Krista Tippett
A journalist and former diplomat, Tippett came up with the idea for Speaking of Faith while consulting for the internationally renowned Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at Saint John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota. She has hosted and produced the program since the Speaking of Faith project began as an occasional feature in 2000, before taking on its current form as a national weekly program in 2003.

Tippett is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and a former Fulbright Scholar. She has reported and written for The New York Times, Newsweek, the BBC, and other international news organizations. Tippett also served as special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to West Germany.

Kate Moos
A veteran of public broadcasting with 15 years experience, Kate Moos was an award-winning reporter and managing editor in charge of Minnesota Public Radio's newsroom. As managing editor, she was responsible for the planning, oversight, and editorial content of daily news and long-form productions as well as special and live broadcasts.

Moos has been with Speaking of Faith since its debut as a national, weekly program in 2003, initially as the program's editor and then as senior producer, working closely with Tippett to develop the vision and content for Speaking of Faith's ground-breaking approach to the coverage of religion and belief, and coordinating the program's production staff. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Bennington Writing Seminars in Vermont.

Mitch Hanley
Hanley brings an extensive technical background in audio production, technical direction, and sound quality management to Speaking of Faith. He creates the program's signature, production-rich sound through recording and editing interviews, choosing music, and mixing spoken word, music, and other aural elements.

Previously, he worked as an audio producer of A Prairie Home Companion and technical director for The Writer's Almanac. He has also engineered and produced special programs for American RadioWorks and The Splendid Table. Hanley studied religion at the University of Minnesota and is a member of the National Scholars Honor Society and the Eta Sigma Phi honor society for Latin and Greek students.

Trent Gilliss
tgilliss@speakingoffaith.org

Gilliss' creative approach to online journalism has resulted in its award-winning Web site, speakingoffaith.org. In 2005, SOF was the first public radio program to win a Webby Award, and has been nominated three times for an Online Journalism Award by the Online News Association, most recently for specialty journalism in 2007.

Before his tenure at SOF, Gilliss served as a business analyst and e-commerce consultant for several Fortune 500 companies, and as an assistant editor at the Minnesota State Legislature. He also worked as a Web consultant for The Writer's Almanac. Gilliss hails from Bismarck, North Dakota and studied English and History at the University of Mary.

Bill Buzenberg
Award-winning journalist Bill Buzenberg has worked in public radio for the last 27 years. Before joining Minnesota Public Radio in 1998, Buzenberg had a distinguished career at National Public Radio that included work as a foreign affairs correspondent, London bureau chief, and vice president of news and information. In recognition of his achievements at NPR, Buzenberg was presented in 1997 with the Edward R. Murrow Award, the highest honor in public radio.

While serving as senior vice president of news at Minnesota Public Radio, Buzenberg's tenure has been marked by expansion of regional coverage and talk programming, the launch of American RadioWorks, public radio's largest documentary production unit, and the creation of Speaking of Faith.

Colleen Scheck
Scheck serves as a coordinating producer for radio and Web content. At Minnesota Public Radio for eight years, she has been a project manager overseeing budgets and special restricted grants for regional and national news programs, and now exclusively for Speaking of Faith. Prior to MPR, she worked in human resources for Barnes & Noble and Target Corporation. She has a bachelor's degree in History from Northwestern University.

Shiraz Janjua
Janjua hails from Montreal, Canada. There, he produced and hosted a religious affiairs program called The Big Idea, airing on campus/community radio station CKUT. He also profiled the Muslim community of Montreal for Islamic Horizons, a magazine published by the Islamic Society of North America. He holds a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies from Montreal's Concordia University. His graduating film project made the rounds of the student-film festival circuit in the U.S. and Canada.

Rob McGinley Myers
Rob McGinley Myers came to Speaking of Faith after four years writing and two years producing The Writer's Almanac. His brain is still crowded with bits of trivia about F. Scott Fitzgerald's miserable childhood, the reportedly goofy sound of Virginia Woolf's laughter, and the largest recorded swarm of locusts in American history. He has also produced several feature stories for Weekend America. He has a bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature from Colorado College and a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota.