Berkley Center

Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and serves as vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University, where he is a professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Dr. John Borelli, a historian of religions and theologian, is special assistant for Catholic identity and dialogue to President John J. DeGioia of Georgetown University. Borelli has been at Georgetown University since 2004, where he teaches, manages conferences and events, coordinates dialogues, facilitates workshops, and promotes university relations with offices and institutes of the Holy See.

E.J. Dionne is a senior research fellow at the Berkley Center, University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture teaching in Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and Government Department, and a leading scholar and commentator on religion in U.S. politics. In addition, since fall 2017 he has been William H. Bloomberg Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School and the Harvard Kennedy School. The W. Averell Harriman Chair and senior fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution, Dionne writes a column for the Washington Post that is syndicated in over 200 outlets nationally and abroad. His books include One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported (2017, with Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann); Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism: From Goldwater to Trump and Beyond (2016); Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent (2012); Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right (2008); Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge (2004); They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate The Next Political Era (1996); and Why Americans Hate Politics (1991), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award nominee.

Michael J. Gerson is a nationally syndicated columnist who appears twice weekly in the Washington Post. He is also a policy fellow at ONE, a bipartisan organization fighting against extreme poverty and preventable diseases, and a visiting fellow with the Center for Public Justice. From 2001 to 2006, he served as a speechwriter and advisor to President George W. Bush.

M. Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, with appointments in both the Department of Theology and Law School. Her research and teaching focus on the intersection of law, religion, ethics, and morality. She serves on the masthead of Commonweal as a regular columnist.

Ronald Sider is distinguished senior professor of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy at Eastern University's Palmer Seminary. An evangelical Christian intellectual, he is the founder and president emeritus of Evangelicals for Social Action.

Glen H. Stassen was the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary until his death in 2014. His work reflects his commitment to social justice and desire to develop a holistic Christian ethic he termed "incarnational discipleship." 

Margaret Steinfels and her husband, Peter Steinfels, are the founding co-directors of the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture. Before joining Fordham, Ms. Steinfels served for 15 years as the editor of Commonweal, an independent biweekly journal of political, religious and literary opinion edited by Catholic lay people. She also co-directed “American Catholics in the Public Square." Steinfels is the is the author of Who’s Minding the Children? The History and Politics of Day Care in America (Simon and Schuster, 1974). She was also the founding editor of the Hastings Center Report from 1974 to 1980. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Loyola University in Chicago, a master’s degree in history from New York University, as well as seven honorary degrees.