work with Palestinian Sufis is written about in the book "At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with the Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land" by Yossi Klein Halevi.

Reverend Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D., is the President of Chicago Theological Seminary, where she has been a Professor of Theology for 20 years. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of thirteen books and has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible. She sits on the boards of the Interfaith Youth Core, Theology Today, Association of Theological Schools, Center for American Progress, Faith in Public Life, and the Medill Center for Religion and the News Media at Northwestern University.  Thistlethwaite has a Ph.D., from Duke University, a Master's of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and a B.A. from Smith College.

Shamil Idriss is Acting Director of the Secretariat for the UN Alliance of Civilizations. He was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in October, 2005.  Prior to this position, Mr. Idriss served as Senior Advisor to the Council of 100 Leaders: West-Islamic World Dialogue Initiative at the World Economic Forum.  From 2000-2004, Mr. Idriss served as Chief Operating Officer of Search for Common Ground a global leader in international conflict resolution and pioneer in the use of media for positive social change.  He has published articles on international conflict resolution, media and social change, and cross-cultural relations in European, African, Middle Eastern, and American journals and newspapers.

Krista Tippett came up with the idea for Speaking of Faith while consulting for the internationally renowned Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at Saint John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota. She has hosted and produced the program since the Speaking of Faith project began as an occasional feature in 2000, before taking on its current form as a national weekly program in 2003.  Tippett is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and a former Fulbright Scholar. She has reported and written for The New York Times, Newsweek, the BBC, and other international news organizations. Tippett also served as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to West Germany.

Michael Wolfe is Co-Founder and President of Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit media organization that works to increase peace by producing documentary films for broadcast, Web, and theatrical release. Michael Wolfe is also a small press publisher and the author of several books, including a collection of 40 post-9/11 articles by many writers entitled, Taking Back Islam: American Muslims Reclaim their Faith, which was awarded a Wilbur Prize for the Best Book of the Year on a Religious Theme. As writer and producer of a half-hour TV Special for ABC Nightline, Wolfe was the first American correspondent to report live from Mecca. He writes an occasional column for Beliefnet.com, an online magazine of the world’s religions.

Sally Quinn, the daughter of a U.S. military officer, was brought up in non-denominational military chapels around the world. As an adult, her religious beliefs have evolved and she is exploring the faith traditions of all cultures.  In the 1970s and ‘80s, Quinn was a reporter for The Washington Post’s “Style” section, producing profiles of celebrities and politicians. At age 32, she left the Post to become co-anchor for “CBS Morning News.”  Quinn later returned to write for the Post.  She is married to Benjamin Bradlee, retired executive editor of the Post who acts as vice-president at-large for the company. They live in Washington with their son, Quinn.

Randall Winston is the Director of Nonprofit Relations and Business Development for Project Agape, host of Facebook’s Causes application.  Winston earned his bachelors degree from Harvard in 2005 in Political Philosophy.  Before joining Project Agape, Winston spent two years in Beijing working for the urban development and architecture firm Soho China, co-founded an investment adivosry firm, and worked for Goldman Sachs.