
Curriculum Review Committee


XOCHITL ALVIZO
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, California State University
Dr. Xochitl Alvizo teaches in the area of Women and Religion and the Philosophy of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality at California State University, Northridge. Her interests include feminist and queer theologies, congregational studies, ecclesiology, and the emerging church. She brings an intercultural feminist approach to theology and the study of religion. Her work is inspired by the conviction that all people are inextricably connected and what we do, down to the smallest thing, matters. Xochitl makes her church home with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She is co-founder of Feminism and Religion (feminismandreligion.com) and The Pub Church, Boston. Her co-edited volume, Women Religion Revolution, is available through FSR Books.

MARGARITA BENÍTEZ
Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Endowment for the Humanities
Dr. Margarita Benítez’s lifelong involvement with higher education began at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), where she was born and raised. At UPR, she was a professor of Spanish Literature and Humanities, as well as Chancellor of UPR’s Cayey Campus, and Acting Chancellor of UPR’s Humacao Campus. After moving to Washington, DC in 1997, she held a number of senior positions in higher education organizations, such as the Office of Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Dept. of Education, the Institute for Higher Education Policy, Excelencia in Education, The Education Trust, and the American Council on Education. In 2013, Dr. Benítez was one of four educators in the United States selected by Lumina Foundation for Education as a Lumina Fellow, in recognition of her work for access and success for underrepresented students. In September 2018, Benítez returned to Puerto Rico to serve as executive director of the Puerto Rico Endowment for the Humanities.

JOÃO CHAVES
Assistant Professor of the History of Religion in the Américas at Baylor University
Dr. João B. Chaves is Assistant Professor of the History of Religions in the Américas at Baylor University’s Department of Religion. He specializes in the history of religion in the Américas, U.S. Protestantism’s impact in Latin America, and Latin American/Latinx religious networks in the U.S. He authored several books, including Migrational Religion (Baylor University Press, 2021), The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South (Mercer University Press, 2022), and Remembering Antônia Teixeira (Eerdmans, 2023), co-authored with Dr. Mikeal Parsons. Chaves’ co-edited works include Baptists and the Kingdom of God (Baylor University Press, 2023) with Dr. T. Laine Scales and a manuscript tentatively titled A Place of Their Own: Religion and Immigration Among Latinos in the U.S. (Oxford University Press, under contract) with Lloyd Barba and Silvia Pedraza. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in several academic journals, such as The International Journal of Latin American Religions, The Journal of Reformed Theology, Political Theology, Review and Expositor, Perspectives in Religious Studies, and Baptist History and Heritage. Beyond academia, Chaves contributed opinion pieces to outlets like the Washington Post and The Christian Century and serves on editorial boards for various publications. Before joining Baylor’s faculty, Chaves held roles at the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton Theological Seminary and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

ELIZABETH CONDE-FRAZIER
Executive Director, Retired; Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana, Independent Scholar, Mentor and Practical Theologian
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier was the coordinator of relationships for theological entities at Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana (AETH). Prior to this role, she served as dean and vice president of education at Esperanza College of Eastern University in Philadelphia, PA. Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier was previously a tenured associate professor of religious education at Claremont School of Theology and taught Hispanic Latino/a theology at the Latin American Bible Institute. Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier also served as founding director of the Orlando E. Costas Hispanic and Latin-American Ministries Program at Andover Newton Theological School. While she was director, Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier developed programs for the continuing education of ministers and lay leaders including youth. Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier has authored Listen to the Children: Conversations with Immigrant Families and Hispanic Bible Institutes and co-authored A Many Colored Kingdom and Latina Evangélica.
She has over ten years of experience as an ordained pastor and formerly served as a bilingual teacher in the New York City school system. The Rev. Dr. Conde-Frazier holds a Ph.D. from Boston College and a Master of Divinity degree from Palmer Seminary.

TERESA DELGADO
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, St. John’s University, NY
Dr. Teresa Delgado is Dean of St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor of theology and religious studies at St. John’s University, NY. She received her doctorate from Union Theological Seminary (NYC), under the guidance of the trailblazing womanist theologian Dr. Delores S. Williams. She has published on topics ranging from decolonial theology, diversity in higher education, transformational pedagogies, constructive theology and ethics, and justice for racially, ethnically and sexually minoritized persons, including her essays, “Metaphor for Teaching: Good Teaching is Like Good Sex,” (Teaching Theology and Religion, July 2015) and “Beyond Procreativity: Heterosexuals Queering Marriage,” in Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms (NYU, 2014). Dr. Delgado’s book, A Puerto Rican Decolonial Theology: Prophesy Freedom, was published in September 2017 (Palgrave Macmillan); co-authored with Dr. Victor Anderson (Vanderbilt University), “For the Beauty of the World: The Moral Imaginary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s World House,” is included in Reclaiming the Great World House in the 21st Century: Cross-Disciplinary Explorations of the Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. (University of Georgia, 2019). Her poetry, “Summer Solstice,” is included in the collection Unruly Catholic Feminists: Prose, Poetry, and the Future of the Faith (SUNY, 2021).

ULRIKE GUTHRIE
Owner of Ulrike Guthrie Editing Services
Ulrike (Uli) Guthrie has been editing academic books, articles, dissertations, and papers on religion since 1986. First, she worked as a religion editor at Cambridge University Press in England, then as an academic and reference books editor at Abingdon Press in Atlanta. She now works freelance from her little home in the woods of rural Maine, not far from Acadia National Park. She has been editing for HTI and its many wonderful scholars since its inception in 1987. On the weekends, you usually find her with her chainsaw preparing fuel for the next long winter, kayaking on Lake Alamoosook down the dirt road, working in her garden, or hiking with her Golden Irish pup, Maisie.

PATRICK REYES
Seminary Dean, Auburn Theological Seminary
Dr. Patrick B. Reyes is an award-winning and bestselling Chicano author. His first book, Nobody Cries When We Die, won a number of book awards, the most inspirational being the Hispanic Theological Initiative annual book prize. His second book, The Purpose Gap, was selected by the Council of Independent Colleges NetVUE as the Big Read for both 2022 and 2023, leading to its adoption and reading across higher education, including several institutions becoming “Purpose Gap” institutions. Reyes serves as the Dean of Auburn Theological Seminary, the first Latinxe or person of Indigenous descent to serve in the role.
He sits on several boards of institutions of theological and higher education. He currently serves on the board of directors of the American Academy of Religion, elected to the position of Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty board representative. He is the past president of the Religious Education Association, and a recent inductee into the Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College. He lives on ancestral lands in Santa Fe, NM, with his wife Carrie, and children Ash and Carmelita.
You can learn more about Patrick at patrickbreyes.com.

Leopoldo A. Sánchez
Director of the Center for Hispanic Studies Werner R. H. and Elizabeth R. Krause Professor of Hispanic Ministries Full Professor of Systematic Theology Concordia Seminary
Dr. Leopoldo A. Sánchez M. is the Werner R.H. Krause and Elizabeth Ringger Krause Professor of Hispanic Ministries, professor of Systematic Theology and director of the Center for Hispanic Studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He has been a faculty member since 2004. He received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from Concordia Seminary (2003) and his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. (1999). He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in theology from Concordia University Wisconsin, Mequon (1995).Sánchez served as the main drafter for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Commission on Theology and Church Relations report Immigrants among Us: A Lutheran Framework for Addressing Immigration Issues (2012). He served as president of the LCMS’ Fifth National Hispanic Convention (2012–15), the Hispanic Convention’s vice president in the previous triennium (2009–12), and chairman of Lutherans in Medical Missions (2012–16), an LCMS Recognized Service Organization. He also has served organizations such as the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, Lutheran Hour Ministries, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service as a theological consultant for various projects.

CHRISTOPHER D. TIRRES
Michael J. Buckley, S.J. Endowed Chair & Strategic Advisor to the Dean for Mission Integration, Santa Clara University
Dr. Christopher D. Tirres is the Michael J. Buckley, S.J. Endowed Chair and Strategic Advisor to the Dean for Mission Integration at Santa Clara University. He is the author of Liberating Spiritualities: Reimagining Faith in the Américas (Fordham University Press, 2025), The Aesthetics and Ethics of Faith: A Dialogue Between Liberationist and Pragmatic Thought (Oxford University Press, 2014), and Religion in the Américas: Trans-hemispheric and Transcultural Approaches, co-edited with Jessica Delgado (University of New Mexico Press, 2025). He has published and presented widely in the areas of religious studies, philosophy, theology, feminism, and education. Dr. Tirres is an award-winning teacher and the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including major awards from the Ford Foundation, the Louisville Institute, the Hispanic Theological Initiative, and the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning. He was born and raised in El Paso, Texas and is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B.), Harvard Divinity School (M.T.S) and Harvard University (Ph.D.).

Raúl Zegarra
Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School
Dr. Raúl Zegarra is the author of four books, multiple book chapters, academic articles, and translations. Dr. Zegarra received his PhD from The University of Chicago, and holds master’s degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the University of Notre Dame, respectively. His research focuses on the relationship between faith and politics, with particular emphasis on how this relationship shapes the identity and commitments of minoritized groups. He is the Assistant Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and is part of the editorial team at the Hispanic Theological Initiative. Among his recent awards, Dr. Zegarra received the New Scholar Essay Prize for Catholic Studies in the Americas (Fordham University, 2023), the Max Weber Kolleg Research Fellowship (University of Erfurt, 2022), and the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise (University of Heidelberg, 2021). He is also a regular op-ed contributor to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio. Dr. Zegarra recently finished his fourth book, A Revolutionary Faith, (Stanford UP, 2023) on liberation theology’s contributions to a theory of social justice that welcomes the role of religious commitments, and is currently working on a new book project—Questioning Latinidad—that attempts to problematize some of the assumptions of Latine theology regarding the relationship between race, gender, and religion. For more information, visit raulzegarra.com