Return to Conference Homepage All Sessions

​Miroslav Volf is the founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture and Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale University Divinity School. Volf began his academic career teaching theology at the University of Zagreb in his native Croatia with an interruption for compulsory military service. He served as co-editor and then editor of Izvori, a Croatian Christian monthly. In 1991, he became associate professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary before moving to Yale University in 1998. Volf has written or edited 15 books and more than 70 scholarly articles, including A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (2011); Allah: A Christian Response (2011); After Our Likeness: Church as the Image of the Trinity (1998); Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (1996); and Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (1991). His book, Exclusion and Embrace, received the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Most recently, Volf wrote Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World (2015). The focus of his recent work is the relationship between faith and flourishing in pluralistic, late-capitalist societies. He earned a BA from the Evangelical-Theological Faculty in Croatia, an MA from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a doctorate in theology as well as a post-doctoral degree (Dr. theol. habil.) from the University of Tübingen in Germany.

​Matthew J. Mayhew is the William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Educational Administration at Ohio State University. Previously, he served as associate professor of higher education at New York University and in administrative positions at Fisher College and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Mayhew has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and the Journal of College Student Development. He recently received the Emerging Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association. Mayhew received a BA in psychology from Wheaton College (IL), an MA in social psychology from Brandeis University, and a PhD in higher education administration from the University of Michigan.

​Alyssa N. Rockenbach is professor of higher education at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on the impact of college on students, with particular attention to spiritual development, religious and worldview diversity in colleges and universities, campus climate, and gendered dimensions of the college student experience. She serves on the editorial boards of Research in Higher Education and the Journal of Higher Education. Rockenbach is the recipient of awards from the American College Personnel Association and the Religion and Education Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. She received a BA in psychology from California State University, Long Beach, and an MA and PhD in higher education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

​Kathleen A. Cahalan is professor of practical theology at Saint John’s University School of Theology and Seminary in Minnesota. In addition, she directs the Collegeville Institute Seminars, a collaborative research effort that includes projects on vocation across the lifespan and vocation and faith in the professions. Previously, she served as evaluation coordinator for the Lilly Endowment’s religion division. Earlier, she was assistant professor of theology at Christian Theological Seminary and an instructor and discipline coordinator at Rosary College (now Dominican University). Cahalan is coeditor of Calling All Years Good: Vocation across the Lifespan (forthcoming) and Calling in Today’s World: Voices from Eight Faith Perspectives (2016), author of Call It What It Is (2016), and coauthor of Living Your Discipleship: Seven Ways to Express Your Deepest Calling (2015). She earned a BA in religious studies and psychology from Mundelein College and an MA and PhD in practical theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

​Elizabeth J. Dias is a correspondent for Time magazine covering faith and politics. Her Time cover stories include “Pope Francis: Person of the Year”; “The Latino Reformation,” an investigation into growing Hispanic evangelical communities; and “After Trayvon,” an exploration of race relations in the U.S. She regularly writes political and cultural features on American spirituality, covering subjects from Supreme Court religious-liberty cases to Hillary Clinton’s faith background. Dias joined Time in 2009 as an intern at the magazine’s Washington, DC, bureau. She later reported from the New York City office while completing graduate studies in religion. Dias was named a Time correspondent in April 2014. She won the 2014 Supple Religion Feature Writer of the Year Award and the 2016 George W. Hunt, SJ, Prize for Excellence in Journalism, Arts, and Letters. She is the editor of What Did Jesus Ask? Christian Leaders Reflect on His Questions of Faith (2015) and contributed to Trump and Hillary: An American Life (2016). Dias earned a BA in theology from Wheaton College (IL) and an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary.

​Robert M. Franklin, Jr. is James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor of Moral Leadership, Candler School of Theology, at Emory University and director of the religion department at the Chautauqua Institution. He is president emeritus of Morehouse College where he served from 2007 through 2012. Previously, Franklin served as president of the Interdenominational Theological Center and on the faculties of the University of Chicago, Harvard Divinity School, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, and Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He also was program officer in human rights and social justice at the Ford Foundation. Franklin is the author of three books: Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (2007); Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (1997); and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought (1990). He coauthored From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate (2001). Franklin received a BA in political science and religion from Morehouse College, an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, and a PhD in ethics and society from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

​Barbara Brown Taylor is an educator, writer, and public speaker who has served as Butman Professor of Religion at Piedmont College since 1998. Her areas of academic interest include religious literacy, spirituality, biblical interpretation, and Christian origins. Taylor’s memoir, Leaving Church, won a 2006 Author of the Year Award from the Georgia Writers Association. Her other books include Learning to Walk in the Dark (2014) and An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith (2009). Her forthcoming book, Holy Envy, explores the topic of religious pluralism through the lens of teaching a course in religions of the world at a small liberal arts college in the rural South. She is a priest ordained in the Episcopal Church and serves on the board of trustees of Mercer University. Taylor graduated from Emory University with a BA in religion and from Yale Divinity School with an MDiv.