Sr. Martha Owen is an Ursuline Sister of Cleveland. Her ministries have included teaching middle school science and a variety of administrative positions in high schools. She did post-graduate work in international relations, and served on the Cleveland Latin American Mission Team in El Salvador. While in that position, she was mission partner to Ursuline Sr. Dorothy Kazel, one of the four churchwomen murdered there in 1980; she also worked with the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Philippa Hitchen has worked as a journalist at Vatican Radio for over 30 years, specializing in justice and peace stories as well as ecumenism and interfaith dialogue. She has also written and reported for many secular and religious news media, including the BBC, The Tablet, The Church Times and The Messenger of St. Anthony.