Dr. Christine Schomisch Moravec is a Staff Research Scientist and Director of Basic Research in the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure at the Cleveland Clinic. Christine is also one of three Associate Directors of the Bakken Heart-Brain Institute and holds secondary appointments in the Department of Molecular Cardiology and the Center for Integrative Medicine. Her specialty interests include heart failure, cellular malfunction in cardiac dysfunction, drugs that may improve contractility of the failing heart, and remodeling of the failing heart using both surgical and psychophysiologic interventions. Dr. Moravec also runs the human heart tissue bank at the Clinic. Christine was named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. In addition to her research work, she holds academic appointments at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and at Cleveland State University. Christine serves as Chair of Graduate Studies within the Lerner Research Institute and as President of the Board of Directors of the Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair, a regional science fair held each spring for 600 students from the Cleveland area. Widely published in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Circulation,Circulation Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Dr. Moravec has authored numerous journal articles and abstracts describing work in her laboratory. She serves as a reviewer for scientific journals including Circulation, Circulation Research, the American Journal of Physiology, Cardiovascular Research, the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and is a member of local and national AHA peer-review study sections. Dr. Moravec has been invited to present her research at national and international meetings and conferences. Christine has also earned the Outstanding Educator Award from the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. James Thobaben is a professor and Dean of the School of Theology and Formation at Asbury Theological Seminary, one of the largest such institutions in the U.S. In addition, he currently oversees Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment, managing the decanal accreditation process for the institution. His academic fields are bioethics, social ethics, and sociology of religion. His special research interests include disability issues (especially traumatic brain injury related), social benefit from and concern with genetically-modified non-human organisms, the spiritual and cultural meaning of pilgrimage, ecclesial architecture, and rural life. As well as working full-time at Asbury, he serves as the pastor of a small, rural church, is a part-time professor in the University of Kentucky, College of Public Health, an adjunct professor at Trinity International University, and operates a small tree farm. Dr. Thobaben was Visiting Ethics Scholar in Molecular Biology at the University of Missouri. He is the recipient of several teaching grants for instruction on American rural life. His work, Healthcare Ethics: A Comprehensive Christian Resource, is used as a primary bioethics text in several graduate programs across the U.S. For both academic and spiritual reasons, Dr. Thobaben has twice walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela and several of the long pilgrimage routes in Great Britain. Prior to assuming his current position, he was vice-president of a physical rehabilitation facility centered on the treatment of those with traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. His academic degrees are from Oberlin, Yale, and Emory.