Jay P. Dolan is professor emeritus of history at the University of Notre Dame, where he founded the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism in 1975 and was the director of the Center until 1993. He is the author of, among other books, In Search of American Catholicism (2002) and The American Catholic Experience: A History from Colonial Times to the Present (Notre Dame Press edition, 1992).

Jesuit Father Allan Figueroa Deck is a Distinguished Scholar in Pastoral Theology and Latino Studies and holds a dual appointment as Lecturer in the Departments of Theological Studies and Chicano/Latino/a Studies at Loyola Marymount University. In January 2008 Deck was named the first executive director of the Office for Cultural Diversity in the Church in the newly reorganized United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). He is author of The Second Wave: Hispanic Ministry and the Evangelization of Cultures.