Dr. Roger Nutt, S.T.L., S.T.D., is the provost and a professor of theology at Ave Maria University. He co-directs the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal and is a member of the Academy of Catholic Theology. Dr. Nutt’s research focuses on Christology and sacramental theology, particularly the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. He has written three books and translated works, with publications in esteemed journals. Additionally, Dr. Nutt serves as a co-editor for multiple volumes, contributing to subjects such as Christian responses to death, Aquinas and Christology, Aquinas and the Greek Fathers, and Thomism and predestination.

Dr. Saverio Perugini is a mathematics and computer science professor at Ave Maria University. With a Ph.D. in computer science from Virginia Tech, he previously held a tenured professor position at the University

Dr. Samuel Shephard, a biology professor at Ave Maria University, grew up in the Scottish Highlands and later worked as a commercial fisherman in Ireland, sparkinghis passion for fisheries science. He pursued graduate studies in the field and made significant contributions to the scientific community through his publications.

More recently, he has focused on environmental stewardship and integrating sustainability with Catholic teachings. Outside of academia, he is happily married with seven children, embracing the joys of family life. Dr. Samuel Shephard embodies a spirit of scholarly exploration, merging faith and science to promote harmonious coexistence with nature.Dr. Samual Shephard

Dr. Janice Chik Breidenbach is an associate professorof philosophy at Ave Maria University with research affiliations at Oxford and UPenn. She is working on a book entitled “How Many We Are: Assembly Among the Expressive Freedoms” and has published numerous articles on the topic.

Dr. Breidenbach teaches and speaks on logic, metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, human action, and the philosophy of motherhood. She holds degreesin philosophy, public policy, and music performance. Outside of work, Dr. Breidenbach enjoys homemaking, wine tasting, and playing music for her son, Paul Thomas.

Dr. Seana McGuire (Sugrue) is the Ambassador Michael Novak chair of politics at Ave Maria University and previously served as the associate director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University. With over two decades of experience, Dr. McGuire teaches constitutional law and civil liberties, specializing in separation of powers, religious liberty, marriage, civil society, and civil disobedience. As a highly regarded professor, her guidance and mentorship have aided many students in pursuing law and

public service careers. She holds degrees from the University of Ottawa and McGill University and is also a proud mother of three talented young women.

Dr. DiAnn Ecret, an alumnus of Our Lady of Lourdes School of Nursing, Wilmington University, and Villanova University, completed her Ph.D. in healthcare ethics at Duquesne University. With 37 years of diverse clinical nursing experience, and over two decades in nursing management and education, Dr. Ecret currently teaches at Ave Maria University and serves as a part-time ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

She plays a crucial role in Ave Maria University's Institutional Review Board (IRB) committee and serves as an ethics consultant for Be Not Afraid, in addition to her work with Life Perspectives' Health Care Task Force. Happily married for 35 years, Dr. Ecret and her husband, Michael, are parents to four children and grandparents to four.

Gerald P. Boersma is Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University and Humboldt Fellow at the University of Tübingen. Boersma is a Catholic systematic theologian whose writings focus especially on the thought of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. He is author of Augustine’s Early Theology of Image (Oxford, 2016) and numerous essays as journal articles and book chapters devoted to theology, philosophy, and literary criticism. Prior to coming to Ave Maria University, he taught for five years at St. Bonaventure University. He has held fellowships at the Villanova University and the University of Tübingen.