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.
CHRISTOPHER BELLITTO
Professor of History, Kean University
Dr. Christopher M. Bellitto is Professor of History at Kean University in New Jersey, where he teaches courses in ancient and medieval history. A specialist in church history and reform, he is the author of ten books, including the companion volumes Renewing Christianity and The General Councils along with 101 Questions and Answers on Popes and the Papacy. His latest book is Ageless Wisdom: Lifetime Lessons from the Bible and his current project is a history of humility as the lost virtue. His articles have appeared in academic journals in the United States and Europe; he has won grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the NJ Council for the Humanities. In Summer 2019 will be a Fulbright Specialist in New Zealand. Dr. Bellitto also serves as Academic Editor at Large of Paulist Press and series Editor in Chief of Brill’s Companions to the Christian Tradition. He also offers about 30 public lectures each year; he is a member of the Public Scholar Speakers Bureau of the NJ Council for the Humanities and has taped mini audio courses for Now You Know Media. A media commentator on church history and contemporary Catholicism, he appears frequently in print, on radio, and television.
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.
Dr. Benítez holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, and graduate degrees in Hispanic Studies from Vassar College (BA), Middlebury College (MA), and Columbia University (PhD).
ELIZABETH CONDE-FRAZIER
Coordinator of Relations with Entities of Theological Education, AETH
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier is 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 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
Chair of Religious Studies and Professor of Religion and Ethics, Iona College
Dr. Teresa Delgado is Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program and Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Religious Studies Department at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, where she joined the faculty in 2005. She received her doctorate from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She has published extensively on issues ranging from diversity in higher education, transformational pedagogies, constructive theology and ethics, and justice for racial/ ethnic/sexual minorities. At Iona College, Dr. Delgado teaches courses at the intersection of theology and ethics, such as Biomedical Ethics and the Christian Tradition, Christian Sexual Ethics, Contemporary Peacemakers, and Peace and Social Justice. Dr. Delgado’s book, Prophesy Freedom: A Puerto Rican Decolonial Theology, will be published with Palgrave MacMillan Publishing Company in late 2017. She lives in Mount Vernon, NY with her spouse of 28 years and their four children.
ULRIKE GUTHRIE
Owner of Ulrike Guthrie Editing Services
Ulrike (Uli) Guthrie has been editing academic books, dissertations, articles, and papers in religion for 33 years, first for publishing houses like Cambridge University Press and Abingdon Press, and now for individual authors worldwide. She has been working with the HTI since its inception in 1997. Her goal is to help you to make your writing sing and to communicate your ideas clearly to a particular audience. If you stay with HTI, she will also likely accompany you all the way through your dissertation writing. Should you notice dirt under her fingernails, it’s because when not editing, she’s working in her woods, streams, and gardens in Maine, kayaking on nearby lakes, or painting.
NÉSTOR MEDINA
Director of Master of Theological Studies and Assistant Professor, University of Toronto
Dr. Néstor Medina is married to Samia Saad. He is a Guatemalan-Canadian Scholar and Assistant Professor of Religious Ethics at Emmanuel College, of Victoria University, in the University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D. from University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto. He was the recipient of a First Book Grant for Minority Scholars (2014) and a Project Grant for Researchers (2018). He studies the intersection between people’s cultures, histories, ethnoracial relations, and forms of knowledge in religious/theological traditions. Among his research interests are contextual/liberation theologies, interculturality, and Post/Decolonial debates, and Pentecostalism. He is the author of Mestizaje: (Re)Mapping ‘Race,’ Culture, and Faith in Latina/o Catholicism (Orbis, 2009), a booklet On the Doctrine of Discovery (CCC, 2017), and his recent Christianity, Empire and the Spirit (Brill 2018). He is also co-editor of Theology and the Crisis of Engagement (Pickwick 2013); Pentecostals and Charismatics in Latin America.
CARMEN NANKO-FERNÁNDEZ
Professor of Hispanic Theology and Ministry, Catholic Theological Union
Dr. Carmen Nanko-Fernández is Professor of Hispanic Theology and Ministry at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, IL, where she also directs the Hispanic Theology and Ministry program. She has presented nationally in venues including the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Nanko-Fernández is currently completing ¡El Santo! Baseball and the Canonization of Roberto Clemente, a book in the Sport and Religion series of Mercer University Press, and is general co-editor of the 12 volume Disruptive Cartographers series on Latin@ Theology forthcoming from Fortress Press. Nanko-Fernández is also the originator, coordinator, and an author for Theology en la Plaza, a series of monthly columns (online and in-print) in the National Catholic Reporter).