The Very Reverend Michael A. Perry, OFM

Born in Indianapolis, Ind. in 1954, Michael Perry began his university studies in pre-law at Indiana University. In 1977, he joined the Franciscans. He served as a missionary and instructor in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1981–82 and 1985–90. Following theological studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago (MDiv, MA), he went to the University of Birmingham, UK, where he completed PhD studies in religious anthropology. From 2000–05, he served as foreign policy advisor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. From 2005-–07, he served as Africa advisor at Franciscans International, and advisor in peacebuilding and reconciliation at  Catholic Relief Services from 2007–08. He was elected provincial of his Franciscan province in St. Louis, Mo., in 2008. The following year, he was elected Vicar General of the Franciscan worldwide Order and was transferred to Rome. From 2013–21, he served as Minister General and Servant of the worldwide Franciscans. In January 2023, he was named Director of the newly-created Laudato Si' Center for Integral Ecology at Siena College, Albany, N.Y., a position he currently holds. Perry also  serves as the president of the International Board of Directors of Franciscans International and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Laudato Si' Movement.

Curt Meine

Curt Meine is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer based in Sauk County, Wis. He serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation (Baraboo, Wis.) and the Center for Humans and Nature (Libertyville, Ill.); as research associate with the International Crane Foundation (Baraboo, Wis.); and as adjunct associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For more than three decades he has worked with a wide array of organizations at the intersection of conservation, agriculture, water, climate change, environmental justice, and community resilience.  Meine has authored and edited several books, including the award-winning biography Aldo Leopold:  His Life and Work (1988/2010) and The Driftless Reader (2017). He served as on-screen guide in the Emmy Award-winning documentary film Green Fire:  Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time (2011).  His work has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Conservation Leadership Award of the Quivira Coalition and the Biodiversity Leadership Award of the Bay and Paul Foundations.  In 2018 he was elected a Wisconsin Academy Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

Ilia Delio, OSF

Ilia Delio, OSF is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, D.C. and holds the Josephine C. Connelly Chair in Theology at Villanova University. Her area of research is systematic-constructive theology with a focus on evolution, quantum physics, and artificial intelligence, and the import of these for Christian doctrine and life. She is the author of twenty-four books including The Not-yet God, The Hours of the Universe, winner of the 2022 Gold Nautilus Book Award, and Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness, a finalist for the 2019 Michael Ramsey prize. She lectures nationally and internationally on topics in acience and eeligion is founder of the Center for Christogenesis, an online spiritual and educational resource for the integration of science, religion and culture.