Berkley Center

Shaun Casey is a senior fellow with the Luce Project on Religion and Its Publics at the University of Virginia and a Pulaski Institution non-resident fellow. He served as director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and professor of the practice in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University from 2017 to 2021. He previously was U.S. special representative for religion and global affairs and director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs. He has also served as professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, and held positions at the Center for American Progress and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Casey has written on the ethics of the war in Iraq, as well the role of religion in American presidential politics. He is the author of The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960 (2009) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Theology (forthcoming, with Michael Kessler); he is writing a book on ethics and international politics tentatively titled Niebuhr’s Children. Casey holds a B.A. from Abilene Christian University, MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, and M.Div. and Th.D. in religion and society from Harvard Divinity School.

Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin is a coach, speaker, author, and strategist at the intersection of faith and public life who founded Justice Connections Consultants LLC. Chemberlin served for 22 years as CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches, was president of the National Council of Churches of Christ-USA, and was a member of Barack Obama’s first Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Imam Makram El-Amin is imam of Masjid An-Nur in Minneapolis, Minnesota. El-Amin has partnered with some of Minnesota’s most prominent religious, social and corporate institutions on affordable housing, immigration, employment, and education. A certified life coach, he mentors adult men transitioning from prison into the workforce.

Terrence L. Johnson is a professor of African American religious studies at Harvard Divinity School. He was a senior fellow at the Berkley Center from February to September 2022, after having previously served as a senior research fellow from April 2019 to January 2022. From 2015 to 2022 he was an associate professor of religion and politics at Georgetown University's Department of Government, as well as an affiliate member of the Department of African American Studies and member of the executive committee of the Center for Jewish Civilization. Johnson’s research interests include African American political thought, ethics, American religions, and the role of religion in public life. He is the author of Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue (2022, with Jacques Berlinerblau); We Testify with Our Lives: How Religion Transformed Radical Thought from Black Power to Black Lives Matter (2021); and Tragic Soul-Life: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Moral Crisis Facing American Democracy (2012). He also serves as co-editor of the Duke University Press Series Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People. Johnson holds a B.A. from Morehouse College, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Brown University.

Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard is program manager of the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement at the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture. She is also the founding pastor of Word of Encouragement Community Church, as well as a motivational speaker, author, life coach, radio personality, entrepreneur, and community activist.