David Schwartz is a Unitarian Universalist minister serving the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, Colorado since 2021. From 2013-2021 he served in co-ministry with his wife Rev. Teri Schwartz at the First Unitarian Church of Chicago and from 2017-2021 served as minister of Beverly Unitarian Church in Chicago. David grew up outside Boston, and did his BA and MDiv there before moving to the Twin Cities for seven years and then to Chicago. He lives in Longmont, CO with Teri, their two kids, four cats, and a very large dog.

Tim is native Southern Californian who heard the siren’s song of the University of Chicago Divinity School a decade ago. Along with two members of his Div School cohort, he founded Root and Branch Church. R&B began in 2013 and is a church plant in the Disciples of Christ Denomination. Tim loves basketball more than anything else and believes in the power of Bob Dylan.

Rev. Saeed serves as Senior Pastor of The First Baptist Church of Waukegan, a two-congregation church with a multi-cultural English-speaking and Mexican heritage Spanish-speaking congregations, weekly support systems for narcotics and alcohol use support, and a 12-year-old full summer and academic year experiential educational program for children in Lake County.

Rich (he/him) has been formed by his rural Mississippi childhood, the best and worst of the Christian church, and past and present justice movements. He currently serves as the Program Officer at the Wayfarer Foundation, a grant-making organization that supports spiritually-rooted and justice-oriented nonprofits. Prior to Wayfarer, he spent 6 years leading the Inclusive Collective, a vibrant and diverse Christian community for college students in Chicago.

Michael is Pastor of the English-speaking congregation at North Shore Baptist Church in Chicago; the church also includes Spanish-speaking, Japanese-speaking, and Karen-speaking congregations. Previously, Michael was Pastor of Webster Baptist Church in upstate New York, which allowed him to take a sabbatical to South Africa and engage in mission activities around Cape Town. Michael grew up in the church and was an adult youth group leader for several years in New York State and nationally through the American Baptist Churches, USA. This work led him to enter seminary at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree.

Rev. Lindsey Long Joyce sits on a nonhierarchical, collaborative team of clergy women who pastor three churches in the city: United Church of Rogers Park, Grace Church of Logan Square and Big Shoulders Church in Portage Park. Her focus on the team is worship and justice. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and her Master’s of Divinity from Duke Divinity School. She is trained in community organizing, cross-cultural community building, and justice ministry. Her passion is to build power for justice in Chicago. She is currently a board member for ONE Northside, sits on the editorial board for the Institute for Christian Socialism and is a member of the Leader's Network. Pastor Lindsey lives in Andersonville with her husband Adam and their daughters Harper and Emma.

Kendra Joyner Miller believes there’s a reason that tables and the outdoors focus more prominently in Jesus’ life and ministry than synagogues and temples. With her work at the First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, Kendra loves walking with people in the joys and pains of life. She also enjoys creatively imagining together how God is calling us to be an authentic community, challenged and confronted by our world, inspired to be silly and joy-filled as much as we are serious, and asking who God is really calling us to be as people of radical love and justice.

Kat serves as Rector at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Evanston. Outside of serving at St. Luke’s and other churches, Kat has also worked at a fundraising consulting firm; as the head of finance for an education access non-profit; and as a federal lobbyist building national coalitions around issues of affordable housing and community development.

An active speaker, writer, musician, and community organizer, Jennifer DeLeon holds an MA in Theological Studies from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and a BA with a concentration in Leadership and Non-Profit Management from DePaul University. Currently, Jennifer is the Director for Justice for Women of the ELCA where she assists the organization in advocating for the oppressed and voiceless and urging change in systems and structures that exclude and alienate women in the world and in the church.

Jonathan Brooks is a lifelong resident of Chicago, IL and currently serves as Pastor at Lawndale Christian Community Church in the North Lawndale neighborhood. He previously served as pastor of Canaan Community Church in the West Englewood neighborhood for fifteen years. He has been an educator on many different levels and is a firm believer in both individuals and institutions investing in their local communities. Jonathan has a deep desire to impress this virtue on the students and young people in his congregation, classroom and community.

I'm a Midwestern Lutheran with a love for the wider world. After college in Minnesota I worked in New York City – first for Lutheran World Relief and then for a soup kitchen and food pantry based out of a Lutheran church on the Lower East Side. My husband and I met and married at that church and a few years later moved to Tanzania, where for four years we served as teaching missionaries at a Lutheran elementary boarding school.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann is the Founder and Senior Rabbi at Mishkan Chicago, an independent, post-denominational Jewish community in Chicago founded in 2011. She was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and graduated with Honors in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Stanford University, and was ordained by the Conservative movement's Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.