Jane F. Adolphe
Jane Adolphe is an Associate Professor at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary, as well as common-law and civil-law degrees from McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. She also earned a Licentiate in Canon Law and a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome. She began her legal career clerking for the Alberta Court of Appeal and Court of Queen’s Bench. After practicing with the Bennett Jones law firm, she served as a prosecutor with the Alberta Crown Prosecutor ‘s Office. She then worked as a legal consultant with the law firm of Capua, Varrenti e Associati in Italy. She has served the United Nations by participating in conferences on women’s and children‘s rights and the International Criminal Court, and most recently participated as a delegate of the Holy See. Professor Adolphe‘s course offerings include International Law, and International Human Rights, Family Law, Canon Law, and Criminal Law. She has researched and published in the area of international law as it relates to the family as well as children’s and women’s rights. She has recently given presentations in Toronto, Beijing, Rome and Vatican City State.

Maria Sophia Aguirre
Maria Sophia Aguirre is an Associate Professor of Economics at Catholic University of America. She earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame as well as degrees in accounting and banking finance in Argentina.  She has held appointments at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University’s Economics Department and has visited the Instituto de Altos Estudios Empresariales (I.A.E.E.) at the University of Austral in Argentina. Professor Aguirre has researched and published on a number of finance topics as well as regards theories of population, resources, and family as it relates to economic development. She has received awards in her area of research and is a presidential appointee to the US Advisory Commission on Foreign Diplomacy, a member of the Commission on the Status of Women in the Professions, a working group of the American Economic Association. She has testified in front of Congress on issues related to population, family and health both nationally and internationally. She also has advised several US Congressmen and other countries' Permanent Missions to the UN and UN Delegates on economic aspects of UN Documents. 

Sr. Mary Prudence Allen, R.S.M.
Sr. Mary Prudence received her B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Rochester, New York and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California (1967). A member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan, she taught philosophy at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 1996. Her areas of specialization are: The Concept of Person in the History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Woman, Existentialism, and Personalism. From 1998 to 2003 she served as Chair, and is presently Professor, at the Department of Philosophy, St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, Denver, Colorado. From 2003-2006 she taught seminars for ENDOW on various aspects of Pope John Paul II’s writings on the dignity and vocation of woman; and in 2006-2007 she taught the seminar on the theme of ‘Women, Friendship, and Love’ according to Pope Benedict’s Deus Caritas Est. Sister Allen has published a two volume work on The Concept of Woman (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1997, 2003) and over 40 articles in professional journals.

Helen Alvaré
Helen Alvaré is an Associate Professor at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America. There she teaches and publishes on marriage and the family, bioethics, Catholic social thought, and property law. Professor Alvaré also lectures widely in the United States and Europe. She is a consultant to ABC News regarding the Catholic Church, as well as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Marriage Committee and Pro-Life Committee. From 1990-2000, Professor Alvaré directed the communications and public education campaigns of the USCCB's Pro-Life Secretariat. In this position, she appeared weekly on the nation's leading radio and television news programs, testified before Congress and political platform committees, and lobbied Congress. Prior to this position, Professor Alvaré spent three years as a litigation attorney with the USCCB's Office of General Counsel, and three years as a litigation associate at the Philadelphia law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens and Young. She received her juris doctorate from Cornell University in 1984 and her masters degree in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America in 1989.

Sister Thomas Augustine Becker, O.P.
Sr. Thomas Augustine Becker, O.P., is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Originally a native of New York, she earned her Juris Doctor from St. John’s University, New York, her Masters in Education from the University of Southern Mississippi, Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA and Post-Baccalaureate Teaching Certification from Eastern Michigan University. Prior to entering religious life she spent several years working as an engineer and producer in the music business and later spent ten years working in commercial real estate law, five of them as an attorney with the law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP in New York City. Her paper The Role of “Solemnitas” in the Liturgy According to St. Thomas Aquinas presented at the 2007 conference hosted by the Aquinas Institute for Theological Renewal was selected for publication as a book chapter in “Sacraments in Aquinas.” Her community has recently appointed her as the founding principal of a new girl’s high school St. Catherine of Siena Academy in Michigan opening in 2010. Her future scholarship will focus on Catholic education for young woman born from her efforts to design the Academy’s curriculum, pedagogy and culture focusing on Authentic Christian Womanhood based upon John Paul II’s articulation of the feminine genius and the vocation of woman.

Gerard V. Bradley
Gerard Bradley is a noted scholar in the fields of constitutional law as well as law and religion, who joined the faculty of the Notre Dame Law School as a professor in 1992, having taught at the University of Illinois from 1983 to 1992. He earned his B.A. from Cornell University in 1976 and his J.D. from the Cornell Law School in 1980. Admitted to the New York Bar in 1981, he practiced law as an assistant district attorney with the New York County District Attorney's Office from 1980 to 1983. Professor Bradley has served as director of Notre Dame's Natural Law Institute and as co-editor of the institute's American Journal of Jurisprudence since 1996. He has acted as the president of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, vice president of the American Public Philosophy Institute, member of the board of advisors of the Cardinal Newman Society, chair of the Federalist Society's Religious Liberties Practice Group, member of the Ramsey Colloquium on Theological Issues and member of the board of advisors of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.

Howard J. Bromberg
Professor Bromberg is a Professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan as well as an Adjunct Professor at Ave Maria School of Law. He began his law career as Legislative Counsel for United States Congressman Thomas Petri of Wisconsin. He then worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Appeals Bureau of the New York County District Attorney‘s Office. He has taught at the University of Chicago Law School, Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Michigan Law School. He served as the founding Director of Ave Maria School of Law‘s three-semester Research, Writing, and Advocacy Program and currently teaches Property, American Legal History, and Origins of the Constitution. Professor Bromberg holds a Bachelor of Arts with high honors from Harvard College, a Juris Doctor with honors from Harvard Law School, and a Master of the Science of Law from Stanford Law School. He has published over 60 articles and essays in law, legal history and biography.

Isobel F. C. Camp
Isobel Camp is concluding her PhD in Philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome where she earned her BA and Licentiate in Philosophy. She also holds a BSc and a postgraduate qualification in Education from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK. For several years, she has taught in various schools in the UK as well as working as a free-lance translator and editor.

Ernest Caparros
Ernest Caparros is an Emeritus Professer at the University of Ottawa; Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Canon Law, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce. He is the Editor of the Gratianus Series and a Judge in the Canadian Ecclesiastical Appeal Tribunal.  He has been professor of law at Université Laval (1966-1980) and the University of Ottawa (1980-2002) and Editor of Revue générale de droit (1981-2002) and of the Collection Bleu (1982-2002). He holds Doctorates in Canon Law and in Civil Law. He is an expert in Family Law, in Canon Law and in Comparative Law. He has published books and articles in those areas. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and a Knight of Magistral Grace of the Order of Malta. He has received the Jean Thorn Canon Law Award of the Canon Law Society of Canada (2003). Among his most recent publications, he is the General Editor of the English edition of the Exegetical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law (2004); Co-Editor of Code of Canon Law Annotated (2004) and of the Code de droit canonique bilingue et annoté (2007) October 31, 2007

Teresa Collett
Teresa Collett has a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and a B.A from the University of Oklahoma. A passionate advocate for the protection of human life and the family, Professor Teresa Collett is a nationally sought-after scholar and speaker on the topics of marriage, religion and bioethics. She has published numerous legal articles and is the co-author of a law casebook on professional responsibility and co-editor of a collection of essays exploring "catholic" and "Catholic" perspectives on American law. Professor Collett is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and has testified before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states. Most recently she represented Congressman Ron Paul and various medical groups in the defense of the federal ban of partial-birth abortion, and the Governors of Minnesota and North Dakota defending the N.H. requirement of state parental involvement prior to performance of an abortion on a minor before the United States Supreme Court. She is often asked to represent the interests of government officials before federal appellate courts. She has served as special Attorney General for the States of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state Attorneys General in defending laws protecting human life and marriage. Prior to joining St. Thomas in 2003, Professor Collett taught at the South Texas College of Law where she established the nation's first annual symposium on legal ethics.

Reverend John J. Coughlin, O.F.M.
Fr. Coughlin is an Professor of Law with the Notre Dame Law School. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) in 1983, and served as an Associate Pastor of St. Stephen's Church in Manhattan. He earned his B.A. degree from Niagara University in 1977, an M.A. from Columbia University in 1982, a master's degree in theology (Th.M.) from Princeton Seminary in 1984, a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1987, and his license and doctorate of canon law, summa cum laude, from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, in 1990 and 1994, respectively. From 1993 to 1996, he served as legal and canonical counsel to the Holy Name Province of Franciscan Friars in New York. Upon appointment by John Cardinal O'Connor of New York, Fr. Coughlin served as professor of canon law and spiritual director of St. Joseph's Seminary in New York from 1994 to 2001. He also served the Archdiocese of New York as a judge in the Appeals Tribunal, as vicar of canonical and legal aspects of health care, and as a member of the boards of several Catholic hospitals and educational institutions. During the summer of 1998, Father Coughlin was a member of the delegation of the Holy See to the United Nations treaty conference that established the International Criminal Court.

Robert L. Fastiggi
Robert Fastiggi earned a B.A. in religion from Dartmouth College in 1974; a M.A. in theology from Fordham University in 1976; and a Ph.D. in historical theology from Fordham in 1987. From 1985-1999, he taught in the department of religious studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. Since 1999, he has been a member of the theology faculty at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, Michigan, where he is currently Professor of Systematic Theology. Dr. Fastiggi is the author of The Natural Theology of Yves de Paris (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1991), The Mystical Theology of the Catholic Reformation: An Overview of Baroque Spirituality  [co-author, José Pereira] (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006), and What the Church Teaches about Sex: God’s Plan for Human Happiness (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor [in production]). He is currently editing or co-editing two other books and is one of the editors for the electronic updating of the New Catholic Encyclopedia. Dr. Fastiggi and his wife, Kathleen, live in Dearborn Heights, Michigan with their three children: Mary (19), Anthony (16), and Clare (12).

Rafael Gonzales
Mauricio Rafael Gonzalez is a Doctoral candidate in Philosophy at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome. He received Bachelor and Licentiate Degrees in Philosophy from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, and a Bachelor Degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, in Rome. He studied Psychology at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico and classics at the Center of Sciences and Humanities in Cheshire, Connecticut. He was a member of the Legionaries of Christ for several years, where he served as school administrator, prefect of discipline, youth minister, and auxiliary prefect of studies. He also has worked in several parishes in the Archdiocese of Denver and the Diocese of Sacramento.

Reverend Joseph M. Isanga
Father Isanga joined the Ave Maria faculty of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan following his appointment as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. Father Isanga is a priest from the Diocese of Jinja, Uganda. He received a Bachelor of Philosophy from Pontifical Urban University in Rome; a Bachelor of Divinity and a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda; a Diploma in Legal Practice from Law Development Center in Kampala, Uganda; and a Master of Laws and a Juridical Sciences Doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. Father Isanga teaches International Law and Law, Ethics, and Public Policy. He is a widely published scholar on human rights in Africa and has expertise in international law, jurisprudence, and law, ethics, and public policy.

Reverend Monsignor Grzegorz Kaszak
Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family (appointed November 10, 2007). Former Rector of the Pontifical Polish Ecclesial Institute in Rome (2002-2007). Former Official of the Pontifical Council for the Family (1999-2002). Doctor of Theology (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome) (1998). Has participated in numerous summits, congresses and international meetings as an expert on family topics. His doctoral thesis is entitled Amore responsabile e contraccezione nelle Catechesi di Giovanni Paolo II [Responsible Love and Contraception in the Catecheses of John Paul II].

Mary G. Leary
Mary Leary is a visiting professor at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of law. She is an acknowledged expert on the subject of computer crimes against children. She is a former deputy director for the Office of Legal Counsel at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which for 20 years leads the country in preventing child abduction and sexual exploitation; finding missing children; and assisting victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families and the professionals who serve them.  She recently presented at an international conference in India that was designed to help law enforcement agencies identify and apprehend online child sex abusers. The conference was jointly sponsored by Interpol, the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Microsoft Corporation. It was hosted by the Central Bureau of Investigation of India (similar to America’s FBI) for an audience composed of law enforcement personnel, attorneys and members of non-governmental organizations.

Lisa Lickona
Lisa Lickona is a wife and mother of seven children whom she schools on her upstate New York farm. Her writings and lectures explore the theology of Pope John Paul II through reflection on her own experience and have appeared in publications as diverse as Forefront, Columbia, and The Catholic Social Science Review. Her work focuses on the Church’s rich teaching on the mystery of sexual difference, ranging from the traditional devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary to Pope John Paul II’s "theology of the body" and his “new feminism.” Lisa has taught as an adjunct for the Institute for Pastoral Theology in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Lisa received her Masters of Theological Studies and the Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.

Margaret Harper McCarthy
Professor McCarthy received her doctoral degree at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Rome, with a dissertation on the contemporary theology of predestination. She has written articles on themes associated with the theology of the body (gender and the imago Dei; the body as “sacrament of the person”; the meaning of sexual difference) and is currently working on themes in theological anthropology, particularly on the relation between the desire for happiness (love of self) and the love of another “for his own sake.” Currently, Margaret Harper McCarthy is an assistant professor of theology at the John Paul II Institute of studies on marriage and family at the Catholic University of America.

Ilaria Morali
Professor Ilaria Morali is an Associate Professor, in Rome, at the Gregorian University. She is a member of the Faculty of Theology (Department of Dogmatic Theology) and the Faculty of Missiology. She has taught at other pontifical universities (Laterano, Urbaniana, St. Thomas) as well as a private university (‘Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta’). Her teaching and research are focused on the doctrine of grace, on faith and baptism, on theology of religions and on inter-religious dialogue. She is a member of a number of committees and Institutes and has been involved in Christian-Islamic dialogue (Turkey) and debates about the Theology of Religions (Japan, Indonesia and India).  In addition, she has worked with several diocesan projects in Rome and Southern Italy for the formation of Catholic teachers who are working in public schools. Last summer, Dr. Morali was invited by St. Paul’s Cathedral of Birmingham (Alabama) to present a series of lectures on ‘Catholic Doctrine of Grace’ which now form part of the Cathedral of Saint Paul’s Adult Education program.

Marguerite A. Peeters
Marguerite Peeters is an American citizen residing in Brussels. She holds a Masters in Art History from the University of the Sorbonne and a post-graduate degree in Journalism from the Robert Schuman Institute. She presently teaches at the Belgian affiliate of the Pontifical Lateran University and will be a visiting professor at the Pontifical University Urbaniana in 2009. As well, Ms. Peeters frequently conducts seminars and holds lectures for a wide variety of Catholic and secular audiences in Europe, Africa and North America. She is an expert in the field of international organizations, human rights, global cultural change and postmodernity. After working  for the Greek-Catholic Church in the Ukraine from 1991-1993, she began following developments at the United Nations as a journalist and has attended the major UN world conferences since the mid-1990s. She has interviewed several hundred high level officials of international organizations on the meaning and use of the following concepts as developed by these same officials: sustainable development, consensus, good governance, participatory democracy, partnerships, reproductive and sexual health and rights, gender, the right to choose revolution, the new global ethic, development as choice, cultural liberty, civic education. As a result, she has a unique expertise in the objectives and content of the global cultural revolution of the 1990s and the role of semantic manipulation in the deconstruction of reality. In 1995, Ms. Peeters created an information service and has written over 275 in-depth reports on the aforementioned issues. In 2003, she founded the Brussels-based Institute for Intercultural Dialogue which studies global cultural change, promotes discernment in the light of perennial values, and explores specific proposals for a positive alternative to postmodern radicalism. Lastly, she is the author of the following books that have been translated into various languages: “Hijacking Democracy – The Power Shift to the Unelected” (www.aei.org) (2001);produced a booklet entitled The New Global Ethic: Challenges for the Church (2006); and published The Globalization of the Western Cultural Revolution – Key-Concepts, Operational Mechanisms” (2007). In 2003, she founded the Brussels-based Institute for Intercultural Dialogue, which studies global cultural change, seeks to promote discernment in the light of perennial values, and explores positive alternatives to postmodern radicalism

Sister M. Timothy Prokes, F.S.E.
Sister Prokes is a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist, currently a professor of theology at Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College. She has an undergraduate degree in Journalism and an MA in Theology from Marquette University as well as a PhD from the Institute of Christian Thought, University of St. Michael’s College, at  the University of Toronto. Sister serves on the faculties of the Permanent Diaconate Programs in the Diocese of Arlington, VA, and the Archdiocese of Washington, DC.  Previously, she was a tenured faculty member at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and has taught at Creighton University, Omaha;  Lonergan College, Montreal; and the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore. Her publications include Women’s Challenge:  Ministry in the Flesh (Dimension);  Mutuality:  The Human Image of Trinitarian Love (Paulist);  Toward a Theology of the Body (T&T Clark, Ltd. and Eerdmans);  and At the Interface:   Theology and Virtual Reality (Wheatmark).  Sister Prokes offers lectures and seminars on theology of the body, Mariology, pastoral care, the spiritual life, and virtual reality as a neo-worldview.

Elizabeth Schiltz
Elizabeth Schiltz is an Associate Professor at University of St. Thomas, School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received her juris doctor from Columbia Law School, where she served on the Columbia Law Review. Schiltz was in private practice for nine years with law firms in Washington, D.C. (Morrison & Foerster) and Minneapolis, Minn. (Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly and Faegre & Benson), focusing on banking regulation, general corporate law and international law. Most recently, she practiced banking law at Faegre & Benson, Minnesota 's second largest law firm. Schiltz was a member of the faculty of Notre Dame Law School from 1996 through 2000. She has also served on numerous boards or advisory councils of various organizations and has participated as a volunteer counselor with Birthright for several years. Professor Schiltz is a 1998 graduate of the Partners in Policymaking Academy, a nationwide, state-based training program in disability advocacy.

Mary Shivanandan
Mary Shivanandan is a Professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. She received her bachelor’s of arts and master’s degree from Cambridge University.  After many years of research and lecturing on marriage, family, and natural family planning, both nationally and internationally, Professor Shivanandan obtained a licentiate and doctorate in theology from Pontifical John Paul II Institute, specializing in the theological anthropology of John Paul II. Her book, Crossing the Threshold of Love: A New Vision of Marriage in the Light of John Paul II’s Anthropology (published by The Catholic University Press) compares and contrasts the vision of the Holy Father with contemporary thought concerning the nature of the human person and the meaning of the human body and of human sexuality. Her current research explores how erroneous views of the body and sexuality affect belief in the Incarnation, worship, and practice. She has also taught theological anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in India and Australia, and at the Franciscan Seminary in Singapore.

Katherine Spaht
Katherine Spaht has taught at Louisiana State University since 1972 in the areas of family law, community property, successions and obligations. In addition to overseeing the revision of Louisiana's community property law in 1978 and drafting Louisiana's covenant marriage legislation in 1997, Professor Spaht has worked with the legislature on such varied topics as the needs of women, the rights of illegitimate children, selection of the judiciary, assisted conception, and the review of child support guidelines. Professor Spaht has been the Reporter for the Revision of the Law of Marriage/Persons of the Louisiana State Law Institute since 1981 and also serves on the American Law Institute's Committee on the Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. Spaht debated with Justin Wolfers, Assistant Professor at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania on the Legal Affairs website as regards the subject of the proposed adoption by New York of unilateral no-fault divorce. In addition, Professor Spaht was recently interviewed by the Knight Ridder reporter, Steve Henderson, Washington Bureau on the NJ Supreme Court case (oral arguments) in which opponents argued that NJ law limiting the definition of marriage to a union of one man and one woman was unconstitutional. "Gay marriage debate centers on history vs. change"

W. Bradford Wilcox
W. Bradford Wilcox is Assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and a member of the James Madison Society at Princeton University. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. at Princeton University. Prior to coming to the University of Virginia, he held research fellowships at Princeton University, Yale University and the Brookings Institution.  Professor Wilcox's research focuses on the influence of religious belief and practice on marriage, cohabitation, parenting, and fatherhood. He has published numerous articles on religion, parenting, and fatherhood and his first book, Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands, (Chicago, 2004) examines the ways in which the religious beliefs and practices of American Protestant men influence their approach to parenting, household labor, and marriage. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, Professor Wilcox is now researching the effect that religion has on relationships among low-income parents in urban America. His research has been featured in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and numerous NPR stations.