Sherif Girgis, born in Cairo, grew up in Delaware. He majored in philosophy at Princeton, where he won several academic prizes. Upon graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude in 2008, he went on to earn a master’s degree in moral, political and legal philosophy at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He is now a philosophy Ph.D. student at Princeton and a law student at Yale Law School, where he is an editor of The Yale Law Journal. His writings on social issues have appeared in both academic and popular venues, including Public Discourse, National Review, Commonweal, The New York Times, The Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and The Wall Street Journal. Sherif is coauthor of the book, What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, cited by Justice Alito in United States v. Windsor, on which he has spoken at more than 70 lectures, conferences, and debates.
Timothy S. Goeglein is the Vice President for External Relations at Focus on the Family, based in Washington, DC. He worked at The White House as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for nearly eight years.
Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison is President of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) and Associate Pastor of Village Lutheran Church, Ladue, MO. He is a devoted student, scholar, bibliophile and a respectable banjo player. He and his wife Kathy are parents of two sons.
Adriane (Dorr) Heins was born and raised in Marcus, IA. She is a wife, editor, and author, who received the Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University Wisconsin and a Master of Arts in Religion from Concordia Theological Seminary. Adriane served as associate executive director of Strategic Communications for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) before marrying her husband, Chris, a dairy farmer in Missouri. She now works deployed as managing editor of The Lutheran Witness and editor of Catechetical Information for the LCMS from a cheery office overlooking eighty Holstein heifers.
Rev. Dr. John W. Kleinig is professor emeritus at Luther College, Adelaide, SA, Australia. He holds the M.A. (1981) and the Ph.D. (1993) from Cambridge University and is the author of numerous articles and books, including a brilliant commentary on Leviticus (CPH, 2003) and his masterful study of Christian spirituality, Grace Upon Grace (CPH, 2008). He is currently completing a commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. John and his wife Claire (nee Bentley) have been blessed with four children and five grandchildren.
Rev. Dr. Alvin Schmidt holds the M.Div. from Concordia Theological Seminary and the Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. A native Canadian, he taught theology and sociology in four separate institutions for 36 years prior to becoming professor emeritus of Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL. He is the author of several award-winning books, including The Menace of Multiculturalism: Trojan Horse in America (1997) His latest book, Cremation, Embalmment, or Neither? is scheduled for release in April 2015. He and his wife Carol have been blessed with two sons.
Rev. Dr. Lucas V. Woodford is the Senior Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church and School in Mayer, MN. He is a Fellow in the DOXOLOGY Collegium, author of Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession? (Wipf & Stock, 2012) and a frequently invited public speaker. An avid reader, hunter, an outdoorsman, he and his wife Becca are the parents of five children under the age of 11.