Elyssa Salinas works with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s World Hunger outreach as the program assistant for Hunger Education. This Fall she starts her Ph.D at LSTC in systematic theology and sexual ethics, where she plans to focus on body/sex shaming and how to embrace our bodies as God embraces each of us. Poetry has been a vehicle to explore her own challenges with body image and her identity as a Latina. She has been performing poetry for the past few years at various open mic performances in Philadelphia and Chicago along with using poetry as part of her academic career. Elyssa is working on a book of poetry from the point of view of biblical women, especially Old Testament women such as Hagar, Dinah and Jael.

She has written two books for InterVarsity Press on multiethnic worship. Here’s the book trailer:

 Rev. Velda Love is the director of justice and intercultural learning in the Office of Diversity’s Collaboratory for Urban and Intercultural Learning at North Park University. Velda collaborates with various academic schools to develop curricular and co-curricular opportunities with an emphasis on social justice related issues.

Velda completed a MATS from North Park Theological Seminary and is Ordained to Specialized Ministry in Social Justice in the Evangelical Covenant Church. She is a pastoral assistant at Second Baptist Church in Evanston, Ill., and serves on various boards and task forces that address interfaith dialogue, homelessness, and youth incarceration. She is completing her DMin in social transformation from Chicago Theological Seminary.