Jed Atkins is the E. Blake Byrne Associate Professor of Classical Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Duke University, where he serves as the Director of the Transformative Ideas Sophomore Program and the Director of the  Civil Discourse Project. His research focuses on Greek, Roman, and early Christian moral and political thought. He earned his PhD from Cambridge University in 2009. He is the author of Cicero on Politics and the Limits of Reason, Roman Political Thought, and editor (along with Thomas Bénatouïl) of The Cambridge Companion to Cicero’s Philosophy. His latest book, The Christian Origins of Tolerance, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Lori Peterson Branch is Associate Professor of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century English Literature at the University of Iowa. She has published widely on literature, religion, and the postsecular, from the fourth-century Sayings of the Desert Fathers to seventeenth-century Dissent, contemporary Gothic novels, and Eastern Orthodoxy. She earned her PhD in English from Indiana University. With her collaborator Mark Knight, she has co-taught two NEH Summer Seminars for faculty on religion, secularism, and the novel. She edits the monograph series Literature, Religion, and Postsecular Studies for Ohio State University Press and is currently at work on a book project titled Beyond Secularism: Postsecular Reason, an interdisciplinary manifesto for moving the humanities and social sciences beyond the secular-religious binary birthed in modernity.

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Described as “uncommonly insightful, individualistic, lively” and “technically dazzling” by the New York Times,​ pianist Mia Chung has enjoyed international success as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. She won the Concert Artists Guild Competition and received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the highest recognition for young concert artists in the United States. Ms. Chung has performed extensively in North America, Europe, Asia and Central America and has released CD recordings of the works of J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Lee Hyla, Brahms, among others.

A distinguished educator, scholar, music advocate, and leader, Mia Chung has worked to provide greater understanding and increased awareness of the classical music repertoire. Her DVD recording on Beethoven entitled, ​Notations: A Composer’s Response to Crisis, w​as released in 2008 and has garnered high praise. As a radio personality, Ms. Chung served as the first "Young Artist in Residence" for National Public Radio's ​Performance Today. Ms. Chung's work at NPR earned her a nomination as "Debut Artist of the Year." In April 2015, Ms. Chung and Arnold Steinhardt, first violinist of the Guarneri Quartet, teamed up to co-write and co-teach a Curtis online course (MOOC) through Coursera entitled, ​The World of the String Quartet​. Her short monograph entitled, Chinese Émigré Composers and Divergent Modernisms: Chen Yi and Zhou Long will be published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press (Elements in Music Since 1945 Series).

Since the publication of her op-ed entitled, “No Child Left Without Music” in the ​Philadelphia Inquirer (2015),​ Ms. Chung has been drawing public attention to music’s transformative impact on cognition, learning, and health. She is the founder and executive director for The Octet Collaborative, a non-profit that promotes human flourishing at MIT.

Mia Chung graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received a master's degree from Yale University and a doctorate from the Juilliard School. From 1991 to 2011, Ms. Chung was Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. For the last twelve years, Mia served on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she was a professor of musical studies and performance and served as a trustee. She and her husband, John Yee, have four children and reside in the Boston area.

Satyan Devadoss is the Fletcher Jones professor of applied mathematics and professor of computer science at the University of San Diego. He was faculty at Williams for nearly 15 years, and has held visiting positions at Ohio State, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Harvey Mudd, and Stanford. A fellow of the American Mathematical Society and recipient of two national teaching awards, his thoughts have appeared in venues such as NPR, the Times of London, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He is a satisfactory father to four, a grand father to one, and married to a queen.

Nancy E. Hill, Ph.D. is The Charles Bigelow Professor of Education at Harvard University and a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on parenting and adolescent development. She is the author of the recently released a book, The End of Adolescence: The Lost Art of Delaying Adulthood, Harvard University Press, 2021, which focuses on the experiences and mindsets youth need as they transition from adolescence into adulthood. Professor Hill studies the ways in which demographic background interact and impact youths’ opportunities for upward mobility including postsecondary transitions to college and career, with an emphasis on adolescents’ emerging sense of purpose and views of the economy.  Professor Hill’s research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals in the fields of developmental psychology and education, including Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and Journal of Educational Psychology.  Professor Hill was awarded the Ernest Hilgard Award for Lifetime contributions to psychology from Division 1 of the American Psychological Association. She was named to the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine’s (NASEM) Board on Children Youth and Families. She is President of the Society for Research in Child Development.

Ruth L. Okediji is the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School where she teaches courses in contracts, intellectual property (IP) law, and courses in biblical law. A widely cited prolific scholar and a foremost authority on the role of intellectual property in social and economic development, Professor Okediji has advised inter-governmental organizations, regional economic communities, and national governments on a range of matters related to patents, copyright, innovation policy, and human development. Okediji is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Jos. She is the recipient of numerous awards for excellence in scholarship, teaching, mentorship and service, including recognition as one of the world’s top 50 leaders in IP law.

C. Kavin Rowe is the Vice Dean of the Faculty and the George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament. The first of three volumes of his collected essays has recently been published as Leading Christian Communities (Eerdmans, 2023). He is the author of four other books: Christianity's Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope (Abingdon, 2020), One True Life: the Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions (Yale University Press, 2016), World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age (Oxford University Press, 2009, paperback 2010), and Early Narrative Christology (de Gruyter, 2006, repr. Baker Academic, 2009). He has published dozens of articles and essays, and co-edited The Word Leaps the Gap (Eerdmans, 2008) and Rethinking the Unity and Reception of Luke and Acts (University of South Carolina Press, 2010). He is on the editorial board of several international peer-review journals and has also frequently written articles for faithandleadership.com.

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Peter serves as the Directof or Augustine Collective and Veritas Institute at The Veritas Forum, helping to support student publications at universities across the country. While attending Dartmouth College, he was the third editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Apologia, one of the first publications in the Augustine Collective network. After graduating, Peter served as a writer and an editor at The American Interest, a magazine of politics and culture in Washington, DC. He then joined Thomistic Institute, an academic institute in DC, where he was the Campus Program Coordinator. Peter occasionally writes on a freelance basis, and he tweets at @PeterAWBlair.

Moriah serves as Program Manager for the Augustine Collective at the Veritas Forum. Prior to joining Veritas, she was assistant editor at First Things, a journal of religion and public life in New York City. She holds a BA in English from Baylor University and an MAR in Religion and Literature from Yale Divinity School. Moriah currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where in her free time she enjoys kayaking in Connecticut’s many waterways.

Haley serves as the Director of Operations & Strategic Initiatives, where she facilitates strategic collaborative projects and works to implement the cohesion of Veritas Forum's operational systems. She brings experience as a Higher Education administrator and a consultant for nonprofit organizations. Haley holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and a MS in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University. She lives on Cape Cod with her husband and rescue dog Koda.

Teal is University Engagement Director and Director of Student Development, Forums, for The Veritas Forum, jumping into Forum planning and student engagement with great excitement. After earning her BA in English at the University of Mary Washington, Teal earned her MA in Religion from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Teal spent a rewarding five years as a Ministry Fellow at Harvard University with Christian Union before joining the team. She lives with her husband Jeff north of Boston where they are always on the hunt for delicious coffee and new running routes.

More Speakers to be Announced

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