Dr. Elena Narinskaya is a scholar of Scripture and theology whose work explores how biblical and patristic traditions shape understandings of personhood, identity, and spiritual life. Her research spans Jewish, Christian, and Islamic interpretations of Scripture, with particular attention to how shared biblical figures are read across traditions. She is the author of several books, including Ephrem, a “Jewish” Sage (Brepols, 2010) and a comparative study of Moses published by Gorgias Press in 2022. In recent years, her work has increasingly engaged questions of psychological wellbeing and spiritual formation, and she is the founding director of the Women’s Ministries Initiative.

Dr. Lori Peterson Branch is Associate Professor of English at the University of Iowa, specializing in British literature of the long eighteenth century and the study of religion and secularism in literature. Her research ranges from the sayings of the Desert Fathers to contemporary Gothic fiction, examining how religious traditions, particularly Orthodoxy, are represented, distorted, or reclaimed in modern cultural narratives. She is the author of Rituals of Spontaneity and is currently working on Postsecular Reason and The Violation of God. Dr. Branch serves on the Board of Directors of the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA) and on the Advisory Board of the Saint Phoebe Center for the Deaconess.

Dr. George E. Demacopoulos is the Fr. John Meyendorff & Patterson Family Chair of Orthodox Christian Studies and Professor of Theology at Fordham University. He is co-founding Director of Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center and co-founding editor of the Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies. He is the author of five university-press monographs and co-editor of seven additional volumes. His recent Public Orthodoxy essay critically examines the emerging “Orthodoxy as Masculinity” narrative. He has served in senior leadership roles with Dumbarton Oaks, the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA), and the Byzantine Studies Association of North America.