Nicholas Thomas Wright is Anglican Bishop of Durham, England. The "On Faith" panelist taught New Testament studies for 20 years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities before becoming Dean of Lichfeld in 1994. He was named Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey in 2000, and consecrated bishop in 2003. He has written hundreds of articles and more than 40 books, including Judas and the Gospel of Jesus (2006) and Evil and the Justice of God (2006). He has served as Visiting Professor at numerous institutions including Harvard Divinity School, Gregorian University in Rome and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Dr Wright holds four degrees, including a divinity doctorate from Oxford University, and honorary degrees from several universities and colleges.

"On Faith" panelist Sulayman S. Nyang teaches in the Department of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A scholar of African and Muslim affairs, Nyang, who is a native of the Republic of the Gambia, also served as his homeland's deputy ambassador to seven Middle Eastern and North African countries from 1975-78. Except for those three years, Nyang has taught at Howard since 1972, serving as acting director of the African Studies Program from 1973-75 and from 1986-1993, as chairman of the Department of African Studies. In 1993, he became senior consultant on the African Voices Project of the Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution..In 1997, Nyang became the first scholar to be named the Henry Luce Professor for Abrahamic Religions at the University of Hartford and Hartford Seminary. From 1999 to 2002 Professor Nyang served as a principal investigator and co-director of the Muslims in the American Public Square (MAPS) project sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust and housed at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Now a U.S. citizen, Nyang has written extensively on African, Islamic and Middle Eastern affairs .His most widely-known book is Islam, Christianity and African Identity. He has also authored or co-edited Religious Plurality in Africa, with Jacob Olupona; A Line in the Sand: Saudi Arabia's Role in the Gulf War, with Evans Heindricks; and Islam:Its Relevance Today, co-edited with Henry Thompson. Nyang also wrote Islam in the United States of America (1999). His latest work is Muslims' Place in the American Public Square. Hopes, Fears, and Aspirations (2004), jointly edited with Zahid Bukhari and John Esposito of Georgetown University, and Mumtaz Ahmad of Hampton University). Nyang, who holds a doctorate in government from the University of Virginia, also serves on the advisory boards of several national African and Muslim organizations and was the first American Muslim president of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.

Jim Wallis is president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, progressive Christian movements founded to fight poverty and promote social justice. He also is the author of the best-selling God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (2005). The “On Faith” panelist was raised in a Midwest evangelical family. As a teenager, his questioning of the racial segregation in his church and community led him to the black churches and neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit. He spent his student years involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements. While at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, Wallis and several other students started a small magazine and community with a Christian commitment to social justice that has grown into a national faith-based organization and network. In 1979, Time magazine named Wallis one of the “50 Faces for America’s Future.” Wallis also is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine and speaks at more than 200 events each year. Some of his other books include Faith Works; The Soul of Politics: A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change; Who Speaks for God? A New Politics of Compassion, Community, and Civility; and Call to Conversion.

"On Faith" panelist Ram Dass is an internationally recognized scholar of Eastern religions. Formerly known as Richard Alpert, he was a psychology professor at Harvard University in the early '60s when he began exploring with professional colleague Timothy Leary how to expand human consciousness through mind-altering substances. Their research was described in the 1964 book, The Psychedelic Experience. In 1967, Alpert traveled to India , where he met the man who was to become his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharajji. He gave Alpert the name Ram Dass, which means "Servant of God." At that point, Ram Dass' intense dharmiclife began, and he became a pivotal influence among Western spiritual seekers, particularly after the publication of his seminal work, the 1971 international best-seller Be Here Now, which explains Eastern philosophy and advocates living joyously in the present. Ram Dass has pursued a panoramic array of ancient spiritual methods and traditions, including bhakti or devotional yoga that is focused on the Hindu deity Hanuman; Buddhist meditation in the Theravadin, Mahayana Tibetan and Zen Buddhist schools, as well as Sufi and Jewish mysticism. Perhaps most significant is his practice of karma yoga or spiritual service. His other books include Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita (2005); How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (1985) and Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying (2001). Upholding the boddhisatva ideal for others through compassionate sharing of true knowledge and vision, Ram Dass is co-founder and advisory board member of the Seva Foundation, an international service organization. Seva, which means "spiritual service" in Sanskrit, supports programs designed to wipe out curable blindness in India and Nepal, restore the agricultural life of impoverished villagers in Guatemala, assist in primary health care for American Indians, and bring attention to the issues of homelessness and environmental degradation in the United States and other nations. Ram Dass also created the Hanuman Foundation, which developed the Prison Ashram Project to help prison inmates grow spiritually during incarceration, and the Dying Project, a spiritual support structure for those facing death. Ram Dass lives on Maui where he continues to teach about the nature of consciousness to a new generation of seekers.