Blessed to serve in the city in which he was born, Reverend Dr. Charlie E. Dates is Chicago

through and through. Raised on the southside of Chicago, he came of age having welcomed

Christ into his life early. Heavily influenced by the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, W.E.B.

Dubois, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Mary Mcloud - Bethune, Dr.

Charlie’s orientation and early formation were significantly bent toward the theological reflection

of Black people. This shaped his approach to preaching and his thoughts about the

transformative role the Black church plays in bringing about the flourishing of a people.

Dr. Dates holds a Bachelor's Degree in Speech Communication & Rhetoric from the University

of Illinois - Champaign, Urbana, where he met his wife, Kirstie, who not only changed his life,

but also elevated his approach to living. He continued his education with a Master of Divinity

and a PhD in Historical Theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

In 2011, Reverend Dates became the youngest Senior Pastor to serve the historic Progressive

Baptist Church of Chicago, which saw exponential growth under his leadership. As a highly

sought-after speaker, he is widely invited to preach at churches and speak at retreats,

conferences, and universities throughout the United States and abroad. Through his passion for

learning, living, and teaching the Gospel, Dr. Charlie serves as an Affiliate Professor at Baylor

University- George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and

Wheaton College. He is a contributing author to Letters To A Birmingham Jail and Say It:

Celebrating Expository Preaching in the African American Tradition, and is currently working on

his first single-authored book on Christianity and Social Justice.

In January 2023, Reverend Dates became the Senior Pastor of the Salem Baptist Church of

Chicago. He is married to Kirstie Dates and is the proud father of their children, Charlie Edward

Dates II & Claire Dates.

Tim is the CEO/President of Christianity Today and has been serving in this role since 2019. He was raised in nondenominational evangelical churches in California. A national champion gymnast, he went to Stanford University where he suffered a broken neck his sophomore year. 

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After graduating from Stanford with a double major in philosophy and religious studies, Tim earned an MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in modern western religious thought at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Along the way he also served in youth ministry, prison chaplaincy, and graduate and faculty ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He made suffering a key theme of his research and teaching in modern western religious thought. 

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Tim helped to launch Patheos.com. First he was managing editor of Patheos’s evangelical channel, then director of content and vice-president of business development. In 2013 he founded Polymath, a creative agency that helps clients with branding, design, web, video, marketing and communications, and content development.

David is the CEO and Cofounder at Axis.org. Every month Axis resources equip 327,000+ parents and grandparents to have conversations about Social Media, Cultural Trends, Screentime, Mental Health, and Sexuality with the 2.3M teens in their care. Axis connects parents, teens, and Jesus in a disconnected world. David is married to Lindsey and they live with their three children in Colorado Springs.

Grace Nicolette serves on the executive team at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), a national nonprofit that provides assessments, programs, and research on best practices to philanthropic foundations and major donors. She's the co-host of the podcast, Giving Done Right (top 2% of podcast downloads globally). Prior to joining CEP, Grace co-founded Social Venture Group (SVG), a philanthropy advisory firm in Shanghai that helped donors and corporations identify high potential nonprofits and social enterprises to invest in China. In 2011, the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader. Grace has an Executive Education Certificate in Global Leadership and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the board of the Veritas Forum and resides with her husband Tim and their two children in Cambridge, MA.

Having accepted the call to ministry at the age of 17 in May of 1981, and prepared himself
graduating from Morehouse College, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary, Bishop Claude Alexander has sought to serve God and community. After
serving as Pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church in West Mifflin, PA from 1987- 1990, Bishop
Alexander answered the call to be the Senior Pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North
Carolina in May of 1990, where it has grown into a global ministry of thousands with weekly
international reach. He has addressed national/international leaders in the United States, the
Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and India.

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He is a Past President of the Hampton University Ministers Conference, the oldest and largest
interdenominational gathering of African-American clergy in the United States. Currently, he
serves on the boards of Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship, BioLogos, Movement.Org, the International African-American Museum, and the
Trinity Forum. He provides leadership as chair of the Board of Christianity Today Board of
Directors, and of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Board of Trustees and as Vice
Presiding Bishop of the Kingdom Association of Covenant Pastors.

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He is the author of Required: God’s Call to Justice, Mercy and Humility to Overcome
Racial Division coauthored with Dr. Mac Pier, Necessary Christianity - What Jesus Shows
We Must Be and Do, and the soon to be released Becoming The Church - God’s People in
Purpose and in Power.

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He and his wife Dr. Kimberly Nash Alexander are the proud parents of two daughters, Camryn
Rene and Carsyn Richelle.

Dianne Calvi is President and CEO of Village Enterprise, a non-profit working in rural
Africa to end extreme poverty. Since Dianne joined as CEO in 2010, she has led the
organization’s expansion across seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa,
successfully implemented the first development impact bond for poverty alleviation,
and completed two randomized control trials with positive results. During her tenure,
the organization has been recognized for excellence by Charity Navigator,
Guidestar, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Life You Can Save, Founders Pledge,
The Drucker Institute, and Million Lives Club. 
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Dianne is also a member of the board of directors of InterAction and has served on
several other nonprofit boards. She has written articles for The Hill, Huffington Post,
Center for Effective Philanthropy, Next Billion, World Bank, and has been featured in
the New York Times, NPR, and in other international publications.
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Prior to joining Village Enterprise, Dianne served as the President of Bring Me A
Book Foundation, an early literacy nonprofit. She graduated with a BA from Stanford
University and an MBA from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy) on a Rotary
Ambassadorial Scholarship. She lives in Sausalito, CA with her husband, Mauro, of
34 years and has a son, Matthew (32), a daughter-in-law, Melanie (31), and a
daughter, Michelle (30).

Jeremy serves as the Pastor for Preaching & Vision at Reality LA. A reading of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity in 12th grade sparked a passion in Jeremy to dive deeper into studying theology. This passion led him into pastoral ministry and through various institutions of higher education as he earned a colorful variety of degrees. During that time, Jeremy got married to Tiffany, the daughter of his one-time basketball coach. In 2012, they moved from Illinois to Los Angeles to serve Jesus at Reality LA.

Jeremy’s childhood was spent in the arctic snows of Alaska, forging a rough-hewn living in the frozen wonderland of the North. By age 12 though, he’d had his quota of “icy wilderness” and so he (and his family) moved to Seattle to experience “rainy suburban sprawl.” He grew up in the church, and as a teen, first grasped that Christianity wasn’t about what he could do for God, but about what God did for him in Christ. That good news transformed him on the spot and ever since, his life has involved a constant process of repenting of self-righteousness and growing to rely instead on the grace of God.

While his PhD in Theology has earned him the title “Dr. J,” perhaps the most compelling reason to refer to him as a doctor is the fact that he once helped his wife deliver their second daughter in the front seat of their Honda Civic when they couldn’t make it to the hospital on time.

Jeremy, his wife, and their four daughters reside in Los Feliz, a neighborhood marked by an abundance of Hollywood history and a scarcity of street parking.

Dean is the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University, co-Director with Christopher Udry of the Global Poverty Research Lab at Northwestern, and the Founder and President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting solutions to global poverty problems. Dean is also on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab. In 2015, he also co-founded ImpactMatters, a nonprofit dedicated to estimating and rating impact of nonprofits in order to help donors choose good charities and to promote more transparency in the nonprofit sector.

Dean's research focuses on microeconomic issues of poverty, typically employing experimental methodologies and behavioral economics insights to examine what works, what does not, and why to address social problems. His work spans many geographies and topics, including sustainable income generation for those in abject poverty, credit and savings markets for low income households, agriculture for smallholder farmers, small and medium entrepreneurship and smoking cessation, and charitable giving. He has worked in over twenty countries around the world, including both low income countries and also the United States.

As a social entrepreneur, Dean co-founded stickK.com, a website that uses lessons from behavioral economics to help people reach personal goals, such as weight loss and smoking cessation, through commitment contracts.

In 2011, Dean co-authored More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty; in 2016 he co-authored Failing in the Field; in 2018 he co-authored The Goldilocks Challenge: Right-Fit Evidence for the Social Sector; and in 2020 he co-authored the third edition of a economics principles textbook, Economics.

Dean received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Previously, he taught at Yale and Princeton. He received a PhD in Economics from M.I.T., an MBA and an MPP from the University of Chicago, and a BA in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Walter is the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and also serves as Pastor for Leadership at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has spent nearly three decades preaching, engaging in collaborative leadership, and seeking to connect the Bible to the significant intellectual, cultural, and social issues of the day. Walter has previously served as lead minister at the historic Park Street Church in Boston. His ministry also included a chaplaincy with Cru at Yale University and a pastorate at a Korean-Canadian church in Vancouver, Canada. He has a B.A. from Northwestern University in history and philosophy. After receiving his M.Div. from Regent College (Vancouver), he earned a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations from Harvard University.

Katherine and Jay are survivors, advocates, founders of Hope Heals (nonprofit organization), and authors of the books Hope Heals and Suffer Strong.

Originally from the South, Katherine and Jay met in college, married, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue law school for Jay and the entertainment industry for Katherine. Their son James was born in 2007, and just six months later, Katherine miraculously survived a catastrophic stroke caused by a congenital brain defect she never knew she had. After a sixteen-hour brain surgery, forty days in the ICU, a year in neuro rehab, and eleven operations, she continues her recovery to this day. In 2015 she gave birth to miracle baby John.

Since 2008, Katherine and Jay have been disrupting the myth that joy can only be found in a pain-free life. They live in Atlanta with their two boys.

Esau is an associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. He is the author of many works including Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance and the Children’s Book Josie Johnson Hair and the Holy Spirit. His book Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope won numerous awards, including Christianity Today’s book of the year. His latest project is a memoir entitled: How far to the Promise Land: One Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South.‍

Esau is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today. He is married to Mandy, a pediatrician and navy reservist. Together, they have four wonderful children.